Tim Gracyk | "Jane" George J. Gaskin, most popular recording artist of 1890s = Berliner 1615 (November 16, 1896) @timgracyk | Uploaded October 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
"Her Name Was Jane"
OPENING LYRICS: "O bring back the days of the past, with the sunlight of love and joy..."
E. Clark Reed song
George J. Gaskin lived from February 16, 1863, to December 14, 1920.
This tenor was probably the most popular recording artist of the 1890s. He was prolific, and his name is well-known to collectors of very early recordings.
George Jefferson Gaskin was born in Belfast, Ireland. After immigrating to the United States as a youth, he sang in churches and vaudeville. He probably started his recording career in 1891. A booklet titled "The First Book of Phonograph Records," compiled by Edison employee A. Theo E. Wangemann, shows Gaskin recording 18 titles on August 3, 1891, for Edison's North American Phonograph Company. He is accompanied on piano by Edward Issler. Two titles are given twice: "Slide, Kelly, Slide" and "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill." In years to come Gaskin would sing both songs many times for other companies. The same booklet later shows Gaskin recording titles on June 2, 1891 (curiously, this is an earlier date).
For the rest of the 1890s Gaskin worked for most recording companies, singing all types of music--comic, sentimental, patriotic, sacred, even operatic. Nicknamed "The Irish Thrush," he also sang Irish tunes.
That Gaskin called himself a "Silver-Voiced Irish Tenor," at least according to Gaisberg, is interesting since Gaskin may be heard shouting on many early cylinders. The 1894 catalog of the United States Phonograph Company (87-91 Orange Street, Newark, New Jersey) states, "Every record is loud and ringing in tone, each word and syllable distinct, as if Mr. Gaskin were in the room with his audience. For horn use no vocals compare with these in loudness." On page 97 of the December 1943 issue of Gramophone, Gaisberg recalled that Gaskin was "one of the half dozen male singers with a voice clear and powerful enough to record."
The Phonograph Record and Supply Company ("Laboratory, 97, 99 & 101 Reade Street, New York") proudly announced Gaskin recordings in a supplementary list issued around August 1896. With Gaskin's photograph gracing the cover, it states, "We are pleased to inform our patrons that we have secured the services of this famous Tenor, and have now in stock a full line of his songs. These records are marvels of loudness, distinctness, brilliancy of tone, and execution. They possess all of the qualities essential to perfect reproduction through either horn or hearing tube." The tenor gave his signature to this statement dated August 6, 1896 and duplicated in the supplementary list: "I beg to advise my many friends among the users of the Phonograph, that I have made special arrangements with the PHONOGRAPH RECORD & SUPPLY CO., of No. 97 Reade Street, New York, to sing for them all of the selections listed below, and hereby authorize them to publish this fact over my signature."
Gaskin's popularity peaked around 1897-98. Columbia's catalog of November 1896 lists around three dozen recordings under his name (the numbers range from 4001 to 4056), and the company's June 1897 catalog lists twice as many (from 4001 to 4127). An 1899 catalog of cylinders duplicates an agreement dated May 1, 1898, indicating that Gaskin, along with more than a dozen others who signed the agreement, was exclusive to Columbia. The arrangement lasted a year.
Gaskin and John Bieling recorded tenor duets for Columbia, calling themselves Gaskin and Livingston--possibly the first tenor duo to make records.
Gaskin was among the first to make Berliner discs, starting in 1894. He worked often for the company in its earliest years, until the spring of 1897. He then made no discs until he returned in the spring of 1899.
He continued to record regularly into the early years of the 1900s, especially for Columbia, making discs and cylinders for that company until late 1903 or so. "Bedelia" on Columbia 1609, issued in January 1904, was perhaps his last disc for the company. Afterwards, Billy Murray cut new takes of several songs originally recorded for the company by Gaskin. Zon-o-phone's May 19, 1901, catalog lists nine Gaskin discs (9811 through 9820, with the number 9818 not used).
He never worked for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Gaskin's voice, well-suited for any crude recording apparatus, was evidently less in demand after the century's turn when equipment was more sophisticated.
In late 1905 he cut at least one title for Leeds & Catlin, which issued "Sally In Our Ally on Imperial 44614 in January 1906.
He stopped recording for a decade. Using the name George Gaskin (no middle initial), he made a double-faced disc for Pathé around 1916: Claribel's "Come Back to Erin" backed by Balfe's "Killarney" (29115). He also cut "Molly O" and "Come Back to Erin" for Rex 5255.
He made a test record for Columbia on November 30, 1917, but logs do not indicate what was covered. According to Variety, he died of heart failure at his home at 42 W. 56th Street, New York City.
"Her Name Was Jane"
OPENING LYRICS: "O bring back the days of the past, with the sunlight of love and joy..."
E. Clark Reed song
George J. Gaskin lived from February 16, 1863, to December 14, 1920.
This tenor was probably the most popular recording artist of the 1890s. He was prolific, and his name is well-known to collectors of very early recordings.
George Jefferson Gaskin was born in Belfast, Ireland. After immigrating to the United States as a youth, he sang in churches and vaudeville. He probably started his recording career in 1891. A booklet titled "The First Book of Phonograph Records," compiled by Edison employee A. Theo E. Wangemann, shows Gaskin recording 18 titles on August 3, 1891, for Edison's North American Phonograph Company. He is accompanied on piano by Edward Issler. Two titles are given twice: "Slide, Kelly, Slide" and "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill." In years to come Gaskin would sing both songs many times for other companies. The same booklet later shows Gaskin recording titles on June 2, 1891 (curiously, this is an earlier date).
For the rest of the 1890s Gaskin worked for most recording companies, singing all types of music--comic, sentimental, patriotic, sacred, even operatic. Nicknamed "The Irish Thrush," he also sang Irish tunes.
That Gaskin called himself a "Silver-Voiced Irish Tenor," at least according to Gaisberg, is interesting since Gaskin may be heard shouting on many early cylinders. The 1894 catalog of the United States Phonograph Company (87-91 Orange Street, Newark, New Jersey) states, "Every record is loud and ringing in tone, each word and syllable distinct, as if Mr. Gaskin were in the room with his audience. For horn use no vocals compare with these in loudness." On page 97 of the December 1943 issue of Gramophone, Gaisberg recalled that Gaskin was "one of the half dozen male singers with a voice clear and powerful enough to record."
The Phonograph Record and Supply Company ("Laboratory, 97, 99 & 101 Reade Street, New York") proudly announced Gaskin recordings in a supplementary list issued around August 1896. With Gaskin's photograph gracing the cover, it states, "We are pleased to inform our patrons that we have secured the services of this famous Tenor, and have now in stock a full line of his songs. These records are marvels of loudness, distinctness, brilliancy of tone, and execution. They possess all of the qualities essential to perfect reproduction through either horn or hearing tube." The tenor gave his signature to this statement dated August 6, 1896 and duplicated in the supplementary list: "I beg to advise my many friends among the users of the Phonograph, that I have made special arrangements with the PHONOGRAPH RECORD & SUPPLY CO., of No. 97 Reade Street, New York, to sing for them all of the selections listed below, and hereby authorize them to publish this fact over my signature."
Gaskin's popularity peaked around 1897-98. Columbia's catalog of November 1896 lists around three dozen recordings under his name (the numbers range from 4001 to 4056), and the company's June 1897 catalog lists twice as many (from 4001 to 4127). An 1899 catalog of cylinders duplicates an agreement dated May 1, 1898, indicating that Gaskin, along with more than a dozen others who signed the agreement, was exclusive to Columbia. The arrangement lasted a year.
Gaskin and John Bieling recorded tenor duets for Columbia, calling themselves Gaskin and Livingston--possibly the first tenor duo to make records.
Gaskin was among the first to make Berliner discs, starting in 1894. He worked often for the company in its earliest years, until the spring of 1897. He then made no discs until he returned in the spring of 1899.
He continued to record regularly into the early years of the 1900s, especially for Columbia, making discs and cylinders for that company until late 1903 or so. "Bedelia" on Columbia 1609, issued in January 1904, was perhaps his last disc for the company. Afterwards, Billy Murray cut new takes of several songs originally recorded for the company by Gaskin. Zon-o-phone's May 19, 1901, catalog lists nine Gaskin discs (9811 through 9820, with the number 9818 not used).
He never worked for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Gaskin's voice, well-suited for any crude recording apparatus, was evidently less in demand after the century's turn when equipment was more sophisticated.
In late 1905 he cut at least one title for Leeds & Catlin, which issued "Sally In Our Ally on Imperial 44614 in January 1906.
He stopped recording for a decade. Using the name George Gaskin (no middle initial), he made a double-faced disc for Pathé around 1916: Claribel's "Come Back to Erin" backed by Balfe's "Killarney" (29115). He also cut "Molly O" and "Come Back to Erin" for Rex 5255.
He made a test record for Columbia on November 30, 1917, but logs do not indicate what was covered. According to Variety, he died of heart failure at his home at 42 W. 56th Street, New York City.
