Merrilee Rush

Merrilee Rush (born Merrilee Gunst, January 26, 1944, Seattle, Washington) is an American singer, best known for her recording of the song "Angel of the Morning", a Top 10 hit which earned her a Grammy nomination for female vocalist of the year in 1968.

Career

Rush grew up in Seattle's North End, and studied classical piano from a young age. In 1960, she auditioned and became the singer for the Amazing Aztecs, a Seattle-area rock & roll band led by saxophone player Neil Rush, whom she would later marry. The two went on to form Merrilee and Her Men, doing mostly cover versions of pop hits, and then joined rhythm and blues group Tiny Tony and the Statics, whose regional hit "Hey Mrs. Jones", on the Bolo label, featured Rush's keyboard playing and vocals.

In 1965 the pair formed Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts, who soon became a popular act on the Pacific Northwest's teen dancehall circuit. A member of the group's road crew also worked for Paul Revere and the Raiders, and through this connection, Rush was invited to be the opening act on the Raiders' tour of the southern United States in 1967. While in Memphis, Tennessee, Raiders lead vocalist Mark Lindsay introduced Rush to record producer Chips Moman.

Angel of the Morning

"Angel of the Morning" is a popular song written by Chip Taylor that has been recorded numerous times and has been a hit single for various artists including Merrilee Rush, Juice Newton, Nina Simone, P.P. Arnold, Olivia Newton-John, The Pretenders/Chrissie Hynde, Dusty Springfield, Mary Mason, Melba Montgomery, Vagiant and Billie Davis.

Original and charting versions

Written and composed by New York-born songwriter Chip Taylor, "Angel of the Morning" was originally offered to Connie Francis to sing, but she turned it down because she thought that it was too risqué for her career. The song's narrator describes the breakup of a presumably illicit love affair: "If morning's echo says we've sinned, well, it was what I wanted now."

Taylor produced a recording of the song with Evie Sands but the financial straits of Cameo-Parkway Records, which had Sands on their roster, reportedly prevented either that version's release or its distribution. Other early recordings of the song were made in 1967 by Danny Michaels for Lee Hazlewood's LHI label and by UK vocalist Billie Davis.

Angel of the Morning (album)

Angel of the Morning, released in 1981, is the debut album of Norwegian singer Elisabeth Andreassen, and the first of several solo albums. Previously, she sang with Mats Rådberg on his album I'm the Singer, You're the Song (1980). Angel of the Morning contains songs in both Swedish and English, including "Angel of the Morning", which Andreassen released in the early 1980s, and the hit "Då lyser en sol". The album reached approximately 20,000 sales in Sweden, equivalent to selling gold in Norway. It peaked at #46 at the Swedish album chart.

Track listing

Chart positions

References