Wanting to run away from home since age eleven, Abraham Finkelstein was always after something. He masked his Jewish background by adopting the stage name Arthur Fields and launched a long and prolific career as a songwriter, vaudevillian, recording artist, radio personality, and music publisher. Featuring 26 tracks and a 32-page booklet with notes by Grammy-nominated author Ryan Barna, Anthology: Singer, Songwriter, Soldier tells the story of Fields’ four-decade recording career and constant reinventions. We hear his 1914 debut with a long-forgotten Irving Berlin number, follow along as he becomes one of the key voices and songwriters of World War I, then listen as he reinvents himself as a “hillbilly” during the country music boom of the ’20s and ’30s. The compilation ends with two remarkable selections: His emotional 1941 recording of “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” and a 1951 wire recording captured by record collector Dick Carty in which he reprises his most famous composition, “It’s a Long Way to Berlin, but We’ll Get There!" List price: $17.99
OVERVIEW
- Catalogue number: ARCH 5506
- UPC: 868490000272
- Original release date: July 12, 2019
- Running length: 77:59 / 26 tracks
- Notes & packaging: Includes a 32-page booklet
- Tracks recorded: 1914-1951
- Contains racially derogatory language
- In Archeophone’s Anthology series
| Tracklist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Along Came Ruth | Arthur Fields | 1914 | |
| 2. | Stay Down Here Where You Belong | Arthur Fields | 1914 | |
| 3. | Poor Pauline | Arthur Fields | 1914 | |
| 4. | San Francisco (At That San-Fran-Pan American Fair) | Arthur Fields | 1915 | |
| 5. | The Little Ford Rambled Right Along | Arthur Fields | 1915 | |
| 6. | Everybody Loves a “Jazz” Band | Arthur Fields | 1917 | |
| 7. | Darktown Strutters’ Ball | Arthur Fields and Ford Dabney’s Band | 1917 | |
| 8. | It’s a Long Way to Berlin, but We’ll Get There! | Arthur Fields | 1917 | |
| 9. | Over There | Arthur Fields | 1917 | |
| 10. | Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning | Arthur Fields | 1918 | |
| 11. | When I Get Back to My American Blighty | Arthur Fields | 1918 | |
| 12. | Pershing for President | Arthur Fields | 1919 | |
| 13. | Ja-Da (Ja Da, Ja Da, Jing Jing Jing!) | Arthur Fields | 1919 | |
| 14. | How ’Ya Gonna Keep ’Em Down on the Farm? (After They’ve Seen Paree) | Arthur Fields | 1919 | |
| 15. | The Dardanella Blues | The Three Kaufields | 1920 | |
| 16. | Hail Chicago! | Arthur Fields and the Criterion Quartette | 1921 | |
| 17. | Moxie | Arthur Fields | 1921 | |
| 18. | Carolina in the Morning | Arthur Fields and Ben Selvin’s Orchestra | 1923 | |
| 19. | Bryan Believed in Heaven (That’s Why He’s in Heaven Tonight) | Arthur Fields | 1925 | |
| 20. | My Dream of the Baseball Park | Arthur Fields | 1928 | |
| 21. | I Can’t Sleep in the Movies Anymore | Arthur Fields and his Assassinators | 1929 | |
| 22. | Calamity Jane | Arthur Fields and Adelyne Hood | 1930 | |
| 23. | Eleven More Months and Ten More Days—Part 1 | Colt Brothers and Rex Cole Mountaineers | 1931 | |
| 24. | There’s a Blue Sky ’Way Out Yonder | Arthur Fields | 1938 | |
| 25. | Der Fuehrer’s Face | Arthur Fields | 1942 | |
| 26. | Medley: It’s a Long Way to Berlin, but We’ll Get There! / I’ll See You in My Dreams / Carolina in the Morning [personal recording] | Arthur Fields | 1951 | |
Review from Mainspring Press
“As with all Archeophone releases, the transfer quality and production values are impeccable…The detailed biographical and program notes by Phonostalgia host Ryan Barna are especially praiseworthy, moving beyond the seminal but now outdated work of Hobbies columnist Jim Walsh and other early researchers.” Read the full review →