A few sentimental songs by Harry Macdonough

[EdisonSquirrel]

Harry Macdonough made his first record in late 1898, and it wasn't very long before he became one of the most prominent popular vocalists on the major labels of the day, most notably Victor and Edison. Macdonough is remembered for his sentimental songs, which he recorded as solos, as duets with John Bieling and others, and most notably as lead singer of the Edison Quartet (the Haydn Quartet on Victor).

Here's a representative sampling of Macdonough's output on Edison 2-minute wax cylinders:

"Good-bye my lady love"
No. 8684, released May 1904
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/ ... l4192d.mp3

"When the flowers bloom in springtime"
No. 9438, released January 1907
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/ ... l7399d.mp3

"On the banks of the Wabash"
No. 1570
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/ ... l2386d.mp3

Note that No. 1570 was originally recorded by George J. Gaskin and released as a brown wax cylinder ca. 1896; this rerecording by Macdonough, under the same serial number, was most likely made in 1903.



Rocky

[Paal1994]

Rocky,

Thank you for posting those Harry Macdonough songs!
There are many, many great sentimental songs on 2-minute cylinders.
Harry Macdonough was a good sentimental singer, but Byron G. Harlan was the best at the time IMHO.

Paal.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

Harry Macdonough grew up in Hamilton, Ontario which is just down the lake from Toronto. The two " sentimental boys" Macdonough and Henry Burr were both Canadians by birth: we're a sentimental lot up here though we try to hide it.
I was reading the other day that Macdonough ended up working for Columbia ( in an administrative way) in the mid twenties . I wonder how that came about? He was a manager at Victor in the twenties, ( one of the grand poo bahs in the A&R Department) but then Eddie King left Victor and went to Columbia too. Alan Sutton suggests there was friction with executive Edward Shumaker at Victor but this is pure supposition on his part.

Jim

[EdisonSquirrel]

Jim,

The Harry Macdonough chapter in Tim Gracyk's Popular American Recording Pioneers, 1895-1925 chronicles Macdonough's high-level managerial functions at Victor as well as his departure for Columbia. However, his reason for leaving Victor is not addressed. It is stated that Macdonough and Edward King worked closely for many years at Victor, and it is further stated that Macdonough "may have persuaded King to defect to Columbia."



Rocky

[EdisonSquirrel]

Paal,

I agree with you that Byron G. Harlan was possibly the greatest of the sentimental singers on the 2-minute Edison cylinders. He was also the most prolific. Songs such as "Please Mr. Conductor, don't put me off the train, "Hello Central, give me heaven," and "For sale a baby" are probably among the best known. While Harlan recorded even more heavily at that time with Arthur Collins, it is his sentimental solo performances that I like best.



Rocky