The Jaye P. Morgan Story (Her Greatest Hits)

Collectors' Choice and Simitar issued Jaye P. Morgan anthologies within weeks of each other. The Collectors' Choice release, Jaye P. Morgan on RCA, has a few more tracks, but Simitar's best-of is a true greatest-hits package that includes three of her early Derby label recordings from 1953 alongside her most popular RCA singles. Both anthologies have Morgan's two biggest hits, "That's All I Want from You" and "The Longest Walk," as well as her duets with Perry Como and Eddy Arnold, but the similarities end there. In fact, the two collections have only nine songs in common, which is surprising considering that all of Morgan's RCA and Derby hits could have fit onto one 19-track disc, which neither anthology delivers. The Jaye P. Morgan Story comes closest, though, and is far more hit-oriented, while Jaye P. Morgan on RCA offers a selection of album tracks. All but one of the songs on The Jaye P. Morgan Story were hits — the exception being the 1953 Derby recording of "Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue)," which the booklet incorrectly lists as having reached number three on the charts. That faux pas aside, The Jaye P. Morgan Story has a superior booklet, with liner notes by Joseph Laredo that include interview material from Morgan herself. Morgan flirted with rock & roll on occasion, as heard on "Pepper-Hot Baby" and "Sweet Lips," but mostly sang traditional pop songs and ballads with orchestral accompaniment by Frank DeVol (her mentor), Hugo Winterhalter, and Mitchell Ayres. Morgan's assured singing has more than a touch of sassiness that gives even her most tender ballads a knowing quality, as though she and her audience are in on a great secret. The two hits the collection leaves off peaked in the lowest reaches of the pop chart, so only the most obsessive chart readers will notice their absence.