‘The Message Is a Gift to Us All’: Maureen McGovern

“‘Morning after’ … oh, I can’t take this. Give me a Strauss waltz anytime.”

“I rather fancy it …”

Early in the 1972 movie The Poseidon Adventure, two crew members on the cruise ship Poseidon are working as the band aboard rehearses a hopeful pop ballad. One, a grizzled veteran, clearly isn’t interested, but the other, younger, hand on deck is intrigued.

By the time the movie, an eventual cornerstone in the disaster film canon, had become a box office hit, audiences decidedly agreed with the latter listener.

Serving as the theme to the movie and released as a single, Maureen McGovern’s “The Morning After” began a two-week reign on the Billboard Hot 100 dated Aug. 4, 1973. (The song hit No. 1 on the chart’s 15th anniversary, as the list launched with the edition dated Aug. 4, 1958.)

Prior to its Hot 100 coronation, “The Morning After” won best original song at the Academy Awards, for its writers, Joel Hirschhorn and Al Kasha. It’s one of an elite 17 Oscar winners to have topped the Hot 100. (In The Poseidon Adventure, McGovern doesn’t sing the song; the character of Nonnie, played by Carol Lynley, is shown performing it, twice, although it was actually sung in the film by Renee Armand.)

The song garnered McGovern a nomination for best new artist at the Grammy Awards in 1974 (the first of two Grammy nods in her career) and became her signature hit, one which, she tells Billboard, has sparked a legacy of healing.

Upon the 50th anniversary of the single beginning its Hot 100 command, McGovern, who in August 2022 shared her diagnosis of posterior cortical atrophy (a disease with symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s and/or Dementia), discusses the impact of the song, her varied career as an entertainer and how music, beyond “The Morning After,” can be therapeutic.

Billboard: Maureen, how did you come to record “The Morning After,” and what did you think of the song initially?

McGovern: During the late 1960s and early ‘70s I traveled throughout the Midwest as the lead singer for a folk band called Sweet Rain. Carl Maduri was a producer in Cleveland. In early 1972, I was performing at a club in Cleveland when a friend of Carl’s attended my show. I’ve been told that this friend informed Carl that he had to hear me sing. Carl then came to see me perform and called my manager at the time. Meetings ensued …

A call was placed to Russ Regan, then president of 20th Century Fox Records, and apparently, he was told that I was quite a talented singer.

Russ Regan knew that Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, the writers of “The Morning After,” were looking for a singer to record the song. I was asked to record a demo, and my manager and the record label loved it. Russ Regan signed me to 20th Century Fox Records and, in late 1972, “The Morning After” and The Poseidon Adventure were released.

Recording that song opened the door to my career. I have always been extremely grateful for that opportunity and for the enduring legacy of that song. To this day, for all of 50 years, I have had people write letters to me, talk with me at concerts, even stop me on the street to share how the song helped get them through something in their life that they were not sure they could survive.

It has been a part of almost every one of my live performances over the past five decades. Whenever I start to sing “The Morning After,” the audience breaks into spontaneous applause, and I feel the love in the room. The song’s message is a gift to us all.

Do you remember finding out that the song had won at the Academy Awards, and what your reaction was?

Stunned … thrilled … I could not believe it!

I was a girl from Youngstown, Ohio, aspiring to have a career as a singer. I was performing on the East Coast the evening that “The Morning After” won. The Oscars were being presented in LA. During my performance, the venue owners ran in, interrupted my show and announced that the song had won the Oscar! The entire crowd erupted in grand applause. Their recognition and applause at that moment was the biggest thing that had ever happened to me. It was breathtaking.

I had recorded the song in the fall of 1972 to only minimal fanfare. But that Oscar win ultimately created a lot of attention for the song. By August of 1973, “The Morning After” was at the top of the Hot 100. It was a dream come true.

Having also recorded “We May Never Love Like This Again,” a Hot 100 hit in 1975 from The Towering Inferno – and another best original song Oscar winner for Hirschhorn and Kasha that year – you became somewhat of a go-to for songs from disaster movies … which you played up in your cameo, as a nun, in that iconic scene in Airplane. How did that casting happen, and what was the experience like filming it? (Shirley, it couldn’t have been too serious on the set.)

The casting for Airplane happened extremely quickly. Apparently, the actress that had originally been selected to play the role had become unavailable. My agent received a call from the film’s production team on a Thursday afternoon and by the next day, I had my script in hand and was to report to the set the following Monday ready to go!

It was incredibly interesting to see how different actors interact. The cast that I worked with was delightful. It really was great fun.

You also recorded a song that, like a track tied to a movie, had built-in exposure: “Different Worlds,” the theme from the ABC TV show Angie. Any special memories of that song, which became another Billboard No. 1 for you, on the Adult Contemporary chart?

It was a lighthearted song that resonated with the adult contemporary audience. Meeting the cast of the show was special. I really enjoyed this opportunity.

From music to movie placements to Broadway, you have forged such a rich career. You must take pride in that versatility.

Success in this craft not only requires some God-given talent, but also a great amount of effort and a good bit of luck. I have been blessed to be able to create a fulfilling life and a wonderful career, doing what I know I was always meant to do: singing.

I do take pride in the fact that my work has spanned genres and venues from small supper clubs in the tiniest of towns to grand performance centers like Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, from private concerts and benefits to performing for global dignitaries and U.S. presidents, and from summer stock to Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute and even Broadway. I have recorded and performed myriad genres starting with folk and moving to pop, jazz, musical theatre and music written by such greats as George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Rodgers and Hart and Hammerstein and so many more.

My career has taken me to recording studios, movie sets, television stations, theaters, concert halls and symphony centers literally all over the world.

It’s inspiring that you value music therapy, among other philanthropic pursuits of yours. Can you talk about how you got into that, how you’ve helped people in that manner, and how you think music can help heal people in different ways?

From the very beginning of my career, as I traveled to different cities to perform, I would make it a priority to visit hospices, hospitals and prisons. This was my effort to bring hope and healing through music to people in need. That’s always been a part of my heart. This work has given me so many remarkably memorable experiences. I recall one evening, following a concert performance, I was asked to visit a children’s hospital the next morning, on Christmas Day. There were babies in cribs and children in beds. The babies didn’t know anything about me or my music, but the parents needed to hear a hopeful message. After I sang, they came and hugged me. Something as small as a song changed how they were feeling, even if just for that moment.

Another special memory happened when I was visiting a hospice with my friend, Dr. Deforia Lane, a music therapist. We had the opportunity to meet a family gathered around their grandmother who was in her last moments of life. I thought, “Oh, my God, what can I do to help this woman and her family at this time?” You could feel the sadness in the room. Her family said that she liked country music, so we sang a familiar country song for her, “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” by John Denver. I got to a certain point in the song, and we heard a soft “whoo, whoo, whoo” sound. She was “singing” along with us. There was such beauty in that. Her children and grandchildren began crying tears of joy. Sharing a simple gift like that is wonderful. Music is healing.

When people are feeling low, music lifts their souls. It brings me great joy to help others find hope in music.

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