Russ Morgan

Now this guy was a band leader with an orchestra, like Mitch Miller or Percy Faith or Nelson Riddle and that kind of thing. He was big in the 40s and it sounds like it.

This album, which is called Golden Favorites, and which boasts the “Music in the Morgan Manner”, I found in the easy listening section of Pyramid Records. Seems you could find just about anything at Pyramid Records.

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Russ Morgan:

• Does Your Heart Beat For Me – Oh my. The men are off fighting, we watch newreels at the cinema, and Russ Morgan’s chorus sings of love and romance.
• The Object Of My Affection – This is really bouncy.
• Do You Ever Think Of Me – I suppose I could think of some that I would dedicate this to…
• Cruising Down The River – A song about, can you guess? Cruising down the river! This is one of his earliest and best known, and I have a version by Ken Griffin.
• Linger Awhile – Stumbling – Features a laughing trumpet…
• The Wang Wang Blues – Well you gotta love the title anyway.
• Dogface Soldier – Redundant really, a “dogface” was a soldier. This marching song was a hit in the fall of 1955.
• So Tired – A romance that’s just not coming off. Russ is getting frustrated.
• Josephine – We heard this by Les Paul
• You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You – A proposition with which one may reasonably argue. A hit for Dean Martin later. Morgan Co-wrote this.
• The Johnson Rag – Before the twist, the frug, the bugaloo, or the bus stop, there was the Johnson Rag. Let your shoulders wag, don’t let your left foot drag…