the1920sand30s | John McCormack - Your Eyes Have Told Me So (1919) @the1920sand30s | Uploaded August 2021 | Updated October 2024, 5 hours ago.
Performed by: John McCormack
Full Song: Your Eyes Have Told Me So
Recorded in: Camden, New Jersey - December 11th 1919
One-sided record
The famous Irish-born American tenor, John McCormack, began his singing career within the Roman Catholic Church in Dublin, Ireland. In 1902 he became a member of the Palestrina Choir of Dublin's Cathedral, where he received lessons from the choirmaster, Vincent O'Brien. In 1903 he won the gold medal in the tenor section of the Feis Ceoil (National Music Festival) in Dublin, and began making concert appearances there.
John McCormack first sang in the USA at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. That same year he commenced making recordings. Afterwards he had private vocal studies with Vincenzo Sabatini in Milan (1905). His excellent musicianship and promising voice quality landed him his first stage appearance at the early age of 21 under the name Giovanni Foli in the role of Fritz in L’Amico Fritz in Savona (January 1906). Shortly after, he made went to London, where he began appearing in concerts in 1907. In October 1907, he made his Covent Garden debut in the roles of Turrid in Cavalleria Rusticana, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. Subsequently he sang there during the 1908-1914 summer seasons in such roles as Edgardo, the Duke in Rigoletto, Rodolfo, Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Pinkerton, Charles Gounod's Romeo, Cavaradossi, and Elvino.
In 1909 John McCormack made his Italian debut as Alfredo in La Traviata at San Carlos, Naples. Immediately following his Italian performance, he made his USA operatic debut as Alfredo in La Traviata at the Manhattan Opera House (November 1909), a role he also chose for his Metropolitan Opera debut in New York (November 1910), remaining on the company's roster until 1911 and returning from 1912 to 1914 and from 1917 to 1919. He also sang with the Chicago Opera (1910-1911). During his 12-year operatic career, he shared the stages many times with Dame Nellie Melba and Luisa Tetrazzini both in Italy and the USA.
However, due to a "self-confessed lack of acting abilities," he all but gave up his operatic career and began dedicating himself solely to the performance of art-song... a career move for which he would be most famous. After making his formal concert debut at the Manhattan Opera House (November 1909), McCormack devoted much of his time to a concert career, which he furthered through his many recordings. After World War I, he made few appearances in opera, giving his last performance as Gritzko in Mussorgsky's The Fair at Sorocbinsk in Monte Carlo in March 1923.
John McCormack was best known for his ability as a concert performer, always performing to sold-out houses. One season, he was noted for his whopping 95 concerts performed across the country. With this kind of exposure and popularity, it is no surprise that his recording catalogue spans over 30 years. In 13 of those years, he grossed well over five-million dollars.
John McCormack’s warm reception from the American audiences prompted his application for American citizenship in 1914. This action, coupled with his strong support of the Irish cause, cost him the support of the British public during World War I. He became a naturalized USA citizen in 1919. After an absence of 10 years, he made a triumphant return to England at a Queen's Hall Concert in London in 1924. In subsequent years he pursued a far-flung concert career with enormous success, although his vocal powers began to Wane about 1930. He made his farewell to the USA in Buffalo in March 1937. He gave his last concert in London at the Royal Albert Hall in November 1938. At the outbreak of World War II (1939), he came out of retirement to aid the Red Cross. He sang on the radio; continued to make recordings until 1942. He received a number of honors, including being made a Papal Count by Pope Pius XI in 1928. He was also honored by composer Victor Herbert to create the role of Lieutenant Paul Merrill in his opera Natoma. In 1915 he published his autobiography, "John McCormack: His life story."
McCormack originally ended his career at the Royal Albert Hall in London, during 1938. However, one year after that farewell concert, he was back singing for the Red Cross and in support of the war effort. He gave concerts, toured, broadcast and recorded in this capacity until 1943 when poor health finally forced him to retire permanently.
Ill with emphysema, he bought a house near the sea, "Glena", Booterstown, Dublin. After years of increasingly poor health, and a series of infectious illnesses, including influenza and pneumonia, McCormack died at his home in September 1945. He is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.
Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.
Performed by: John McCormack
Full Song: Your Eyes Have Told Me So
Recorded in: Camden, New Jersey - December 11th 1919
One-sided record
The famous Irish-born American tenor, John McCormack, began his singing career within the Roman Catholic Church in Dublin, Ireland. In 1902 he became a member of the Palestrina Choir of Dublin's Cathedral, where he received lessons from the choirmaster, Vincent O'Brien. In 1903 he won the gold medal in the tenor section of the Feis Ceoil (National Music Festival) in Dublin, and began making concert appearances there.
John McCormack first sang in the USA at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. That same year he commenced making recordings. Afterwards he had private vocal studies with Vincenzo Sabatini in Milan (1905). His excellent musicianship and promising voice quality landed him his first stage appearance at the early age of 21 under the name Giovanni Foli in the role of Fritz in L’Amico Fritz in Savona (January 1906). Shortly after, he made went to London, where he began appearing in concerts in 1907. In October 1907, he made his Covent Garden debut in the roles of Turrid in Cavalleria Rusticana, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. Subsequently he sang there during the 1908-1914 summer seasons in such roles as Edgardo, the Duke in Rigoletto, Rodolfo, Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Pinkerton, Charles Gounod's Romeo, Cavaradossi, and Elvino.
In 1909 John McCormack made his Italian debut as Alfredo in La Traviata at San Carlos, Naples. Immediately following his Italian performance, he made his USA operatic debut as Alfredo in La Traviata at the Manhattan Opera House (November 1909), a role he also chose for his Metropolitan Opera debut in New York (November 1910), remaining on the company's roster until 1911 and returning from 1912 to 1914 and from 1917 to 1919. He also sang with the Chicago Opera (1910-1911). During his 12-year operatic career, he shared the stages many times with Dame Nellie Melba and Luisa Tetrazzini both in Italy and the USA.
However, due to a "self-confessed lack of acting abilities," he all but gave up his operatic career and began dedicating himself solely to the performance of art-song... a career move for which he would be most famous. After making his formal concert debut at the Manhattan Opera House (November 1909), McCormack devoted much of his time to a concert career, which he furthered through his many recordings. After World War I, he made few appearances in opera, giving his last performance as Gritzko in Mussorgsky's The Fair at Sorocbinsk in Monte Carlo in March 1923.
John McCormack was best known for his ability as a concert performer, always performing to sold-out houses. One season, he was noted for his whopping 95 concerts performed across the country. With this kind of exposure and popularity, it is no surprise that his recording catalogue spans over 30 years. In 13 of those years, he grossed well over five-million dollars.
John McCormack’s warm reception from the American audiences prompted his application for American citizenship in 1914. This action, coupled with his strong support of the Irish cause, cost him the support of the British public during World War I. He became a naturalized USA citizen in 1919. After an absence of 10 years, he made a triumphant return to England at a Queen's Hall Concert in London in 1924. In subsequent years he pursued a far-flung concert career with enormous success, although his vocal powers began to Wane about 1930. He made his farewell to the USA in Buffalo in March 1937. He gave his last concert in London at the Royal Albert Hall in November 1938. At the outbreak of World War II (1939), he came out of retirement to aid the Red Cross. He sang on the radio; continued to make recordings until 1942. He received a number of honors, including being made a Papal Count by Pope Pius XI in 1928. He was also honored by composer Victor Herbert to create the role of Lieutenant Paul Merrill in his opera Natoma. In 1915 he published his autobiography, "John McCormack: His life story."
McCormack originally ended his career at the Royal Albert Hall in London, during 1938. However, one year after that farewell concert, he was back singing for the Red Cross and in support of the war effort. He gave concerts, toured, broadcast and recorded in this capacity until 1943 when poor health finally forced him to retire permanently.
Ill with emphysema, he bought a house near the sea, "Glena", Booterstown, Dublin. After years of increasingly poor health, and a series of infectious illnesses, including influenza and pneumonia, McCormack died at his home in September 1945. He is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.
Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.
![Aldo Masseglia & Meme Bianchi - Cuore A Cuor [Heart to Heart] (1936)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sDK7y8yL7qM/hqdefault.jpg "Aldo Masseglia & Meme Bianchi - Cuore A Cuor [Heart to Heart] (1936)
Performed by: Aldo Masseglia & Meme Bianchi
Full Song Title: Cuore A Cuor
Recorded in: 1936
Some of you may recognize this iconic song, this is a cover and Aldo Masseglias own interpretation of Fred Astaires - Cheek to Cheek from the movie Top Hat (1935).
Aldo Masseglia (La Spezia, 5 October 1903 - Lodi, 2 September 1978) was a popular Italian singer of the 1930s.
He began his career in the early thirties as a violinist, playing in various orchestral formations, until he revealed good singing skills that allowed him to enter the EIAR in Turin in 1936, in the Barzizza orchestra.
Here he met and married the Milanese singer Nuccia Natali, from whom, in 1943, he had a daughter, Rosella Masseglia Natali, who was an appreciated pop singer in the sixties.
He also participated in the famous radio broadcasts The Four Musketeers, where he played the role of Athos, and The Phantom Microphone, both conceived by Nizza and Morbelli.
In 1938 he left the radio to devote himself to musical performances, giving way to Alberto Rabagliati.
His most significant interpretations are: Cuore A Cuor, Tu che ti chiami amor, Vele, Cinquantanni fa, Gioventù, Lasciati andare, Villanella, Faccetta nera, Francescamaria, Me ne frego, Ritorna il legionario, Bandiere al sole e Ti saluto and e vado in Abissinia.
Meme Bianchi, born Magda Merope Bianchi (Porto Ceresio, April 26, 1907 - Milan, October 25, 2000), was a popular Italian singer of the 1930s.
She inherited the ability to sing from her mother, Ida Viale, an opera singer, and from her grandmother, Merope Bavestrelli Bianchi, also an opera singer. From her grandmother she also inherited her middle name, which as a child she could not pronounce, she used to pronounce Merope as Meme and from thereon Meme became her nickname.
She grew up in Porto Ceresio and obtained a primary school teacher diploma, but her father did not want her to take up the teaching profession, so as a young woman she began to work in her fathers customs office at the train station.
In the years between the word war one and world war two, some of her family members in Porto Ceresio had started a theater company and in the summer they performed stage plays in the newly built theater. At the end of the show, the audience asked Meme to sing and one evening in 1933, a talent scout for a record label, offered her to audition in Milan. Under the pretext of running some errands, Meme auditioned and got a record deal thanks to her great vocal range, her soft voice and her clear diction.
She recorded hundreds of records, many under the orchestral direction of Mario Mariotti, who would later become her husband. She becomes the first singer of EIAR, performing with the famous orchestras of Petralia and Barzizza. On the radio she played operettas such as Al Cavallino Bianco and The Four Musketeers, the famous broadcast show with Nunzio Filogamo linked to a prized competition.
She also made numerous recordings with the orchestra of Maestro Enzo Ceragioli for the Odeon label.
In 1936 she was with the group Schwarz. Singer/actress in the Bertoldissimo stage play. In Greece she inaugurated Radio Athens and in Switzerland Radio Monteceneri; she went on many tours throughout Italy and abroad with the group I Divi del Microphone.
In 1939, at the church of SantAmbrogio in Porto Ceresio, she married maestro Mario Mariotti (1889-1975), composer, arranger and director of the Odeon record label, for whom she recorded at the time.
At the outbreak of the war she continued to perform in the theater and for soldiers she gave recitals accompanied by a single accordion, one of such performances was on the destroyer Grecale. As a thank you, the sailors lined up in a row in front of her and they gave her their rations of coffee.
In 1958 she retired to her hometown, resuming her job at her fathers customs office at the the train station.She passed away in Milan on 25 October 2000.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.
Best wishes,
Stu
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.")
![Rudy Wiedoeft - Valse Vanité [Vanity Waltz] (1925)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sGIQztUy13E/hqdefault.jpg "Rudy Wiedoeft - Valse Vanité [Vanity Waltz] (1925)
Performed by: Rudy Wiedoeft
Full Song: Valse Vanité
Recorded in: New York, NY - August 12th 1925
Flip side of: https://youtu.be/b65wbm2nauE
Rudolph Cornelius Wiedoeft (born January 3, 1893 – died February 18, 1940) was an American saxophonist of the 1920s and 30s.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of German immigrants, at a young age Wiedoeft started playing with his family orchestra, first using a violin, then a clarinet. He relocated to New York City and, after a series of successful clarinet recordings with his Frisco Jass Band, switched to saxophone, then still an unusual instrument. He became known as a virtuoso saxophonist during the 1910s, made more than 300 recordings for many different record companies, and did much to popularize the saxophone as an instrument in both the U.S. and overseas. His main instrument was the C melody saxophone, a variety which was immensely popular from the 1910s until about 1930. He also played and recorded sometimes using E-flat alto and B-flat soprano saxophones as well.
His style was noted for very rapid runs of well-articulated notes in between long legato phrases in a ragtime influenced style. The rapidly articulated notes were made possible by the advanced techniques of double-tonguing and triple-tonguing, similar to those used by brass (trumpet, trombone, etc.) players and flutists. He was also known for his style of vibrato, which was very wide during the later years of his playing. During his earlier years, Wiedoefts use of vibrato was quite spare. Wiedoeft employed several other sound effects, such as slap tonguing and laughing (altering/bending the pitch of the note) through his horn, and alongside his very distinguishable vibrato, became a part of his musical repertoire. While he incorporated some elements of early jazz into his playing, he remained stylistically a pre-jazz artist. Some of his original compositions were successes, notably Valse Erica, Valse Llewellyn, Saxema, Saxophobia, and Sax-o-Phun.
He remained a very popular entertainer into the 1920s and performed regularly by radio, but his style started to sound more and more dated to the public as his career continued into the 1930s. He worked for a while in Rudy Vallees band, then for a while in France. From the mid-1930s on, he essentially stopped playing and was involved in several mining investments that were not successful.
Rudy and his wife Mary Wiedoeft had a difficult relationship partially due to difficulties of maintaining their rather flamboyant lifestyle and alcohol abuse. During 1937, he was nearly killed when he was stabbed by his wife. The couple reconciled, however, and during the same year, Rudy made his last radio performance.
He died in Flushing, New York, on February 18, 1940, from cirrhosis of the liver.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.
Best wishes,
Stu
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.")
![Walter Kollo - Am schönsten ist´s bei Muttern! [Theres no place like mothers!] (1915)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sQADJyAQTgA/hqdefault.jpg "Walter Kollo - Am schönsten ist´s bei Muttern! [Theres no place like mothers!] (1915)
Performed by: Walter Kollo
Full Song Title: Am schönsten ist´s bei Muttern!
Recorded in: October 23, 1915 Berliner Theater, Berlin - Imperial Germany
Flip side of: https://youtu.be/fj2XIKzoQcs
Walter Kollo ( born 28 January 1878 – died 30 September 1940) was a German composer of operettas, Possen mit Gesang, and Singspiele as well as popular songs. He was also a conductor and a music publisher.
Kollo was born in Neidenburg, East Prussia. His best known work, the operetta Wie einst im Mai (1913), was the basis of a 1917 Sigmund Romberg operetta in America entitled Maytime.
A merchants son, he was originally supposed to take his fathers trade, but was able to devote himself to the study of music in the Königsberg Sondershausen music conservatory with his mothers help. He became a theater conductor for a brief time in Königsberg before going to Berlin in 1899. In Berlin, he turned towards popular / light music, and from 1908, wrote music for the popular musical theater. It was in 1910 with Willy Bredschneider that he composed his first great success, Große Rosinen, produced on New Years Eve 1911. Somewhat prolifically, he continued composing musical comedies, farces and operettas, notably, with among other pieces, Wie einst im Mai (1913; with the songs Es war in Schöneberg im Monat Mai and Die Männer sind alle Verbrecher), Der Juxbaron (1916), Drei alte Schachteln (1917) and Die Frau ohne Kuß (1924).
Kollo also emerged as a composer of revues and sound films in 1915, was one of the founders of the performers rights organization GEMA, and had his own music publishing company. Later he made successful concert tours as a conductor of his own works.
With Jean Gilbert and Paul Lincke, Kollo was a founder of the Berliner Operette.
His son Willi Kollo was also a composer of light music and his grandson is the celebrated Wagnerian tenor René Kollo.
Walter Kollo died in Berlin.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.
Best wishes,
Stu
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.")
