Maureen McGovern--The Morning After (1973)

      In the late 60's/early 70's, Maureen McGovern was working as a secretary and performing in a folk band called, "Sweet Rain". She had always wanted to be a singer, but up to that point had gone nowhere fast. In 1972 a demo she had recorded ended up catching the ear of Russ Regan who at that time was the head of 20th Century records. Having never actually met her at that time, he called and asked if she would be interested in recording a song from a film that was to be released in December of that year called, "The Poseidon Adventure"....

     The song, "The Morning After" had been written for the movie in March of 1972 by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn. The original title of the song was, "Why Must Their Be A Morning After", however the lyrics were changed to reflect...shall we say a more positive tone. (The movie was about a sinking ship after all...) The song was sung in the movie by Carol Lynley (actually by voice double Renee Armand). 

      McGovern's version of the song was released in May of 1973 and went to #1. This opened up an opportunity to sing on several movie soundtracks through the 70's. She never had another song reach the top ten, although the song, "Different Worlds" (which was the theme to a TV sitcom, "Angie") reached #18 in 1979. "Morning After" won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1981.

     She left recording music for the stage in the early 80's and has alternated her career between acting and recording since then. On the movie screen you might have remembered her from the singing nun character in the movie "Airplane!". If you haven't it is one of the many scene stealers of the movie....