Jenny Morris was born in Tokoroa, New Zealand and grew up in Hamilton with three brothers (Alistair, Rhys and Tam) and four sisters (Maxine, Bronte, Joanne and Shanley).] Morris wrote a poem on the Vietnam War when she was 12 and used her sister's guitar to put it to music. Morris has stated that her influences include Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield. Her first professional performance was at age fifteen, at Andersons Theatre Restaurant, in Hamilton. In 1976 she became a singer with How's Your Father, who were finalists in the 'National Battle of the Bands'. She began working as a Home Economics teacher for two years at a high school near Wellington. Late in 1978 Morris joined an all-girl group, Wide Mouthed Frogs in Wellington, performing lead vocals. Fellow members were Kate Brockie on lead vocals, Andrea Gilkison on guitar, Tina Matthews on bass guitar, Bronwyn Murray on keyboards and Sally Zwartz on drums. In 1979 they released the track, "Some Day" for the compilation album, "Home Grown Volume One"; "Some Day" was cowritten with Tony Backhouse, guitarist of fellow Wellington band, The Spats, which also had a track, "Young Ladies in Hot Cars", on the compilation.