Allison Durbin - I Have Loved Me A Man (1968)

Morgana King - I Have Loved Me A Man (1967)

(Janice Weaver)
 USA
Original version
#31 Sydney #5 Melbourne #11 Brisbane #1 Adelaide #20 Canberra

Single on Reprise, from the album Gemini Changes, by highly regarded jazz singer with classical training (b.1930, New York, Maria Grazia Morgana Messina). She performed extensively in theatres and clubs over several decades and recorded over 30 albums. She has also acted, for example as Mama Corleone in The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II.

I Have Loved Me A Man is a familiar oldie in Australia but it wasn't a hit in the US or (as far as I can see) anywhere else. It's possible that the Australian hit was the only charting single – anywhere – in the career of Morgana King, whose discography consists mainly of albums.

Janice Weaver, who wrote the song, now works in marketing in Austin TX. She lists I Have Loved Me A Man on her LinkedIn profile.

References, further reading: 1. Morgana King at Wikipedia. 2. Morgana King biography by Eugene Chadbourne at AllMusic. 3. Morgana King filmography and biography at IMDb. 4. There is an "unofficial fan site" at MorganaKing.com which which is so far (April 2014) nothing much more than a URL placeholder. 5. Janice Weaver's LinkedIn page (sign-up required for full view).

Thanks to Terry Stacey for Canberra chart position.