"Did You"

"Did you ever really love me
Did you ever really care
Did you ever really miss me
Kiss me I wonder if your heart was ever there
Did you ever dream about me
Did you ever really cry
Did you ever really love me
Or did you really tell a lie"

Those are the lyrics to a hauntingly beautiful song that aired as part of a dramatic scene on the Friday, June 10, 2011 episode of the CBS soap “The Young And The Restless”.

Soap songs are usually meant to blend into the scene – so much so, that you don’t always notice they are there. You often hear only a few seconds of any song.

But this one? Well, it was front and center and drew the audience in with every word and note! I won’t go into details about the scene that played out between the two estranged characters (Genevieve and Colin), because this post is about the song, the group that recorded it and the man who wrote it.

The questions on many of our minds were: “What is the name of this song?”; “Who recorded this?”; “Where can I get a copy of this song!?!” Like many other fans, I did lyric searches, checked various soap boards, fan pages, Twitter and read comments on YouTube clips of the scene. No one seemed to know the answer.

Was it an old song? A new song meant to sound old? Was it Genie Francis (Genevieve) singing? Could the song be from Australia (where the characters were originally from)?

I took a chance and emailed Songs Of The Soaps to see if they could track it down. Sure enough, she had an answer for me within a couple of days. I emailed the son of the composer. He responded almost immediately and has graciously allowed me to share some pics and other info about his family and the song.

The song is called “Did You” and was written by Lew Morrison. It was recorded by the Morrie Morrison Orchestra Featuring Alyce Hauser. Lew was the son of Morrie and Alice Nadine (Lanterman) Morrison.

Morrie (1888-1984) and Alice (1892-1978) were musicians and entrepreneurs in Washington state, but also spent some time in California before moving back to the Seattle area. Morrie was a composer, musician and an avid dance instructor. He ran several dance halls and dance instruction studios. He also produced stage shows and tried his hand at movie making. Alice was a musician, song plugger and song writer. "Say You'll Be Mine (My Love Is All For You)" was the first of several hits she had in the 1920’s. In 1944, her song "Goodbye, Little Girl, Goodbye" was picked up by the Ink Spots and The Andrews Sisters recorded "Please Don’t Sing That Song Again" in 1946.

Morrie and Alice created the Morrison Music Company to produce sheet music and recordings for their songs. Morrie founded one of the first recording studios in the Seattle area – Morrison Records. The company not only recorded their own compositions but also several local amateur musicians. Morrison Records didn’t just record the songs but also pressed their own recordings. These became real collector items as many of them were multi-coloured.

The Morrie Morrison Orchestra consisted mainly of Morrie on drums, Alice on piano or organ and Lew on guitar. Other musicians were hired to play violin, accordion or whatever instruments were needed to fill out the desired sound. The orchestra worked mostly as a studio recording group but occasionally did perform at some of the dance halls in the Seattle area in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Their son Lew (1913-1995) was also an active member of the orchestra and the recordings. Lew Morrison wasn’t as prolific a songwriter as his parents, but according to his son Ken, the song “Did You” was written and recorded sometime in the 1940’s. This was also one of his dads favourites! He doesn’t know that there was any specific relationship that inspired his dad to write this beautiful, haunting piece. Ken, who is also a musician, got to perform it with him many times.

Unfortunately, nothing is known of the vocalist, Alyce Hauser, as this is the only recording she did with the orchestra.

So, how did The Young And The Restless get the song and how did Ken feel about it?
“I have a business in source music placement. It started with just my original compositions...but a friend suggested I include some of my dad and grandparents music. The libraries I work with were excited about getting these old recordings. The thing that was special about the Y & R placement was the fact that usually these songs are used for :10 - :20 ...With DID YOU they were able to weave it into the storyline and played nearly the entire song (3:00) without anyone talking over it. This is unheard of in the placement world. I was thrilled. Somewhere I know my dad was smiling.”

I asked Ken if there was anything else he’d like to add:
“I was able to play music with my grandparents and my dad from the time I was a kid. This is something that really meant the world to me. My grandfather recorded me and made a record of me reading some of his novelty lyrics when I was just 7 years old. I was the only kid in my grade school who had his own record!”

If you would like to get your own copy of “Did You”, please email: morrisonmusic@comcast.net
Ken has had a CD (professionally labelled and packaged) made of the single and will send it to you for $4.00 (includes shipping within the USA). If you are outside of the USA, it will cost a bit more for shipping but Ken will let you know the details and where to send your money and mailing address when you email him.

And yes, somewhere Lew is smiling – knowing that so many people are hearing and loving his music!

dn