Welcome to probably the largest part of the site's listening room. Here I will present some old recordings of popular songs, music hall etc for your listening pleasure. You can also download these mp3 files. Note that a lot of these were made by me years ago, and don't have much information unfortunately as I was foolish enough not to write it all down at the time!

click to hear the great american early recording star Ada Jones sing Beautiful Eyes, on a british columbia rena record of about 1910

click to hear Ada Jones singing I've got rings on my fingers, a very popular song at the time!

click to hear a very worn but quite odd record, played on the tubaphone. What was one of those anyway, some sort of bell?

click to hear the American Quartet sing all aboard for chinatown on a nice clean american victor record made on august the third 1916.

click to hear Siam sung by the American Quartet, on that same nice clean victor record, made on the third of august 1916.

click to hear Alf Gordon as Arizona Jack sing Hitchy Koo, a great ragtime song, recorded in 1913.

click to hear Waiting for the Robert E Lee, sung by Alf Godron as Arizona Jack, on a 1913 cinch record.

click to listen to the classic music hall song "I do like to be beside the sea side" sung by Harry Fay as Arthur Norton, recorded in 1909 from a quite worn single sided zonophone record.

and now for something completely different,

click to hear a nice early foxtrot, the vamp played in 1919 by the black diamonds band.

click to listen to the great Browning Mummery sing a furtive tear on a 1923 12 inch zonophone record.

and

click to hear him sing sound an alarm, from the same 12 inch zonophone.

click to listen to one of my favorites, "walking home with angeline" sung by Burt Shepard on g&t, which stands for Gramophone and Typewriter. This was recorded in 1905.

click to hear a very funny record, the enfusiast at a football match, by Charles Cardow, from around 1914.

click to listen to a lovely record, Sydney Coltham and George Parker singing Till we meet again in november 1919.

click to hear Sydney Coltham and George Parker sing "You're still an old sweetheart of mine" again from november 1919, another very nice recording.

click to hear a rare recording of blackface music hall star G H Elliott singing with Emilie Hayes (his wife) the song "rock me in your arms and call me baby" from 1915.

and

click to hear them sing "you've got me and I've got you" from the same record.

click to hear florence smithson sing "my Samisen" from "the Mousmé" in 1911


click to hear her sing "temple bell" from the same show.


click to hear a particularly nice song, I do kind a feel I'm in love, by Fred Douglas from around 1913.


and

click here to hear him sing "I'll change the shadows to sunshine" from the same record.


click Listen to the great music hall star G H Elliott sing Louisiana, a tipical "coon song" from 1920.


and

click to hear him sing Ohio from the same record.


click to hear Harry Bluff, one of the first recorded comedians, singing "the night I fought Jack Johnson" a very funny song about trying to fight one of the first African American wrestlers, on a rare Olimpic label record too!


click to hear the bass singer Harry Dearth sing tom o'malmesbury, the only recording of this song I've ever heard.


Parodies of popular songs were very popular in the acoustic era, and here's a parody on the very popular song "don't go down in the mine dad", here sung by Harry Fay, called "are you going down in the mine dad?"

click to listen to this example of a parody record.


click to hear another parody record, this time on ragtime in general called "farmyard ragtime" sung by Harry Fay again, I think this is great!


click to hear Harry Fay sing "they were singing home sweet home" a typical sad and sentimental ballad of the era.


click to hear one of my favorites, I like your apron and your bonnet, a song about Quakers of all things, sung by Harry Fay in 1909.


Soon the incredibly prolific tennor Ernest Pike will have his own page on this site, he definitely deserves one! but for now

click here to hear him sing a lovely old song, some sunday morning. This is one of my favorites of his many recordings.




Here is a great and rare ragtime record from 1913, of Louis Hirsch conducting his own band, playing his own music! You can read about the composer on wikipedia.

click for his wikipedia page.


here is his recording of "Ragging the baby to sleep"

click to listen to my restoration of it.



click to hear the great Hubert Eisdell sing down in the forest, more of his recordings to come!



click to hear northern music hall comedian Jack Pleasants sing "i was dancing around with Matilda" from around 1912.



click here to listen to him sing a funny one, "to cheer him up and help him on his way"



Here are two recordings of the tennor John Bardsley. You can read about him >

click here.


click to listen to him singing "my love's grey eyes"


click to hear him sing "two eyes of grey" a lovely record!



Here are a few recordings of music hall comedian Mark Sheridan, who originated the classic song "I do like to be beside the seaside" in 1909 and tragicly committed suicide. You can read more about him

at wikipedia a nice informative artical.


click at the football match last satterday



click here to hear him sing "by the sea"



click to listen to one of his classic songs, "one of the bboys"