Deniese Morrison - No Charge

Denise (aka Deniese) Morrison has had a long, successful career in Australian Country music since first being discovered at Tamworth by Ron Tudor who signed the teenager to a record contract with his Fable Record label. And this single, the hopelessly sentimental "No Charge" was Deniese's very first recording...although somebody got her first name wrong on the label...as it is in fact spelt Deniese. Molly Meldrum wrote in TV Week that it was the worst record he had heard all year but nonetheless it gave the 19 year old a Top 20 Pop hit first time out, doing especially well in Melbourne, and beating out the original by Melba Montgomery & another competing version by JJ Barrie..perhaps deservedly as an unashamedly tear jerker like this, about a mother talking with her son, sounds more believable being sung by a woman than it does by a man talking about a woman. After releasing her first LP on Fable records, 1976 saw a change of labels to Phillips & a couple of singles produced by the legendary John Williamson.
Deniese also appeared on all the major TV shows of the day like those with Mike Walsh, Don Lane & Bert Newton, Ernie Sigley, Reg Lindsay's Country Homestead etc and toured constantly with local & overseas artists. International acts included Gene Pitney, Tom T Hall & Conway Twitty as well as locals Williamson, Johnny Chester, The Hawking Brothers, Lee Conway, Allan Caswell & she was invited to join the Slim Dusty Show in 1987.
The 80's saw Deniese's career go from strength to strength, winning 3 Golden Guitars as Best Female Vocalist at the Australian Country Music Awards in Tamworth, for her records “Now I’m Easy” (1987) “Battle Hymn of Love” (1989) and “You’ve Gotta Learn to Dance” (1990). Deniese also compered Australia's most prestigious Country Music awards 3 times as well.
By the 90's & now a seasoned artist, she took a very young Beccy Sturtzel under her wing & watched her blossom to become one of Australia's great country acts of today, Beccy Cole. A founding member of the CMAA, Deniese continued touring with the likes of Freddy Fender, Augie Meyers & Mick Hamilton, while also tutoring at the First College of Country Music for 4 years. Deniese continues to tour and record & having returned to live in Tamworth, in 2007 she also formed her acclaimed Stagecoach performance tuition and workshop program for other aspiring performers.

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Good version