Tunesmith Tuesday - Merrilee Rush, "Angel of the Morning"

Written and composed by 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."

Fellow Seattleite Merrilee Rush recorded the song in early 1968, and it reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and hit Number One in Canada).  Since then, it’s been recorded by (most notably) Juice Newton, then Nina Simone, P.P. Arnold, Olivia Newton-John, The Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde, Dusty Springfield, Mary Mason, Melba Montgomery, Vagiant, and Billie Davis.

But THIS, Little Ducks, was the original...