What Is With The Rolling Of The "R's" On Old Recordings?

[Squire]

I don't have my cylinder phonograph up and running yet but I've been listening to cylinder recordings online and I notice that it seemed to be the convention 100 or so years ago for the singers (particularly male) to rrrrroll their rrrrrrrrrr's in just about every song. I'm sure this was just the style then but does anyone know why? Did it start with the earliest recordings and when did it seem to go out of style?

[edisonphonoworks]

Many singers were of Irish and Scottish decent. People of the late 19th century spoke with accents as many came here, not too long before,and their parents. Harry Lauder (Scottish) , Billy Murray (Irish) French, Italian, Spanish singers also roll there Rr's.

[A Ford 1]

Germans and Austrians also roll their Rs.

[WDC]

The rolling R is a technique used to emphasize the R in lyrics so that the audience can understand the words easier. As it is easy to imagine, this was quite useful with practically all acoustic recordings. It remained for quite many years after electric recording was introduced and was also used in the late 1920's as a stylistic expression, especially in cabaret.

In in plain German, the rolling R is not represented in daily language. It is only used in some local dialects, such as Bavarian.

[Squire]

The rolling R is a technique used to emphasize the R in lyrics so that the audience can understand the words easier. As it is easy to imagine, this was quite useful with practically all acoustic recordings. It remained for quite many years after electric recording was introduced and was also used in the late 1920's as a stylistic expression, especially in cabaret.

In in plain German, the rolling R is not represented in daily language. It is only used in some local dialects, such as Bavarian.

I wondered if it had something to do with emphasis or enunciation in acoustic recording. That does make sense.

[edisonplayer]

Such as "Rrrruffles have rrrridges! edisonplayer

[gramophone-georg]

The rolling R is a technique used to emphasize the R in lyrics so that the audience can understand the words easier. As it is easy to imagine, this was quite useful with practically all acoustic recordings. It remained for quite many years after electric recording was introduced and was also used in the late 1920's as a stylistic expression, especially in cabaret.

In in plain German, the rolling R is not represented in daily language. It is only used in some local dialects, such as Bavarian.

I wondered if it had something to do with emphasis or enunciation in acoustic recording. That does make sense.

It was also emphasized for public speaking and live performances for clarity before electronic amplification, and carried over into acoustical recording. It was only after the advent of electrical amplification/ recording that people got lazy. Until then, people were taught elocution which emphasized enunciation and projection.

The high pitched tenor in early jazz/ popular recordings was an outgrowth of this.Voices in that range simply projected and recorded better. Thus we had "boy sopranos" and counter- tenors that are completely out of favor today. In the early days, recording studios hired the singers to sing the chorus based on how well they recorded, not necessarily for any other reason. Thus you had singers like Irving Kaufman, Scrappy Lambert, and Dick Robertson because they articulated well and could be understood, and these singers made lots and lots of records with many different bands.

It wasn't till Bing Crosby that a dedicated band singer that wasn't high pitched like Lambert or very forceful like Irving Kaufman or Arthur Fields became popular, and matched their personality to the band rather than the recording equipment.

Singers and spoken word artists that got their start in vaudeville were the order of the day- along with trilled Rs.

[welshfield]

It's more than just the rolling "R's. I hope we all have noticed that added "short a" or "ah" added after certain ending consonants to provide some clarification against the limitations of acoustic recording. Thus we have "kiss-ah" and "fun-ah" and others. I recall hearing an Al Jolson electrical recording on which he jokingly sang with all these conventions just for fun.

[Henry]

The high pitched tenor in early jazz/ popular recordings was an outgrowth of this.Voices in that range simply projected and recorded better. Thus we had "boy sopranos" and counter- tenors that are completely out of favor today. In the early days, recording studios hired the singers to sing the chorus based on how well they recorded, not necessarily for any other reason. Thus you had singers like Irving Kaufman, Scrappy Lambert, and Dick Robertson because they articulated well and could be understood, and these singers made lots and lots of records with many different bands.

Scrappy Lambert is great. I have one recording of him, "My Pet" b/b "Ready for the River," with Sam Lanin's orchestra, on a 10" red Perfect, the only record that came with my XI.

[phonojim]

It is interesting to note that Bing Crosby's first recordings were electrical. He would have had a very difficult time recording acoustically because of his relaxed style. The crooners didn't really come to be popular until the advent of radio and electrical recording, although Edison's acoustic process may well have been much kinder to this type of singing. If you want to hear the difference electrical recording made to singers, compare Frank Crumit's Columbia and Victor acoustics with his electric Victors. He seems to be struggling to be heard on the acoustics, especially the Columbias, whereas on the electric Victors he sounds very relaxed and natural.

Jim