Maureen McGovern

Maureen Therese McGovern (born July 27, 1949) is an American singer and Broadway actress, well known for her renditions of the songs "The Morning After" from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure; "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974; and her No. 1 Billboard adult contemporary hit "Different Worlds", the theme song from the television series Angie. She performed on Broadway in The Pirates of Penzance, Nine, The Threepenny Opera, and Little Women.

McGovern was born in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, on July 27, 1949, the daughter of James Terrence McGovern and Mary Rita (née Welsh). She has Irish ancestry. As a child, McGovern would listen to her father's singing quartet rehearse in their home. She was told by her elders that she began singing at the age of three, and would sometimes sing herself to sleep with things she heard on the radio. She decided at age eight that she wanted to be a professional singer. Her influences include Barbra Streisand, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell.

After graduating from Boardman High School in 1967, she worked as a secretary and performed part-time as a singer for a local folk band called Sweet Rain. Her singing caught the attention of Russ Regan, then head of 20th Century Records, subsidiary of 20th Century-Fox, in 1972 when he heard a demo record she had recorded. At the time, Regan was searching for a singer to record "The Morning After" (the theme from The Poseidon Adventure) for release as a record. He hired McGovern sight unseen to record the song, which resulted in her contracting with 20th Century Records. After it won an Oscar for Best Original Song, "The Morning After" scored well on the popular chart, reaching No. 1 during 1973. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in August 1973. Following the success of "The Morning After", she received a Grammy Award nomination in 1974 for 'Best New Artist'.

During 1974, she recorded two movie themes: "We May Never Love Like This Again" from the disaster film The Towering Inferno, in which she made a short appearance when she is seen singing the song as the evening's entertainment, and "Wherever Love Takes Me" from the British disaster film Gold. The former won an Oscar (though it was only a minor pop hit), and the latter received an Oscar nomination.

In 1976, she recorded her cover version of "The Continental", the very first Oscar-winning track for Best Original Song. It proved to be her only hit on the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at No. 16.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.