The Helen Morgan Page

Ninety years ago today, Helen Morgan waxed her final commercial recordings.

Taking what she believed would be a month-long break to play club dates in Florida, Morgan entered the Brunswick studio to put down three vocals.

The first was “I See Two Lovers,” her song from the 1935 Warner Brothers musical Sweet Music. Oddly enough, the flip side of what became Brunswick 7391 was “Winter Overnight,” her other song intended for Sweet Music. Brunswick, a subsidiary of Warners, accepted her attempt at “Winter Overnight,” but rejected “I See Two Lovers.” Warners cut “Winter Overnight” but kept “I See Two Lovers” in the film.

Four and a half weeks later, Helen tried again and made Brunswick proud. Adding to the convoluted turn of events, Columbia appears to have issued the rejected take on its Art Deco CD series.

The song, by Mort Dixon and Allie Wrubel, was intended for Dick Powell in the 1934 Warners musical Flirtation Walk. Powell recorded it, with a slightly different lyric.

Morgan’s second vocal was “The Little Things You Used to Do,” her Harry Warren/Al Dubin song from her second Warners film, Go Into Your Dance.

Warner’s initial plan was for Morgan to have two numbers in each film. In the case of Go Into Your Dance, the issue was illness. Not Morgan’s, but songwriter Harry Warren. His temporary incapacitation put the writers behind schedule and rather than delay production, Warners kept the cue in the completed film, but inserted an off-screen reprise of “The Little Things You Used to Do” in its place.

To back “Little Things” on Brunswick 7424, Helen turned to her friend and former accompanist Louis Alter. She sang a song Alter wrote with Edward Heyman for the Poverty Row release Dizzy Dames. Florine McKinney sang “I Was Taken By Storm” on the screen, but Helen Morgan recorded it.

Morgan continued to sing and make films, but not for Warner Brothers. With the cancellation of her film contract came the cancellation of her association with Brunswick. And so, unknown to all parties at the time, on January 9, 1935, the chanteuse, recently made an officer in the American Society of Recording Artists … ended her career as a recording artist.

This site serves as a companion to the book Helen Morgan: The Original Torch Singer and Ziegfeld’s Last Star.