The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

A rather nice electric late batwing record I've had for years. The labels neither state 'For best results use Victrola Tungs-Tone Needles' nor 'Orthophonic'; the 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions are blank.

'Mountain Greenery' is a Rodgers and Hart composition introduced in THE GARRICK GAIETIES 1926 presented here as an instrumental.

'Cross your heart' features something you don't often hear: a Henry Burr vocal refrain on an electric recording. Song written by B G DeSylva and Lewis E Gensler.

Both sides recorded 27 May 1926. Transfers made at 76.5 rpm.

Click on the song titles to hear them!

Viva-Tonal wrote:
'Cross your heart' features something you don't often hear: a Henry Burr vocal refrain on an electric recording.

Vocal refrains on electric recordings by Henry Burr and Billy Murray are anachronisms--popular vocalists of the spoken announcement era singing the refrain on late '20s dance band records.

The electric recording process showcases Burr's voice very nicely. I imagine that a listener who grew up with Burr's acoustic records would have been momentarily speechless upon hearing his voice for the first time on an Orthophonic record.



Rocky

One thing such records are very useful for, is allowing you to hear more of what they really sounded like, so you can have some idea of what they should sound like from earlier acoustic recordings (and hopefully get them nearer correct recording speed when transferring them).

That's a nicely recorded disc, I wasn't aware that Henry Burr had recorded with the RWK orchestra.

Acoustic or electric, Burr is one of those voices that recorded well, and I find it's character remarkably consistent via either process, or in whatever decade you find him.