Video Dodo

In 1963 Edd Morris was in Sydney, pitching songs to publishers and record companies. At CBS Records New Zealand, musician and producer Laurie Lewis suggested that Morris write a novelty number based around the forthcoming engagement of a prominent celebrity couple.

"He told me to write something in the vein of Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme," Morris recalls. "I didn't have a guitar, piano, nothing, I just wrote it in my head, the lead line, melody and chorus. I went back and there was a piano in the room and I did a demo right there. Laurie was happy enough and they had a couple of popular singers lined up but the recording kept getting delayed. Six months later the couple split up."

Returning to New Plymouth to resume his radio career, Morris pitched an idea at his BCNZ bosses. "I'd seen a televised awards show and it wasn't something that we had in New Zealand. There wasn't any type of awards ceremony for any of the arts, music, film, television. My idea was for a NZ song of the year. I spoke to Pat Bell of APRA about it and interested the [BCNZ] but they couldn't be seen to organise such an event; it had to involve the private sector so they pulled in Reckitt & Colman as sponsors and it became The Loxene Golden Disc, which isn't what I had proposed; I wanted to promote New Zealand songs. And then APRA came out with the Silver Scroll."

Twenty years later in Wellington, in conjunction with Alan Dunnage of Sonic Studios, Morris secured a commission to record a full album of original music to promote the Lowrey organ with the promise of a good earn. "We had nine tracks completed and then … Alan died, the studio closed and the tapes have never been located."

One evening in mid-1994 Morris received a phone call from a solo mother in Wainuiomata who said she wanted to sing professionally, proceeding to sing country ballads down the line. "She sounded cute in that Marilyn Monroe sort of way and she intrigued me because I could hear her singing jazz – I've always liked country singers singing jazz – and I said I'd write her a song. I'd never even met her when the McCormick programme went to air and all hell broke loose. She turned up at my place a few days later on a pink scooter and from that point on I looked after her, not actually managing her, just looking after her."