Music Monday: The Fascination of Jane Morgan

 Among the shelves and racks in our music room, there is an old vinyl record album (I guess all vinyl albums are old) that I am especially fond of and have listened to again and again since childhood. It's called Fascination and features the brandy-smooth voice of Jane Morgan and the nostalgically mellow accompaniment of The Troubadors. It was issued in 1957, recorded in the then-new stereophonic sound that promised "to present a recording in such a way that the original performance might actually be taking place in the presence of the listener," as it says on the back of the album's jacket. The jacket blurb further states:

This album recalls a very special evening. It might have been spent in the elegant luxury of a sophisticated night-club, or perhaps in the intimate warmth of one of those quiet, out-of-the-way cafes. In the far corner of the room, two violins begin to play. The melody is "Fascination." They move towards you, joined by other instruments. From one of the tables, Jane Morgan sings. She walks over to the group and, together, they move across the room.

Her songs are of love, mellow and tender, yet with an undercurrent of promise and excitement. She shares them with each listener, almost speaking his thoughts and putting into words and music what he would wish to say.

In this album, Jane Morgan and The Troubadors come into your home, and, by means of stereophonic recording, they become real people, moving before you, creating the scene in its entirety—the hushed audience, the subdued lighting and the warm glow of the music.

 

Wow. Quite a promotion for a mood-setting album. Which this album indeed was and is. Played on our old buffet-sized console stereo with its deeply layered, naturalistic sound, it was pure escapism for me. I could, for a brief hour, feel as if I were in a dimly lit café with my beloved, our hands joined atop a checkered table cloth. I've never experienced that kind of aural atmosphere after the invention of the shelf system and compact disc.

 

I now own several reissues of Morgan's recordings on CD, but none of them approach the authentic magic of Fascination  and her other albums in stereophonic sound. Besides the titular tune, this album includes "An Affair to Remember," "Stars in My Eyes," "It's Not for Me to Say," "Intermezzo" (instrumental), "Around the World," "My Heart Reminds Me," "River Seine," "Midnight in Athens" (instrumental), "Speak Low," "Two Different Worlds," and "Yours Is My Heart Alone."

 

 

If you own a turntable and are lucky enough to find a copy of the original 1957 Kapp album, snap it up. It's a real treasure.

 



Jane Morgan and The Troubadors, "Fascination."