Jaye P. Morgan

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Jaye P. Morgan bigraphy, stories - Music

Jaye P. Morgan : biography

December 3, 1931 –

Mary Margaret Morgan (born December 3, 1931), known professionally as Jaye P. Morgan, is a retired popular music American singer, actress and game show panelist.

Singles

Year Single Chart positions
U.S. U.S.AC
1953 "Just a Gigolo" 22
"Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" 26
1954 "That’s All I Want From You" 3
1955 "Danger! Heartbreak Ahead" 12
"Softly Softly" flip
"Chee Chee-oo Chee"(with Perry Como) 12
"Two Lost Souls"(with Perry Como) 18
"The Longest Walk" 6
"Swanee" flip
"If You Don’t Want My Love" 12
"Pepper Hot Baby" 14
"Not One Goodbye" 48
1956 "Get Up! Get Up!" 83
"Sweet Lips" 85
"Lost In the Shuffle" 69
"Play For Keeps" 79
"Johnny Casanova" 81
"Just Love Me" 97
"Mutual Admiration Society"(with Eddy Arnold) 47
1959 "Are You Lonesome Tonight" 65
"Miss You" 78
1960 "I Walk the Line" 66
1962 "A Heartache Named Johnny"
1970 "Love of a Gentle Man" 37
"What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life" 40
1971 "A Song For You"

Biography

Early life

Morgan was born in Mancos in Montezuma County in far southwestern Colorado, but her family moved to California by the time she was in high school. Morgan had six siblings; five brothers and one sister. In the late 1940s, at Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga in Los Angeles, she served as class treasurer (and got the nickname "Jaye P." after the banker J. Pierpont Morgan) and sang at school assemblies, accompanied by her brother on guitar.

1950s

In 1950, a year after her graduation from high school, Morgan made a recording of "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" issued by Derby Records, which made it to the Top 10 in the U.S. Billboard record chart . Soon after, she received an RCA Victor recording contract, and she had five hits in one year, including "That’s All I Want from You," her biggest hit, which reached #3 on the chart. Other notable hits included "The Longest Walk" and "Pepper Hot Baby". In 1954, she married Michael Baiano. She joined MGM Records in 1959 after spending the previous six years with RCA Victor.

From 1954 to 1955, Morgan was a vocalist on the ABC television series show Stop the Music. In November 1955, the British music magazine, NME, reported that Morgan was the top female vocalist in the U.S. Cash Box poll.

In 1956, she had her own The Jaye P. Morgan Show and made guest appearances on a number of other variety shows. She was a charter member of the Robert Q. Lewis "gang" on Lewis’s weekday program on CBS, and was featured on a special episode of The Jackie Gleason Show in which Lewis’s entire company substituted for the vacationing Gleason. In 1958, Morgan appeared on ABC’s The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom. On October 6, 1960, she guest starred on NBC’s The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.