Billy Murray (singer)

William Thomas "Billy" Murray (25 May, 1877 – 17 August, 1954) was one of the most popular singers in the United States in the early decades of the 20th century. While he received star billings on Vaudeville, he was best known for his prolific work in the recording studio, making records for almost every record label of the era. He was probably the best selling recording artist of the first quarter of the 20th century.

Biography

Listen
filename=Bill Murray - In My Merry Oldsmobile.ogg
title=In My Merry Oldsmobile
description=performed by Billy Murray (Recorded 01 February 1909)
format=OggBilly Murray was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of immigrants from Ireland. He became fascinated with the theater and joined a traveling vaudeville troupe in 1893. He also performed in minstrel shows early in his career. He made his first recordings for a local phonograph cylinder company in San Francisco, California in 1897. He started recording regularly in the New York City and New Jersey area in 1903, when the nation's major record companies as well as the Tin Pan Alley music industry were concentrated there.

In 1906 he waxed the first of his popular duets with Ada Jones. He also performed with Aileen Stanley, the Haydn Quartet, and the American Quartet (also known as the Premier Quartet), in addition to his solo work.

He had a strong tenor voice with excellent enunciation and a more conversational delivery than common with bel canto singers of the era. On comic songs he often deliberately sang slightly flat, which he felt helped the comic effect.

While he often performed romantic numbers and ballads which sold well at the time, his comedy and novelty song recordings continue to be popular with later generations of record collectors.

Murray was a devoted baseball fan, and is said to have played with the New York Highlanders (Yankees) in exhibition games. He was also said to have sometimes called in sick to recording sessions in order to go to the ballpark. Ironically, he never recorded baseball's "anthem", "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". A Victor Record catalog once listed him as having performed it with the Haydn Quartet. The mistake was corrected in later versions of the catalog. Aural and discographical evidence rule out Murray's presence at the recording session (see "Billy Murray: the Phonograph Industry's First Great Recording Artist", by Frank Hoffmann–Scarecrow Press, 1997, and http://www.archeophone.com/features/spotlights/ball_game/index.php). Murray did record "Tessie, You Are the Only, Only, Only", which became the unofficial theme of the 1903 World Series when the words were changed from "Tessie, you know I love you madly," to "Honus, why do you hit so badly?"

Murray's popularity faded with changes in public taste and recording technology; the rise of the electric microphone in the mid 1920s coincided with the rise of the crooners. His "hammering" style, as he called it, essentially yelling the song into the recording horn, did not work in the electronic era, and it took him some time to learn how to soften his voice.

While his singing style was considered "dated" and was less in demand, he continued to find recording work. By the late 1920s and early 1930s, the music from his salad days was considered nostalgic (the modern term would be "oldies") and Murray was in demand again. He did voices for animated cartoons, especially the popular "follow the bouncing ball" sing-along cartoons. He also did radio work.

A subtlety in the evolution of American English pronunciation can be detected in Murray's career. The word "record" was once pronounced with the last syllable rhyming with "cord", as evidenced on the spoken introductions to some of his early work. Example: "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis — sung by Billy Murray, Edison Records". Murray also signed his autographed photos with the play on words, "re-cordially yours". In modern times, the final syllable of "record" is typically pronounced to rhyme with "curd" rather than "cord".

Murray made his last recordings in 1943 and retired to Freeport, Long Island, New York in 1944. He died in nearby Jones Beach.

elected discography

Murray recorded hundreds of songs: solos, duets, quartets and other musical groupings. This list is confined, initially, to songs which also have separate wikipedia articles:
*Ain't It Funny What a Difference Just a Few Hours Make
*Alexander's Ragtime Band
*Always Leave Them Laughing When You Say Goodbye
*Any Little Girl, That's a Nice Little Girl, is the Right Little Girl For Me
*At the Moving Picture Ball
*Because I'm Married Now
*Bon Bon Buddy
*Charley, My Boy
*Clap Hands! Here Comes Charley!
*College Life
*Cordelia Malone
*Daddy, Come Home
*Dear Sing Sing
*Dixie with Frank Stanley and Ada Jones
*Give My Regards to Broadway
*Harrigan
*He'd Have to Get Under — Get Out and Get Under (to Fix Up His Automobile)
*He Goes to Church on Sunday
*He May Be Old, But He's Got Young Ideas
*I Want to Go Back to Michigan
*I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark
*In My Merry Oldsmobile
*In the Land of the Buffalo
*In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree
*It's a Long Way to Tipperary with quartet
*It's the Same Old Shillelagh with Harry's Tavern Band
*K-K-K-Katy
*On Moonlight Bay with quartet
* with quartet
*Over There
*School Days with Ada Jones
*Some Sunday Morning with Ada Jones
*Tessie
*The Yankee Doodle Boy
*Tipperary
*Under the Anheuser Bush
*You'd Be Surprised
*The Grand Old Rag (Flag)

ee also

*Tiny Tim (musician)

External links

* [http://www.denvernightingale.com Billy Murray: The Legendary Denver Nightingale by Ryan Barna]
* [http://www.redhotjazz.com/billymurray.html Biography with sound samples]
* [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.100010366/default.html Billy Murray recording of "The Grand Old Rag" (later retitled "The Grand Old Flag"]
* [http://www.turtleserviceslimited.org/hedhave.htm Billy Murray recording of "He'd Have to Get Out and Get Under to Fix up His Automobile"]
* [http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?query=billy+murray&queryType=%40attr+1%3D1 Billy Murray cylinder recordings] , from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
* [http://www.archeophone.com/product_info.php?products_id=46 Billy Murray, Anthology: The Denver Nightingale (Archeophone Records 5501)]
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