Does Your Heart Beat For Me - Russ Morgan

 

Sweet Eloise

Does Your Heart Beat For Me?

Russ Morgan And His Orchestra

"Music In The Morgan Manner"

Decca Records DL 4503

From the back cover: Few careers reveal as great a set of contrasts as the career of Russ Morgan. Few people have lived between such extremes as playing music in white tie and tails at the swankest of hotels – and mining coal at the bottom of the darkest shaft in a Pennsylvania coal mine. But Russ Morgan somehow managed to span this incredible gap. His successful progress from miner to musician is almost fictional; it follows the line of every book by Horatio Alger, Jr., a traditional "Fame and Fortune" formula come true.

When he was seven years old, Russ sat down at a piano in scranton, Pennsylvania, and began serious study. However, as soon as he was old enough, it was into the mines to earn a day's pay – Russ put on a miner's lamp and went to work. The dangerous and discouraging routine of a miner made him determine to try for a musical career and, at the age of 14, he began earning odd dollars as pianist in a Scranton theatre. This extra money paved the way for the acquisition of Russ' first trombone. He played with a local band, the "Scranton Sirens," for a while and when he was 18, headed for Broadway. His training in the "Sirens" had given him a fine background in the same school that produced the Dorsey Brothers and other headed-for-fame jazzmen.

Two years after Morgan arrived in New York, his talent as an arranger landed him jobs with John Philip Sousa and Victor Herbert. But the urge to play was stronger than the urge to arrange somebody else's music, and Russ joined Paul Specht for a trip touring Europe. On his return to America, Gene Goldkette invited Russ to organize, lead and do the arranging for the now famous all-star Goldkette orchestra. After the Goldkette band came a period as musical director for WXYZ, a Detroit station. Russ' music lured no less than nine sponsors a week at one time during his engagement at the station.

From then on, he became a sweet-swing power to be reckoned with. Getting together an outfit of musical specialists, Russ played at the New York Biltmore and other topnotch spots, landed several lush commercials selling soap and cigarettes, did film shorts for Paramount and Warner Brothers, and became one of Decca's most regular and consistently popular record-makers.

Does You Heart Beat For Me?

Somebody Else Is Taking My Place

Sweet Eloise

So Tired

Tell Me You Love Me

It Only Takes A Minute

You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You

Please Think Of Me

Whisper

It's All Over But The Crying

Good Night Little Angel

So Long