'Honey, won't you love me . . .'--Collins and Harlan, 1906.

[Viva-Tonal]

The full title is 'Honey, won't you love me like you used to'. This was originally Columbia 3451; here is take 1 as released on one side of Columbia A406. Recorded in May 1906.

For whatever reason, in my experience Columbia records in the 3000 range (such as this one) tend to be very thin-sounding and lower in overall level than both earlier and later recordings. This makes transferring them a rather daunting job as what sounds were recorded are closer to the noise floor of the discs, with the result being these discs sound like they are in much poorer condition than they actually are. Even trying to get voices to sound natural is difficult as literally nothing below 140-150 Hz is discernible in the recording; the losses begin as high as 180 Hz.

Nevertheless, I felt this performance was too good not to give this record the best job I could do for it, and present the result here.

Transferred at 76 rpm.

http://www.box.net/shared/3c205psrdc

Enjoy!

[EdisonSquirrel]

The song is too romantic for Collins and Harlan, but they did a decent job all the same. I would have preferred that the Columbia people give the job to Harlan and Stanley, Macdonough and Bieling, or Miller and Werrenwrath. If it's not too late, maybe I can contact Columbia with this suggestion.

I checked my Edison book and note that Edison did not release this on a 2-minute cylinder. That is unfortunate.



Rocky