Billy Murray (singer)
Encyclopedia


William Thomas "Billy" Murray (25 May 1877 – 17 August 1954) was one of the most popular singers in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in the early decades of the 20th century. While he received star billings in Vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

, he was best known for his prolific work in the recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

, making records for almost every record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 of the era.

Biography

Billy Murray was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, to Patrick and Julia (Kelleher) Murray, immigrants from Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. His parents moved to Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

, in 1882, where he grew up. He became fascinated with the theater and joined a traveling vaudeville troupe in 1893. He also performed in minstrel show
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....

s early in his career. In 1897 Murray made his first recordings for Peter Bacigalupi, the owner of a phonograph company in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

. As of 2010 none of Murray's Bacigalupi cylinder records are known to have survived. In 1903 he started recording regularly in the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 area, when the nation's major record companies as well as the Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...

 music industry were concentrated there.

In 1906 he waxed the first of his popular duets with Ada Jones
Ada Jones
Ada Jones was a popular mezzo-soprano who recorded from 1905 to the early 1920s. She was born in Lancashire, England but moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of six in 1879...

. He also performed with Aileen Stanley
Aileen Stanley
Aileen Stanley, born Maude Elsie Aileen Muggeridge , was a popular American singer.-Early life:...

, the Haydn Quartet, the American Quartet
American Quartet (ensemble)
The American Quartet was a quartet of singers that recorded for various companies from 1899 to 1925. The lineup varied over the years, but the most famous lineup recorded for the Victor Talking Machine Company from 1909 to 1913.*John Bieling - first tenor...

 (also known as the Premier Quartet), and Elsie Baker
Elsie Baker
Elsie Baker was an American singer and actress whose career spanned the gamut from vaudeville through silent movies to Victrola to radio to Hollywood and television....

, in addition to his solo work.

Nicknamed the Denver Nightingale, Murray had a strong tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

 voice with excellent enunciation and a more conversational delivery than common with bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...

 singers of the era. On comic songs he often deliberately sang slightly flat, which he felt helped the comic effect.
Although he often performed romantic numbers and ballads which sold well, his comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 and novelty song
Novelty song
A novelty song is a comical or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs. The term arose in Tin Pan Alley to describe one of the major divisions of popular music. The other two divisions...

 recordings continue to be popular with later generations of record collectors.

Murray was a devoted baseball fan, and he is said to have played with the New York Highlanders (Yankees)
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

 in exhibition games. He also supposedly sometimes called in sick to recording sessions in order to go to the ballpark. Murray recorded "Tessie, You Are the Only, Only, Only", which became the unofficial theme of the 1903 World Series
1903 World Series
The 1903 World Series was the first modern World Series to be played in Major League Baseball. It matched the Boston Americans of the American League against the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League in a best-of-nine series, with Boston prevailing five games to three, winning the last...

, when the words were changed from "Tessie, you know I love you madly," to "Honus
Honus Wagner
-Louisville Colonels:Recognizing his talent, Barrow recommended Wagner to the Louisville Colonels. After some hesitation about his awkward figure, Wagner was signed by the Colonels, where he hit .338 in 61 games....

, why do you hit so badly?"

Murray's popularity faded as public taste changed and recording technology advanced; the rise of the electric microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...

 in the mid 1920s coincided with the era of the crooner
Crooner
Crooner is an American epithet given to male singers of pop standards, mostly from the Great American Songbook, either backed by a full orchestra, a big band or by a piano. Originally it was an ironic term denoting an emphatically sentimental, often emotional singing style made possible by the use...

s. His "hammering" style, as he called it, essentially yelling the song into an acoustic recording horn, did not work in the electronic era, and he had to learn to soften his voice.

Though his singing style was less in demand, he continued to find recording work. By the late 1920s and early 1930s, the music from his early days was considered nostalgic (the modern term would be "oldies") and Murray was in demand again. He did voices for animated cartoon
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...

s, especially the popular "follow the bouncing ball" sing-along cartoons and the character Bimbo
Bimbo (Fleischer)
Bimbo is a fictional character, a cartoon dog created by Fleischer Studios. He first appeared in the Out of the Inkwell series and was originally named Fitz....

. He also did radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 work.

Murray made his last recordings for Beacon Records on February 11, 1943 with Jewish dialect comedian Monroe Silver
Monroe Silver
Monroe Silver was an American actor and singer who was also a comedian and monologist using a Jewish dialect-accent in his performances. For various record labels, he recorded 78rpm discs of parodies like Cohen on the Telephone and Cohen Phones to His Friend Levy. Lee De Forest recorded Silver...

. He retired the next year to Freeport
Freeport, New York
Freeport is a village in the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, USA, on the South Shore of Long Island. The population was 42,860 at the 2010 census. A settlement since the 1640s, it was once an oystering community and later a resort popular with the New York City theater community...

, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, because of heart problems. He died at nearby Jones Beach
Jones Beach State Park
Jones Beach State Park is a state park of the U.S. state of New York. It is located in southern Nassau County, in the hamlet of Wantagh, on Jones Beach Island, a barrier island linked to Long Island by the Meadowbrook State Parkway, Wantagh State Parkway and Ocean Parkway .The park is renowned for...

 of a heart attack in 1954 at the age of 77. Murray had married three times, the first two ending in divorce. He was survived by his third wife, Madeleine, and was buried in
Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury, Long Island.

Partial song discography

Murray recorded hundreds of songs: solos, duets, quartets and other musical groupings. This list is confined primarily to songs which also have separate wikipedia articles:
  • "Ain't It Funny What a Difference Just a Few Hours Make
    Ain't It Funny What a Difference Just a Few Hours Make
    "Ain't It Funny What a Difference Just a Few Hours Make" is a popular song, introduced in the 1904 Broadway show The Yankee Consul, and briefly becoming a standard....

    "
  • "Alexander's Ragtime Band
    Alexander's Ragtime Band
    "Alexander's Ragtime Band" is the name of a song by Irving Berlin. It was his first major hit, in 1911. There is some evidence, although inconclusive, that Berlin borrowed the melody from a draft of "A Real Slow Drag" submitted by Scott Joplin that had been submitted to a...

    "
  • "Always Leave Them Laughing When You Say Goodbye
    Always Leave Them Laughing When You Say Goodbye
    Always Leave Them Laughing When You Say Goodbye was a popular song, first published in 1903 and written by George M. Cohan. Today the best known recording of the song is by Billy Murray, which was recorded in 1907 on Victor Records and whose version has entered the public domain...

    "
  • "Any Little Girl, That's a Nice Little Girl, is the Right Little Girl For Me
    Any Little Girl, That's a Nice Little Girl, Is the Right Little Girl for Me
    "Any Little Girl, That's a Nice Little Girl, Is the Right Little Girl for Me" is a popular song, first published in 1910, and written by Thomas J. Gray and Fred Fisher...

    "
  • "At the Moving Picture Ball
    At the Moving Picture Ball
    "At the Moving Picture Ball" is a popular song composed by Joseph H. Santly and recorded by many artists during the silent film era. Today the song is best remembered for its unusually topical lyrics, which mention many celebrities of the time. In fact, by 1920, the lyrics of the song had already...

    "
  • "Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee
    Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee
    "Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee" is a popular song.The music was written by Henry I. Marshall, the lyrics by Stanley Murphy. The song was published in 1912.The song has since become a standard, recorded by many artists...

    " with Ada Jones
    Ada Jones
    Ada Jones was a popular mezzo-soprano who recorded from 1905 to the early 1920s. She was born in Lancashire, England but moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of six in 1879...

  • "Because I'm Married Now
    Because I'm Married Now
    "Because I'm Married Now" was a popular song, first published in 1907, and written by Herbert Ingraham. Singer Billy Murray recorded at least two versions in 1907, one for Edison Records and another for Manhattan Records.-External links:*...

    "
  • "Blue Feather
    Blue Feather
    "Blue Feather" is a popular song written in 1909 with music by Theodore F. Morse and lyrics by Jack Mahoney. In the song the singer is expressing his love for sweet Blue Feather. The chorus is:-External links:...

    " with Ada Jones
    Ada Jones
    Ada Jones was a popular mezzo-soprano who recorded from 1905 to the early 1920s. She was born in Lancashire, England but moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of six in 1879...

  • "Bon Bon Buddy
    Bon Bon Buddy
    Bon Bon Buddy is a popular song, first published in 1907, and was written by Alex Rogers. Today the best known versions of the largely forgotten song are by Billy Murray, who recorded versions in 1908 on both Victor Records and Indestructible Records. Both of these recordings have entered the...

    "
  • "Charley, My Boy
    Charley, My Boy
    "Charley, My Boy" is a song written by Gus Kahn and Ted Fiorito in 1924. The sheet music was published for voice and piano. The refrain is four lines, of which the first two are:...

    "
  • "Cheyenne
    Cheyenne (song)
    "Cheyenne" is a popular and sentimental song written in 1906, with words by Harry Williams and music by Egbert Van Alstyne. It became a hit for a number of artists. The chorus is:...

    "
  • "Clap Hands! Here Comes Charley!
    Clap Hands! Here Comes Charley!
    Clap Hands! Here Comes Charley! is a popular song, first published in 1925 and written by Billy Rose, Ballard MacDonald and Joseph Meyer, and recorded by several popular singers of the era...

    "
  • "College Life"
  • "Come Josephine in My Flying Machine
    Come Josephine in My Flying Machine
    "Come Josephine In My Flying Machine" is a popular song.The music was written by Fred Fisher, the lyrics by Alfred Bryan. The song was published in 1910. It was originally recorded by Blanche Ring in 1910 and was, for a while, her signature song...

    " with Ada Jones
    Ada Jones
    Ada Jones was a popular mezzo-soprano who recorded from 1905 to the early 1920s. She was born in Lancashire, England but moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of six in 1879...

  • "Cordelia Malone
    Cordelia Malone
    "Cordelia Malone" is a novelty song written in 1904 by Billy Jerome and Jean Schwartz, and recorded that same year by popular Irish American singer Billy Murray. The lyrics are a stableboy's first-hand account of his courtship of Cordelia Malone, a "smart Irish girl"...

    "
  • "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine
    Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine
    "Cuddle Up A Little Closer, Lovey Mine" is a popular song. The music was written by Karl Hoschna, the lyrics by Otto Harbach. The song was published in 1908. From the Broadway musical The Three Twins. The song has now become a standard, performed by many artists, including Julie London and Vic...

    " with Ada Jones
    Ada Jones
    Ada Jones was a popular mezzo-soprano who recorded from 1905 to the early 1920s. She was born in Lancashire, England but moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of six in 1879...

  • "Daddy, Come Home
    Daddy, Come Home
    Daddy, Come Home is a song written by Irving Berlin and first published in 1913.The humorous song begins "Hello Central, dear Central, listen here: please connect me with my father" and tells the story from the point of view of a young boy calling his father on the telephone to ask him to leave...

    "
  • "Dear Sing Sing
    Dear Sing Sing
    Dear Sing Sing is a popular song first published in 1903. A popular singer of the time named Billy Murray recorded at least two versions in 1904, one for Edison Records and another for Victor Records. Both of these recordings are now public domain, and can be downloaded at several...

    "
  • "Dixie
    Dixie (song)
    Countless lyrical variants of "Dixie" exist, but the version attributed to Dan Emmett and its variations are the most popular. Emmett's lyrics as they were originally intended reflect the mood of the United States in the late 1850s toward growing abolitionist sentiment. The song presented the point...

    " with Frank Stanley
    Frank C. Stanley
    Frank C. Stanley was a bass-baritone singer, stage performer and banjoist who made many early gramophone recordings on disc and cylinder during the 1890s and the 1900s. His real name was William Stanley Grinsted. He was born on 29 December 1868 in Orange, New Jersey...

     and Ada Jones
    Ada Jones
    Ada Jones was a popular mezzo-soprano who recorded from 1905 to the early 1920s. She was born in Lancashire, England but moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of six in 1879...

  • "Everybody Works But Father
    Everybody Works but Father
    "Everybody Works but Father" is a popular song published in 1905, with words and music by Jean Havez. It is sung from the point of view of the son, lamenting that he, his sister and his mother all work, while his father lounges all day: "Everybody works at our house but my old man."The song was...

    "
  • "Forty-five Minutes from Broadway
    Forty-five Minutes from Broadway
    Forty-Five Minutes From Broadway is a three-act musical by George M. Cohan written about New Rochelle, New York. The play's title refers to the 45-minute train ride from New Rochelle to Broadway....

    "
  • "Give My Regards to Broadway
    Give My Regards to Broadway
    "Give My Regards to Broadway" is a song written by George M. Cohan for his musical play Little Johnny Jones ....

    "
  • "Harrigan
    Harrigan (song)
    "Harrigan" is a song written by George M. Cohan for the 1907 Broadway musical, Fifty Miles From Boston. It celebrates, and to some extent mocks, his own Irish heritage....

    "
  • "He'd Have to Get Under — Get Out and Get Under (to Fix Up His Automobile)"
  • "He Goes to Church on Sunday
    He Goes to Church on Sunday
    "He Goes to Church on Sunday" is a popular song, first published in 1907, and written by Vincent Bryan and E. Ray Goetz. The song tells the story of a "crooked" man, who steals stuff from people, but is considered an honest man because he goes to church on Sundays. However, the song doesn't appear...

    "
  • "He May Be Old, But He's Got Young Ideas
    He May Be Old, But He's Got Young Ideas
    "He May Be Old, But He's Got Young Ideas" was a popular song, originally published in 1916. It was written by Howard Johnson, Alex Gerber and Harry Jentes. It was released both as sheet music and was recorded by several popular singers...

    "
  • "Hello, Hawaii, How Are You?
    Hello, Hawaii, How Are You?
    Hello, Hawaii, How Are You? is a song written in 1915, by Jean Schwartz, Bert Kalmar and Edgar Leslie.The song refers to one of Marconi's then-new radio-oriented inventions, the Wireless Telephone, which became publicly available that year...

    "
  • "I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark
    I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark
    I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark is popular song, written by Egbert Van Alstyne and Harry Williams in 1907, and made famous by Billy Murray. Today it's popular among collecters of cylinder recordings. Billy Murray recorded the song on several record labels, including Edison Records in 1908...

    "
  • "In My Merry Oldsmobile
    In My Merry Oldsmobile
    "In My Merry Oldsmobile" is a popular song from 1905, with music by Gus Edwards and lyrics by Vincent P. Bryan.The song's chorus is one of the most enduring automobile-oriented songs...

    "
  • "In the Good Old Summer Time
    In the Good Old Summer Time
    "In the Good Old Summer Time" is an American Tin Pan Alley song first published in 1902 with music by George Evans and lyrics by Ren Shields.Shields and Evans were at first unsuccessfully trying to sell the song to one of New York's big sheet music publishers. The publishers thought the topic of...

    "
  • "In the Land of the Buffalo
    In the Land of the Buffalo
    "In the Land of the Buffalo" is a popular song, first published in 1907. The chorus:"In the Land of the Buffalo" is a popular song, first published in 1907. The chorus:"In the Land of the Buffalo" is a popular song, first published in 1907...

    "
  • "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree
    In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree
    In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree is a popular song dating from 1905. It was written by Harry Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne .The meter of its chorus is in the form of a Limerick.It can safely be characterized as a highly sentimental tune...

    "
  • "It's a Long Way to Tipperary
    It's a Long Way to Tipperary
    It's a Long Way to Tipperary is a British music hall and marching song written by Jack Judge and co-credited to, but not co-written by, Henry James "Harry" Williams. It was allegedly written for a 5 shilling bet in Stalybridge on 30 January 1912 and performed the next night at the local music hall...

    " with quartet
  • "It's the Same Old Shillelagh
    It's the Same Old Shillelagh
    "It's the Same Old Shillelagh" is an Irish novelty song written by Pat White. Its subject is a young Irish-American who inherits his father's shillelagh. The composer himself recorded this song, and the record was distributed through the Yorkville Phonograph Shop in New York City...

    " with Harry's Tavern Band
  • "It Takes the Irish to Beat the Dutch
    It Takes the Irish to Beat the Dutch
    It Takes the Irish to Beat the Dutch is a song written in 1903 by Edward Madden and Theodore Morse.The song has several verses, each of them filled with stereotypical Irish bragging about their supposed superiority to Germans . The chorus is in the form of a Limerick...

    "
  • "I've Been Floating Down the Old Green River
    I've Been Floating Down the Old Green River
    I've Been Floating Down the Old Green River is a 1915 song with words by Bert Kalmar and music by Joe Cooper.The song is sung from the point of view of a husband who has to explain to his wife why he stayed out until 4:30 in the morning. The tag line in the lyric is:The song is a play on words, as...

    "
  • "I've Got My Captain Working for Me Now
    I've Got My Captain Working for Me Now
    I've Got My Captain Working for Me Now is a popular song written in 1919 by Irving Berlin.The song tells of a young man who returns to work as a manager in his father's factory following his tour of duty as a Private First Class in World War I. His now-unemployed former Captain is hired as a clerk...

    "
  • "I've Got Rings On My Fingers
    I've Got Rings On My Fingers
    I've Got Rings On My Fingers is a popular song written in 1909, words by Weston and Barnes, and music by Maurice Scott. It concerns an Irishman named Jim O'Shea, a castaway who finds himself on an island somewhere in the East Indies, whereupon he is made Chief Panjandrum by the natives because they...

    " with quartet
  • "I Want to Go Back to Michigan
    I Want To Go Back To Michigan
    I Want to Go Back to Michigan is a song by Irving Berlin composed in 1914. It was a moderate commercial success when it was first released and afterward became a staple on vaudeville...

    "
  • "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now
    I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now
    "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" is a popular song. The music was written by Joseph E. Howard and Harold Orlob, the lyrics by Will M. Hough and Frank R. Adams. The song was published in 1909...

    "
  • "K-K-K-Katy
    K-K-K-Katy
    "K-K-K-Katy" was a popular World War I-era song written by Geoffrey O'Hara in 1917 and published in 1918. The sheet music advertised it as "The Sensational Stammering Song Success Sung by the Soldiers and Sailors," reflecting a time when speech impediments could be poked fun at—albeit gentle fun...

    "
  • "Meet Me Down at Luna, Lena" with quartet
  • "Oh By Jingo!
    Oh By Jingo!
    "Oh By Jingo!" is a 1919 novelty song by Albert Von Tilzer with lyrics by Lew Brown.The song was featured in the Broadway show "Linger Longer Letty", and became one of the biggest Tin Pan Alley hits of the post-World War I era....

    "
  • "Oh, You Beautiful Doll
    Oh, You Beautiful Doll
    "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" is a ragtime love song published in 1911 with words by Seymour Brown and music by Nat D. Ayer. The song was one of the first with a twelve-bar opening. It is well-known by its chorus:*...

    " with quartet
  • "On Moonlight Bay
    On Moonlight Bay (song)
    "On Moonlight Bay" is a popular song.The music was written by Percy Wenrich, the lyrics by Edward Madden. The song was published in 1912. It was often sung in a Barbershop Quartet style, such as by Billy Murray and the American Quartet:...

    " with quartet
  • "On the 5:15
    On the 5:15
    "On the 5:15" is a song written in 1915 and recorded by Billy Murray, along with the American Quartet, which featured a bass counterpoint to Murray's Irish tenor voice, probably William F...

    " with quartet
  • "On the Old Fall River Line
    On the Old Fall River Line
    On the Old Fall River Line is a song composed in 1913 by William Jerome , Andrew B. Sterling and Harry Von Tilzer set on a steamship of the Fall River Line of steamships between New York and Newport, Rhode Island, which connected with trains from Newport to Boston...

    " from 1913
  • "Over There
    Over There
    "Over There" is a 1917 song popular with United States soldiers in both world wars.It was written by George M. Cohan during World War I. Notable early recordings include versions by Nora Bayes, Enrico Caruso, Billy Murray, and Charles King....

    "
  • "Play a Simple Melody
    Play a Simple Melody
    "Play a Simple Melody" is a song from the 1914 musical, Watch Your Step, words and music by Irving Berlin. The show was the first stage musical that Berlin wrote. It ran for 175 performances New Amsterdam Theater in New York City...

     (1916 duet with Elsie Baker
    Elsie Baker
    Elsie Baker was an American singer and actress whose career spanned the gamut from vaudeville through silent movies to Victrola to radio to Hollywood and television....

    )
  • "Pretty Baby
    Pretty Baby (song)
    Pretty Baby is a song written by Tony Jackson during the Ragtime era. The song was remembered as being prominent in Jackson's repertory before he left New Orleans in 1912, but was not published until 1916....

    "
  • "School Days
    School Days (1907 song)
    "School Days", also known as "School Days ", is an American popular song written in 1907 by Will Cobb and Gus Edwards. Its subject is a mature man and woman looking back sentimentally on their lifelong friendship and their days in primary school.The best known part of the song is its chorus:* ,...

    " with Ada Jones
    Ada Jones
    Ada Jones was a popular mezzo-soprano who recorded from 1905 to the early 1920s. She was born in Lancashire, England but moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of six in 1879...

  • "Shine On, Harvest Moon
    Shine On, Harvest Moon
    "Shine On, Harvest Moon" is the name of a popular early-1900s song credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. It was one of a series of moon related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era. The song was debuted by Bayes and Norworth in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908 to great acclaim...

    " with Ada Jones
    Ada Jones
    Ada Jones was a popular mezzo-soprano who recorded from 1905 to the early 1920s. She was born in Lancashire, England but moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of six in 1879...

  • "Some Sunday Morning
    Some Sunday Morning
    "Some Sunday Morning" is the title of two well-known American songs. The first has music written by Richard A. Whiting with lyrics by Gus Kahn and Raymond B. Egan, and was recorded by Ada Jones and Billy Murray in 1917. The second has music by M.K...

    " with Ada Jones
    Ada Jones
    Ada Jones was a popular mezzo-soprano who recorded from 1905 to the early 1920s. She was born in Lancashire, England but moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of six in 1879...

  • "Tessie
    Tessie
    "Tessie" is both the anthem of the Boston Red Sox and also the title of a newer song by the punk rock band Dropkick Murphys. The original "Tessie" was from the 1902 Broadway musical The Silver Slipper. The newer song, written in 2004, recounts how the singing of the original "Tessie" by the Royal...

    "
  • "The Yankee Doodle Boy
    The Yankee Doodle Boy
    "The Yankee Doodle Boy", also well known as " Yankee Doodle Dandy" is a patriotic song from the Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones written by George M. Cohan...

    "
  • "Tipperary
    Tipperary (song)
    "Tipperary" is the name of an Irish-oriented love song written in 1907 by Leo Curley, James M. Fulton and J. Fred Helf. It is not to be confused with the much better-known song from 1912, "It's a Long Way to Tipperary". Both were sung at different times by early recording star Billy Murray.The...

    "
  • "Under the Anheuser Bush
    Under the Anheuser Bush
    Under the Anheuser Bush was an early-1900s popular song commissioned by the Anheuser-Busch brewery. Its name is an obvious pun on the company name. In fact, the German word "Busch" is equivalent to the English word "bush"....

    "
  • "You'd Be Surprised
    You'd Be Surprised
    You'd Be Surprised is a song written by Irving Berlin in 1919.The first verse introduces the shy Johnny and the woman Mary who finds him to be an exceptional lover, although apparently no one else ever has. She explains his appeal in the first chorus. By the second verse, Mary's talking-up of...

    "
  • "The Grand Old Rag (Flag)
    You're a Grand Old Flag
    "You're a Grand Old Flag" is a patriotic song of the United States. The song, a spirited march written by George M. Cohan, is a tribute to the U.S. flag. In addition to obvious references to the flag, it incorporates snippets of other popular songs, including one of his own...

    "

See also

  • "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"
  • Tiny Tim (musician)
    Tiny Tim (musician)
    Tiny Tim , , born in Manhattan, was an American singer and ukulele player. He was most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice.-Rise to fame:Born to Lebanese parents in 1932, Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age...


External links

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