William Thomas Murray (May 25, 1877 – August 17, 1954) was one of the most popular singers in the United States in the early 20th century.[1] While he received star billing in Vaudeville, he was best known for his prolific work in the recording studio, making records for almost every record label of the era. Murray was the best-selling recording artist of the first quarter of the 20th century, selling over 300 million records during the phonograph era.[2][3]
Billy Murray was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Patrick and Julia (Kelleher) Murray, immigrants from County Kerry, Ireland.[4][5] His parents moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1882, where he grew up. He became fascinated with the theater and joined a traveling vaudeville troupe in 1893. He also performed in minstrel shows early in his career. In 1897 Murray made his first recordings for Peter Bacigalupi, the owner of a phonograph company in San Francisco. As of 2024, none of Murray's cylinder records with Bacigalupi are known to have survived.[5] In 1903, he started recording regularly in the New York City and New Jersey area, where major record companies in the U.S., as well as the Tin Pan Alley music industry, were concentrated.
Nicknamed "The Denver Nightingale", Murray had a strong tenor voice with excellent enunciation and a conversational delivery compared with bel canto singers of the era. His delivery was so precise and pointed that his vocals were easy to understand and enjoy. This is why he was the favorite vocalist of Thomas Edison, whose impaired hearing made it difficult for him to appreciate recorded songs.
On comic songs, Billy Murray often deliberately sang slightly flat, which he felt helped the comic effect. Although he often performed romantic numbers and ballads which sold well, his comedy and novelty song recordings continue to be popular with later generations of record collectors.
Murray in a newspaper ad from 1919
Murray was a devoted baseball fan, and he is said to have played with the New York Highlanders (Yankees) in exhibition games. He also supposedly sometimes called in sick to record sessions to go to the ballpark. Murray recorded "Tessie, You Are the Only, Only, Only", which became the unofficial theme of the 1903 World Series, when the words were changed from "Tessie, you know I love you madly" to "Honus, why do you hit so badly?"
Murray's popularity faded as public taste changed and recording technology advanced; the rise of the electric microphone in the mid-1920s allowed vocalists to sing less loudly and more intimately and expressively. Murray's "hammering" style, as he called it – essentially yelling the song into an acoustic recording horn – did not work in the electrical era, and he had to learn to soften his voice.
Though his singing style was less in demand, he continued to find recording work. Some of the lower-budgeted recording companies were slow to convert to the new microphone technology and continued to record acoustically, which offered further opportunities for Murray's full-voiced singing. By the late 1920s and early 1930s, the music from his early days was considered nostalgic, and Murray was in demand again. He did voices for animated cartoons, especially Max Fleischer's popular "Bouncing Ball" sing-along cartoons and the Fleischer character Bimbo.[6] He also did radio work.[7] In 1929, Murray and Walter Scanlon provided the voices for the Fleischer short animated film Finding His Voice, produced by Western Electric.
Murray made his last recordings for Beacon Records on February 11, 1943, with Jewish dialect comedian Monroe Silver. He retired the next year to Freeport, Long Island, New York because of heart problems.
Variety estimated he made between 6,000 and 10,000 recordings in 45 years under a range of different pseudonyms, selling up to 300 million records, a record at the time.[8]
He died at nearby Jones Beach of a heart attack in 1954 at the age of 77. Murray had married three times; the first two marriages ended in divorce. He was survived by his third wife, Madeleine, and is buried in the Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury, New York.[5]
In popular culture
Decades later, in 2013, "You're a Grand Old Rag" and "Shine On, Harvest Moon" would be heard in BioShock Infinite, the former being heard faintly in one of the reveal trailers, and the latter being heard in The Fellow Traveller Pub.[citation needed]
His single "Stumbling" was used in the 2016 horror game Layers of Fear.[9]
On May 4, 2020, musician John Mayer covered Murray's "Just As We Used to Do" with his dummy Cecil as part of his Sunday night IGTV show Current Mood.[10]
"You're a Grand Old Flag" is an American patriotic march. The song, a spirited march written by George M. Cohan, is a tribute to the U.S. flag. In addition to obvious references to the flag, it incorporates snippets of other popular songs, including one of his own. Cohan wrote it in 1906 for his stage musical George Washington, Jr.
Bimbo is a fat, black and white cartoon pup created by Fleischer Studios. He is most well known for his role in the Betty Boop cartoon series, where he featured as Betty's main love interest. A precursor design of Bimbo, originally named Fitz, first appeared in the Out of the Inkwell series.
"The Yankee Doodle Boy", also known as "(I'm a) Yankee Doodle Dandy" is a patriotic song from the Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones, written by George M. Cohan. The play opened at the Liberty Theater on November 7, 1904. The play concerns the trials and tribulations of a fictional American jockey, Johnny Jones, who rides a horse named Yankee Doodle in the English Derby. Cohan incorporates snippets of several popular traditional American songs into his lyrics of this song, as he often did with his songs. The song was performed by James Cagney in the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy, in which he played Cohan.
"Shine On, Harvest Moon" is a popular early-1900s song credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era. The song was debuted by Bayes and Norworth in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908 to great acclaim. It became a pop standard, and continues to be performed and recorded in the 21st century.
"Give My Regards to Broadway" is a song written by George M. Cohan for his musical play Little Johnny Jones which debuted in 1904 in New York.
"Pretty Baby" is a song written by Tony Jackson during the Ragtime era. The song was remembered as being prominent in Jackson's repertory before he left New Orleans in 1912, but was not published until 1916.
Ada Jane Jones was an English-American popular singer who made her first recordings in 1893 on Edison cylinders. She is among the earliest female singers to be recorded.
Henry Burr was a Canadian singer, radio performer and producer. He was born Harry Haley McClaskey and used Henry Burr as one of his many pseudonyms, in addition to Irving Gillette, Henry Gillette, Alfred Alexander, Robert Rice, Carl Ely, Harry Barr, Frank Knapp, Al King, and Shamus McClaskey. He produced more than 12,000 recordings, by his own estimate, and some of his most popular recordings included "Just a Baby's Prayer at Twilight", "Till We Meet Again" with Albert Campbell, "Beautiful Ohio", "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" "When I Lost You" and "In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree". A tenor, he performed as a soloist and in duets, trios and quartets.
"By the Light of the Silvery Moon" or "By the Light of the Silv'ry Moon" is a popular love song. The music was written by Gus Edwards, and the lyrics by Edward Madden. The song was published in 1909 and first performed on stage by Lillian Lorraine in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1909. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era. The song was also used in the short-lived Broadway show Miss Innocence when it was sung by Frances Farr.
"Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee" is a popular song. The music was written by Henry I. Marshall and the lyrics by Stanley Murphy. The song was published in 1912, and appeared in the 1912 play A Winsome Widow.
"School Days" is an American popular song written in 1907 by Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards. Its subject is of a mature couple looking back sentimentally on their childhood together in primary school. The song was featured in a Broadway show of the same name, the first in a series of Edwards' school acts. It was the inspiration for many subsequent school acts, including the Marx Brothers' Fun in Hi Skule, their first major Vaudeville success.
I've Got Rings On My Fingers is a popular song written in 1909, words by Weston and Barnes, and music by Maurice Scott. It concerns an Irishman named Jim O'Shea, a castaway who finds himself on an island somewhere in the East Indies, whereupon he is made Chief Panjandrum by the natives because they like his red hair and his Irish smile. He then sends a letter to his girlfriend, Rose McGee, imploring her to come join him.
Lou Handman was an American composer.
"Charley, My Boy" is a song with music by Ted Fio Rito and lyrics by Gus Kahn. The Russo-FioRito Oriole Orchestra introduced the song in 1924. The most popular recording was released by Eddie Cantor. The sheet music was published for voice and piano by Irving Berlin Inc., and in Australia by J. Albert & Son.
The American Quartet was a four-member vocal group that recorded for various companies in the United States between 1899 and 1925. The membership varied over the years, but the most famous line-up — comprising John Bieling, Billy Murray, Steve Porter (baritone), and William F. Hooley (bass) — recorded for the Victor Talking Machine Company from 1909 to 1913. The same group of singers also recorded for Edison Records as the Premier Quartet, and for that and other labels as the Premier American Quartet. From 1912 to 1914 the quartet also recorded with countertenor Will Oakland as the Heidelberg Quintet.
"Any Little Girl, That's a Nice Little Girl, Is the Right Little Girl for Me" is a popular song, first published in 1910, and written by Thomas J. Gray and Fred Fisher. Although largely forgotten today, a 1911 recording of the song by Billy Murray on Zon-O-Phone Records survives, and is widely accessible because the recording has entered the public domain. It was also featured in a Max Fleischer "Follow the Bouncing Ball" sing-a-long animated cartoon in the early 1930s. The song appears on the soundtrack of the 1933 film Stage Mother. Subsequently, in 1938 it was recorded for Bluebird Records by Shep Fields and his orchestra, with the accordionist John Serry Sr.
Walter Van Brunt was an American tenor known initially for his recordings on Thomas Alva Edison's Blue Amberol Records and later for his role in a scandal involving a stage name and case of adultery.
John H. Bieling was an American tenor singer who was a pioneer recording artist in the early years of the twentieth century. He featured on thousands of recordings, especially as a member of The Haydn Quartet and The American Quartet, two of the most popular vocal groups of the period.
Samuel Holland Rous, who recorded using the name S. H. Dudley, and less frequently as Frank Kernell, was an American singer, pioneer recording artist, and music business executive. He was unrelated to the black vaudeville performer and impresario Sherman Houston Dudley.
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