Ada Jones and Billy Murray

Newly remastered in 2018—sounds better than ever!
30 songs from 1903-1940 that provide a career retrospective of the most popular recording artist of the acoustic era. Includes the rare brown wax cylinder of "The Way to Kiss a Girl" from one of Billy's first recording sessions for Columbia, and "It's the Same Old Shillelagh," peformed with Harry's Tavern Band in his comeback of 1940. Features collaborations with Ada Jones, the American and Haydn Quartets, Aileen Stanley, Ed. Smalle, and Walter Scanlan. A thick 24-page booklet contains a biographical essay and song notes by Murray biographer Frank Hoffmann and a reminiscence of Murray by a man who knew him, Quentin Riggs! Read more
List price: $16.99

From the research of Allen Debus comes Monarchs of Minstrelsy: Historic Recordings by the Stars of the Minstrel Stage, a collection of rare recordings by the stars who once performed them in minstrel shows. These are real veterans of the blackface minstrel stage, singing the songs they made famous on stage and performing the minstrel routines that have made them notorious today. Monarchs includes 28 tracks and a full-color 24-page booklet.  Read more
List price: $16.49

25 hits from 1907, the year that American banks suffered one of the worst panics in U.S. history, ushering in a two-year depression.  Features sentimental favorites by Byron G. Harlan ("School Days") and Frank Stanley ("Auld Lang Syne"), comic hits by Collins and Harlan, Bob Roberts, and Helen Trix ("The Bird on Nellie's Hat"), and the first stateside hit for Harry Lauder ("I Love a Lassie"). Other top artists include Billy Murray ("San Antonio" and "Harrigan"), Bert Williams, Ada Jones, Stanley and Burr ("Red Wing"), Enrico Caruso ("Vesti La Giubba" from Pagliacci), and the U.S. Marine Band doing a rousing version of Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag." Deluxe, full-color 24-page booklet features detailed notes on the songs, an historical essay, and rare graphics. Read more
List price: $17.49

26 hits from 1908, the year that Fred Merkle's boneheaded play cost the Giants a trip to the World Series but sent the Cubs to their last series championship. Included here is baseball's anthem, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" by the Haydn Quartet, along with 2 hits by the newly-christened Peerless Quartet and standards by the acoustic-era's great "teams": Collins and Harlan, Stanley and Burr, and Jones and Murray. Also features the collectible hit by Lucy Isabelle Marsh, "The Glow Worm" and hits by vaudeville greats Eddie Morton and Clarice Vance. Deluxe, full-color 24-page booklet features detailed notes on the songs, an historical essay, and rare graphics. Read more
List price: $17.49

Our newest Phonographic Yearbook features 28 selections from 1909, the year Theodore Roosevelt handed the presidential reins to William Howard Taft and cries of "Oh You Kid!" scandalized the nation. 1909: "Talk of Your Scand'lous Times" includes a 24-page full-color booklet with notes and illustrations that bring the year to life. Read more
List price: $17.49

26 hits from 1911, the year the nation got wrapped up in the aviation craze and the Triangle fire changed workplace safety laws. Highlights include Gene Greene's "King of the Bungaloos," Blanche Ring's "Come Josephine in My Flying Machine," and Collins and Harlan's "Alexander's Ragtime Band. The set includes a 24-page full-color booklet with an interpretive historical essay on key events of the year and notes on all of the selections. Read more
List price: $17.49

24 hits from 1912, the year that the unsinkable Titanic went down and Teddy Roosevelt launched his Bull Moose Party. Big songs by Billy Murray and the American Quartet, Heidelberg Quintet, Ada Jones, Bob Roberts doing "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," a very young Al Jolson singing "That Haunting Melody" and "Ragging the Baby to Sleep," Collins and Harlan, Harry Lauder, and more. Deluxe, full-color 24-page booklet features detailed notes on the songs, an historical essay, and rare graphics. Read more
List price: $17.49

1917: "Yankees to the Ranks" presents 25 songs from the year the U.S. declared war on Germany and entered into World War I. The 24-page color booklet includes extensive notes on all the songs and an interpretive historical essay that tells the story of patriotic volunteerism. Old favorite artists such as Billy Murray, Campbell and Burr, and Collins and Harlan are all here in clear restored audio; so too are newcomers Van and Schenck, Marion Harris, Dietrich and Wright, Anna Wheaton with James Harrod, Arthur Fields, and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band on their first record! Read more
List price: $25.00

24 hits from 1922, the year that sales of radios to American homes skyrocketed. The music was also getting jazzier, witnessed by hits such as "Lovin' Sam" by Miss Patricola and the Virginians, "On the Alamo" by Isham Jones, and "Hot Lips" by Paul Whiteman with Henry Busse. Other hits are by Fanny Brice ("My Man" and "Second Hand Rose"), Jones and Hare, Henry Burr, Al Jolson, and Lucy Isabelle Marsh and Royal Dadmun. Features the last hit by Jones and Murray, and the song of the year, the insanely popular "Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean" in two different versions. Deluxe, full-color 24-page booklet features detailed notes on the songs, an historical essay, and rare graphics.  Read more
List price: $17.49