Billy Murray
Wikimp3 information about the music of Billy Murray. On our website we have 46 albums and 57 collections of artist Billy Murray. You can find useful information and download songs of this artist.
Biography
[Edit]Billy Murray was the most successful recording artist of the acoustic era of recording that stretched from before the turn of the 20th century to the mid-'20s. He possessed a penetrating tenor voice, a strong sense of phrasing and enunciation, and a comic style that overcame the sonic limitations of early recording. The first singer ever to make a living solely from recording, he is ranked by chart researcher Joel Whitburn as the top recording artist of the first decade of the 20th century, and journalist Jim Walsh estimated that he was also the biggest record-seller of the period 1910-1920. He was the primary interpreter of the songs of George M. Cohan, recording the hit versions of "Yankee Doodle Boy," "Give My Regards to Broadway," "The Grand Old Rag" (aka "You're a Grand Old Flag"), and "Harrigan." Despite his success as a recording artist, Murray was not as famous as some other singers of the day because he stuck mainly to the recording studio and did not appear extensively on-stage.
The son of Irish immigrants, Murray grew up in Denver, CO, where his family moved in 1883, and became interested in show business early; in 1893, while still in his teens, he became a member of Harry Leavitt's High Rollers show, a touring theatrical act. It was the beginning of a decade of work in vaudeville and minstrel shows. Al G. Field of the Al G. Field Minstrels, of which Murray was a member starting around the turn of the century, began calling him Billy, rather than William, Murray, since the name Billy Murray sounded more like a comedian. Although he had made his first recordings in 1897 with his then-partner Matt Keefe, Murray cut his first solo sides in 1903, probably for Edison. Typically for the day, he did not sign exclusively to one label, but freelanced for all the major record companies — Columbia, Victor, and Edison — often recording the same songs for each. (In 1909, he signed exclusive ten-year contracts with Victor for discs and Edison for cylinders. In 1920, with cylinders in decline, he signed exclusively with Victor, remaining with the label until 1927.) Whitburn's book of chart reconstructions, Pop Memories, 1890-1954: The History of American Popular Music (Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, Inc., 1986), lists his Columbia recording of "Tessie (You Are the Only, Only)" in 1903 as the first of 169 chart hits. In addition, the book lists 44 hits Murray recorded in a duo with Ada Jones, with whom he began singing in 1906. He also appeared on hit recordings by the Haydn Quartet, the American Quartet (a unit specifically formed in 1909 to back him, which was billed as the Premier Quartet when it recorded for Edison and became known as the Heidelberg Quintet when a fifth member joined), the Columbia Comedy Trio, Jean Goldkette & His Orchestra, the Great White Way Orchestra, the International Novelty Orchestra, Jack Shilkret and His Orchestra, and Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra.
Murray's career was in decline by the mid-'20s, both because of the rise of jazz (or what, in the hands of the likes of Paul Whiteman, passed for jazz in the '20s) and the introduction of electrical recording, which was kinder to emerging soft-voiced crooners like Rudy Vallée and Bing Crosby. Always as much a comedian as a singer, Murray moved into radio acting in the 1930s, though he took another fling at recording on the RCA Victor subsidiary Bluebird Records in the early '40s. He retired in the mid-'40s due to a heart condition from which he later died. By that time, his acoustically challenged recordings had become out-of-print artifacts and, despite his early fame, he had been nearly forgotten.
Title: Comic Jazz Songs (Encore 7) [Recorded 1922-1925]
Artist: Billy Murray
Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz, Pop
Title: Comic Jazz Songs (Encore 9) [Recorded 1930-1943]
Artist: Billy Murray
Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz, Pop
Title: Comic Ragtime Era Songs (Encore 4) [Recorded 1913-1916]
Artist: Billy Murray
Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz, Pop
Title: Oh Gee! Say Gee! You Ought to See My Gee Gee from the Fiji Isle - Single
Artist: Billy Murray
Genre: Jazz
Title: Comic Jazz Songs (Encore 8) [Recorded 1925-1930]
Artist: Billy Murray
Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz, Pop
Title: Comic Jazz Songs (Encore 6) [Recorded 1919-1922]
Artist: Billy Murray
Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz, Pop
Title: Comic Ragtime & World War 1 Songs (Encore 5) [Recorded 1916-1919]
Artist: Billy Murray
Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz, Pop
Title: Comic Ragtime Songs (Encore 3) [Recorded 1911-1913]
Artist: Billy Murray
Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz, Pop
Title: Line in Track 2 (Remastered) [with Billy Murray] - Single
Artist: Billy Murray, American Quartet
Genre: Pop
Title: Cat Duet: When the Song of Love Is Heard (Remastered) - Single
Artist: Billy Murray, Ada Jones
Genre: Pop
Title: Comic 1920's Jazz Duets (Recorded 1923-1929)
Artist: Billy Murray, Aileen Stanley
Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz, Pop
Title: Line in Track 55 (Remastered) [with Billy Murray] - Single
Artist: Billy Murray, American Quartet
Genre: Pop
Title: Josephine in My Flying Machine (Remastered) - Single
Artist: Billy Murray, Ada Jones
Genre: Pop
Collections
Title: Roaring '20s Jazz
Genre: Jazz
Title: Hits Of '22
Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz
Title: Hits of the 20'S
Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz
Title: Boardwalk Empire - The Unofficial Soundtrack
Genre: Jazz
Title: Vintage Broadway Songs
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: Old Time Charleston
Genre: Pop
Title: The Song Hits of World War I
Title: Top Hits of the Roaring '20s
Genre: Jazz
Title: Hits of '23
Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz
Title: Echoes From the 1920S
Genre: Pop
Title: Memories of Old Broadway
Genre: Jazz
Title: Radio & Recording Rarities, Volume 20
Genre: Pop
Title: The Great War (Inspirational Songs of the 1914-1918 War)
Genre: Pop
Title: World War One
Genre: Pop
Title: Best of the Roaring Twenties
Genre: Jazz
Title: Songs of the Great War
Genre: Jazz
Title: Early 20th Century Classics, Vol. 1
Genre:
Title: George M. Cohan: Rare Recordings
Genre:
Title: Pop from the Roaring 20s, Vol. 1
Genre:
Title: Dance Music of 1925
Genre: Pop
Title: The Best Vintage Tunes. Nuggets & Rarities Vol. 5
Genre: Pop
Title: Songs of World War I
Title: The Phonograph Entertains
Genre: Jazz, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Radio & Recording Rarities, Volume 21
Genre: Pop
Title: Drive-In Memories 2
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul, Pop
Title: Favorites of the Roaring Twenties
Genre: Jazz
Title: Wonderful Nonsense : Fun Songs of The Roaring Twenties
Genre: Jazz
Title: 100 Jazz Classics Of The '20s & '30s
Genre: Jazz
Title: 100 Charleston Classics
Genre: Jazz
Title: Keep the Home Fires Burning
Genre:
Title: The Roots of Steampunk (1903-1929)
Genre: New Age
Title: ΣΕ ΡΥΘΜΟΥΣ LATIN CD 8 / SE RITHMOUS LATIN CD 8
Genre: Latin
Title: 1920S 1930s Music Originals (Music From A Golden Age)
Genre: Jazz
Featuring albums
Title: Unofficial Soundtrack - Songs Inspired By Bioshock Infinite & Bioshock
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Pop
Title: The Original Songs Uncovered (Tracks Inspired By Bioshock Infinite)
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Pop