For many artists of the acoustic era, a CD or two is enough to fit their entire recorded output. But in the cases of the most prolific pioneers—whose recordings number in the hundreds or thousands—a career retrospective is in order. Archeophone’s Anthology series answers the call, offering a start-to-finish overview of each artist’s complete body of work. We collect the hits and misses, the notable collaborations, the topical curiosities and historical one-of-a-kind recordings. It’s a great way to meet the most essential stars of a century ago. Each CD comes with a thick booklet containing new and original research, a biographical sketch, and track notes. Never before (and so far, not since) have there been such detailed historical examinations of and dedicated playlists to these groundbreaking legends of the acoustic horn.
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Genres · Critical Issues · Labels & Innovations · Pioneers · Anthologies · Jazz, Dance & Blues · Ethnic & Foreign Language · Phonographic Yearbooks · Special Products · Vinyl
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Anthology: America’s Favorite Entertainers
Arthur Collins & Byron Harlan
Released: January 29, 2021 • Catalogue: ARCH 5507 • UPC: 860003210031
Before Phil and Don Everly, before Simon and Garfunkel, long before Hall and Oates . . . the most popular recording duo over the first quarter of the 20th century was the team of Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan. Dubbed “America’s Favorite Entertainers” as they crisscrossed America in the late 1910s and early 1920s promoting Edison’s superior talking machines, Collins and Harlan came face to face with the thousands of ordinary people who bought the records that became the comical soundtrack of a generation. They represented the best and the worst of popular culture: advancing the career of Jewish émigré Irving Berlin and Black songwriters such as Chris Smith, W.C. Handy, and Shelton Brooks, while also perpetuating racist stereotypes. The issues, as usual, are thorny, but Archeophone tackles them with care and honesty. GRAMMY-recognized authors Ryan Barna and Richard Martin present the clear-eyed but accurate case of these two rough-and-ready unlikely partners who also became friends and took the phonograph by storm. Over 29 tracks, we lead you from 1902 to 1924, depicting a story that has never been told in LP form until now. Fantastic sound, too—you won’t believe how great these records sound! List price: $16.99
Anthology: Singer, Songwriter, Soldier
Arthur Fields
Released: July 12, 2019 • Catalogue: ARCH 5506 • UPC: 868490000272
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
Anthology: The King of Comic Singers, 1894-1917
Dan W. Quinn
Released: June 16, 2015 • Catalogue: ARCH 5505 • UPC: 778632907133
Anthology: The King of Comic Singers, 1894-1917 features 30 selections, taken from rare cylinders and discs, that highlight Dan W. Quinn’s quarter-century in the studio, featuring the up-to-date comic numbers he was best known for, along with sentimental ballads and ragtime songs he helped establish as standards. The 52-page booklet inside the digipak presents original research and stunning new discoveries about the man and his career, illustrated with many previously unpublished photos. List price: $17.99
Anthology: The Last Recording Pioneer
Irving Kaufman
Released: December 6, 2005 • Catalogue: ARCH 5504 • UPC: 777215109469
Irving Kaufman, Anthology: The Last Recording Pioneer represents Irving’s incredible 60-year span of activity, beginning from his first acoustic recordings in 1914 to the final cuts made in his home in August 1974. The booklet includes several rare photographs, some contributed by Irving’s family, and features detailed liner notes by Kaufman expert Ryan Barna, examining both the professional and personal life of this legendary performer. List price: $16.99
Anthology: The Original King of Pop
Henry Burr
Released: March 17, 2005 • Catalogue: ARCH 5502 • UPC: 777215108066
Now available in an improved second edition: a career-spanning retrospective, featuring 27 songs, recorded over 25 years by Henry Burr–the most popular ballad singer of the first 30 years of the recording industry. The collection begins in 1903, when disc technology was still in its primitive stages, and ends in 1928, during the early electrical recording era, showing Burr in full vocal power. Duets with Ada Jones, Albert Campbell, and Frank Stanley, trios with Campbell and Oakland and the Sterling Trio, and quartets with the amazing Peerless Quartet-they’re all here on this outstanding collection. List price: $16.99
Anthology: The Denver Nightingale
Billy Murray
Released: October 22, 2002 • Catalogue: ARCH 5501 • UPC: 656605931821
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! List price: $16.99
Anthology: The Original King of Pop
Henry Burr
Released: March 17, 2005 • Catalogue: ARCH 5502 • UPC: 777215108066
Now available in an improved second edition: a career-spanning retrospective, featuring 27 songs, recorded over 25 years by Henry Burr–the most popular ballad singer of the first 30 years of the recording industry. The collection begins in 1903, when disc technology was still in its primitive stages, and ends in 1928, during the early electrical recording era, showing Burr in full vocal power. Duets with Ada Jones, Albert Campbell, and Frank Stanley, trios with Campbell and Oakland and the Sterling Trio, and quartets with the amazing Peerless Quartet-they’re all here on this outstanding collection. List price: $16.99
Anthology: America’s Favorite Entertainers
Arthur Collins & Byron Harlan
Released: January 29, 2021 • Catalogue: ARCH 5507 • UPC: 860003210031
Before Phil and Don Everly, before Simon and Garfunkel, long before Hall and Oates . . . the most popular recording duo over the first quarter of the 20th century was the team of Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan. Dubbed “America’s Favorite Entertainers” as they crisscrossed America in the late 1910s and early 1920s promoting Edison’s superior talking machines, Collins and Harlan came face to face with the thousands of ordinary people who bought the records that became the comical soundtrack of a generation. They represented the best and the worst of popular culture: advancing the career of Jewish émigré Irving Berlin and Black songwriters such as Chris Smith, W.C. Handy, and Shelton Brooks, while also perpetuating racist stereotypes. The issues, as usual, are thorny, but Archeophone tackles them with care and honesty. GRAMMY-recognized authors Ryan Barna and Richard Martin present the clear-eyed but accurate case of these two rough-and-ready unlikely partners who also became friends and took the phonograph by storm. Over 29 tracks, we lead you from 1902 to 1924, depicting a story that has never been told in LP form until now. Fantastic sound, too—you won’t believe how great these records sound! List price: $16.99
Anthology: Singer, Songwriter, Soldier
Arthur Fields
Released: July 12, 2019 • Catalogue: ARCH 5506 • UPC: 868490000272
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
Anthology: The Last Recording Pioneer
Irving Kaufman
Released: December 6, 2005 • Catalogue: ARCH 5504 • UPC: 777215109469
Irving Kaufman, Anthology: The Last Recording Pioneer represents Irving’s incredible 60-year span of activity, beginning from his first acoustic recordings in 1914 to the final cuts made in his home in August 1974. The booklet includes several rare photographs, some contributed by Irving’s family, and features detailed liner notes by Kaufman expert Ryan Barna, examining both the professional and personal life of this legendary performer. List price: $16.99
Anthology: The Denver Nightingale
Billy Murray
Released: October 22, 2002 • Catalogue: ARCH 5501 • UPC: 656605931821
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! List price: $16.99
Anthology: The King of Comic Singers, 1894-1917
Dan W. Quinn
Released: June 16, 2015 • Catalogue: ARCH 5505 • UPC: 778632907133
Anthology: The King of Comic Singers, 1894-1917 features 30 selections, taken from rare cylinders and discs, that highlight Dan W. Quinn’s quarter-century in the studio, featuring the up-to-date comic numbers he was best known for, along with sentimental ballads and ragtime songs he helped establish as standards. The 52-page booklet inside the digipak presents original research and stunning new discoveries about the man and his career, illustrated with many previously unpublished photos. List price: $17.99
Anthology: The Original King of Pop
Henry Burr
QuickviewAnthology: The Original King of Pop
Henry Burr
List price: $16.99
Anthology: America's Favorite Entertainers
Arthur Collins & Byron Harlan
QuickviewAnthology: America's Favorite Entertainers
Arthur Collins & Byron Harlan
Before Phil and Don Everly, before Simon and Garfunkel, long before Hall and Oates . . . the most popular recording duo over the first quarter of the 20th century was the team of Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan. Dubbed “America’s Favorite Entertainers” as they crisscrossed America in the late 1910s and early 1920s promoting Edison’s superior talking machines, Collins and Harlan came face to face with the thousands of ordinary people who bought the records that became the comical soundtrack of a generation. They represented the best and the worst of popular culture: advancing the career of Jewish émigré Irving Berlin and Black songwriters such as Chris Smith, W.C. Handy, and Shelton Brooks, while also perpetuating racist stereotypes. The issues, as usual, are thorny, but Archeophone tackles them with care and honesty. GRAMMY-recognized authors Ryan Barna and Richard Martin present the clear-eyed but accurate case of these two rough-and-ready unlikely partners who also became friends and took the phonograph by storm. Over 29 tracks, we lead you from 1902 to 1924, depicting a story that has never been told in LP form until now. Fantastic sound, too—you won't believe how great these records sound! Read more
List price: $16.99
Anthology: Singer, Songwriter, Soldier
Arthur Fields
QuickviewAnthology: Singer, Songwriter, Soldier
Arthur Fields
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!" Read more
List price: $17.99
Anthology: The Last Recording Pioneer
Irving Kaufman
QuickviewAnthology: The Last Recording Pioneer
Irving Kaufman
List price: $16.99
Anthology: The Denver Nightingale
Billy Murray
QuickviewAnthology: The Denver Nightingale
Billy Murray
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
Anthology: The King of Comic Singers, 1894-1917
Dan W. Quinn
QuickviewAnthology: The King of Comic Singers, 1894-1917
Dan W. Quinn
List price: $17.99
| Title | Artist | Catalogue | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthology: The Original King of Pop | Henry Burr | ARCH 5502 | $16.99 | |
| Anthology: America's Favorite Entertainers | Arthur Collins & Byron Harlan | ARCH 5507 | $16.99 | |
| Anthology: Singer, Songwriter, Soldier | Arthur Fields | ARCH 5506 | $17.99 | |
| Anthology: The Last Recording Pioneer | Irving Kaufman | ARCH 5504 | $16.99 | |
| Anthology: The Denver Nightingale | Billy Murray | ARCH 5501 | $16.99 | |
| Anthology: The King of Comic Singers, 1894-1917 | Dan W. Quinn | ARCH 5505 | $17.99 |