The blue yodel songs are a series of thirteen songs written and recorded by Jimmie Rodgers during the period from 1927 to his death in May 1933. The songs were based on the 12-bar blues format and featured Rodgers’ trademark yodel refrains. The lyrics often had a risqué quality with "a macho, slightly dangerous undertone." The original 78 issue of " Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas) " sold more than a half million copies, a phenomenal number at the time. The term "blue yodel" is also sometimes used to differentiate the earlier Austrian yodeling from the American form of yodeling introduced by Rodgers.
35-441: Rodgers' background in the blackface minstrel shows and as a railroad worker enabled him to develop a unique musical hybridization drawing from both black and white traditions, as exemplified by the blue yodel songs. In his recordings Rodgers and his producer, Ralph Peer , achieved a "vernacular combination of blues, jazz, and traditional folk" to produce a style of music then called 'hillbilly'. Rodgers' blue yodel songs, as well as
70-576: A case of cylinders and his dog, named Nipper . Barraud's original painting depicts Nipper staring intently into the horn of an Edison-Bell while both sit on a polished wooden surface. The horn on the Edison-Bell machine was black and after a failed attempt at selling the painting to a cylinder record supplier of Edison Phonographs in the UK, a friend of Barraud's suggested that the painting could be brightened up (and possibly made more marketable) by substituting one of
105-481: A fourth story is that Johnson took the name from the popular 'Victor' bicycle, which he had admired for its superior engineering. Of these four accounts, the first two are the most generally accepted." The first use of the Victor name was on a letterhead, dated March 28, 1901. Herbert Rose Barraud's deceased brother, a London photographer, willed him his estate, including his DC-powered Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph with
140-663: A major part of BMI's catalogue. During and after World War II Peer published songs such as " Deep in the Heart of Texas " and " You Are My Sunshine " (sung by Jimmie Davis , covered by Bing Crosby and many others), " Humpty Dumpty Heart " ( Glenn Miller ), " You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You " ( Russ Morgan ), " The Three Caballeros " ( Andrews Sisters ), "Say A Prayer For The Boys Over There" ( Deanna Durbin ), "I Should Care", and " The Coffee Song " (both Frank Sinatra ). In 1945, he published Jean Villard and Bert Reisfeld 's composition " Les trois cloches " ("The Three Bells"), which
175-422: A number of his other songs of a similar pattern, drew heavily on fragmentary and ephemeral song phrases from blues and folk traditions (called "floating lyrics" or "maverick phrases"). Rodgers' yodeling refrains are integral to the blue yodel songs. His vocal ornamentation has been described as "that famous blue yodel that defies the rational and conjecturing mind". Rodgers viewed his yodeling as little more than
210-548: A vocal flourish; he described them as "curlicues I can make with my throat". Rodgers said he saw a troupe of Swiss yodelers doing a demonstration at a church. They were touring America, and he just happened to catch it, liked it, and incorporated it into his songs. It has been suggested that Rodgers may have been influenced by the yodeling of Emmett Miller , a minstrel singer who recorded for Okeh Records from 1924 to 1929. Singers such as Vernon Dalhart , Riley Puckett , and Gid Tanner incorporated yodeling in recordings made in
245-466: Is a continuation of the Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR) project by Ted Fagan and William Moran to make a complete discography of all Victor recordings as well as adding the recordings of Columbia, Brunswick and other historic American labels now controlled by Sony Music Entertainment . The Victor archive files are the main source of information for this project. In 2011,
280-669: Is also credited with what is often called the first country music recording, Fiddlin' John Carson 's disc " Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane "/"That Old Hen Cackled and The Rooster's Goin' To Crow". In August 1927, while talent hunting in the southern states for the Victor Talking Machine Company , he recorded both Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family in the same session at a makeshift studio in Bristol, Tennessee , known as
315-548: Is available here. Jimmie Rodgers’s first blue yodel, “Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas) ”, was recorded on November 30, 1927, in the Trinity Baptist Church at Camden, New Jersey. When the song was released in February 1928 it became "a national phenomenon and generated an excitement and record-buying frenzy that no-one could have predicted." Ralph Peer Ralph Sylvester Peer (May 22, 1892 – January 19, 1960)
350-657: The RCA Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America until late 1968, when it was renamed RCA Records . Established in Camden, New Jersey , Victor was the largest and most prestigious firm of its kind in the world, best known for its use of the iconic " His Master's Voice " trademark, the design, production and marketing of the popular "Victrola" line of phonographs and the company's extensive catalog of operatic and classical music recordings by world famous artists on
385-578: The Bristol sessions . This momentous event could be described as the genesis of country music as we know it today. Rodgers, who later became known as the Father Of Country Music, cut "The Soldier's Sweetheart" and "Sleep, Baby, Sleep", while the Carters' first sides (August 1, 1927) were: "Bury Me under the Weeping Willow", "Single Girl, Married Girl", "The Poor Orphan Child", and "The Storms Are on
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#1732869280986420-546: The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Peer was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984. In 2017, Peer was featured in the award-winning documentary series American Epic . Directed by Bernard MacMahon , the films featured restored audio recordings of Ralph Peer discussing how he found and recorded some of the first country , blues , and RnB musicians in the 1920s. Ralph Peer and
455-450: The 1930s yodeling was a widespread phenomenon and had become almost synonymous with country music. When members of Kenya's Kipsigi tribe first encountered the blue yodels in the 1940s, they attributed Rodgers' voice to a half-man, half-antelope spirit they dubbed " Chemirocha ". However, this is one theory. Songs dedicated to Chemirocha came to be incorporated into their culture; one recording, recorded by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey ,
490-473: The 1930s, and success came through Peer's introducing Central American music to the world. In 1940, there was a major development when a dispute between the copyright organization American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and US radio stations led to the inauguration of the rival Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI). BMI supported music by blues, country and hillbilly artists, and Peer, through his Peer-International company, soon contributed
525-561: The Making of Popular Roots Music , by Barry Mazor (Chicago Review Press) was published in November 2014. Victor Talking Machine Company The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became
560-636: The Mask and Wig Club, released in April, 1925. On March 21, 1925, Victor recorded its first electrical Red Seal disc, twelve inch 6502 by pianist Alfred Cortot , of works by Chopin and Schubert. In 1926, Johnson sold his controlling (but not holding) interest in the Victor Company to the banking firms of JW Seligman and Speyer & Co. , who in turn sold Victor to the Radio Corporation of America in 1929. The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR)
595-607: The Ocean". Also in 1927, Peer recorded the fathers of modern RnB, The Memphis Jug Band , in a makeshift studio in the heart of Memphis ' Beale St . in the McCall Building, as well as a sanctified preacher named Elder J.E. Burch in Atlanta , who would become the inspiration for Dizzy Gillespie to begin playing music. In July 1929, he recorded female country singer Billie Maxwell . In his autobiography, Nathaniel Shilkret , Manager of
630-535: The Victor Talking Machine Company's Foreign Department from about 1920 through 1926 and then Director of Light Music until 1933, notes that about a year after he hired Peer, Peer asked for a raise, which Shilkret approved. Shilkret comments on Peer's business acumen in making a very profitable trade for this raise: "[Victor executive] Walter Clark met Peer, who sold Clark an idea. No raise, but a royalty of one cent per record side that he would divide with
665-492: The Victor imprint. Victor recorded the first jazz and blues records ever issued. The Victor Military Band recorded the first recorded blues song, " The Memphis Blues ", on July 15, 1914, in Camden, New Jersey. In 1917, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded " Livery Stable Blues ". The advent of radio as a home entertainment medium in the early 1920s presented Victor and the entire record industry with new challenges. Not only
700-599: The artist.... When I heard of this I was stunned. No one on the musical staff had been offered royalty for his arrangements or compositions, and here was a man collecting royalties with other men's compositions!" Peer went on to publish and record other country and jazz artists and songs through his company Southern Music Publishing Company . Fats Waller , Jelly Roll Morton , Louis Armstrong , and Count Basie were on Southern's roster. Then into popular music with songs such as Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell 's " Georgia On My Mind ". The company became influential in
735-454: The brass-belled horns on display in the window at the new gramophone shop on Maiden Lane . The Gramophone Company in London was founded and managed by an American, William Barry Owen. Barraud paid a visit with a photograph of the painting and asked to borrow a horn. Owen gave Barraud an entire gramophone and asked him to paint it into the picture, offering to buy the result. On close inspection of
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#1732869280986770-483: The company to the verge of bankruptcy, Victor switched from the acoustical or mechanical method of recording to the new microphone -based electrical system developed by Western Electric in 1925. Victor called its version of the improved fidelity recording process "Orthophonic", and marketed a new line of phonographs referred to as " Orthophonic Victrolas ", scientifically developed by Western Electric to play these new records. Victor's first electrical recordings, issued in
805-598: The late 1940s, Peer took an avid interest in horticulture, growing and becoming an expert on camellias . He died in Hollywood, California, in 1960. His widow, Monique Iversen Peer, became president of his company, then called the Peer-Southern Organization. Their son, Ralph Peer, II joined the firm in the late 1960s and became CEO in 1980. In 1955, Ralph S. Peer was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by
840-470: The mid-1920s; Rodgers recorded a version of Riley Puckett's "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" in August 1927. Rodgers' yodel had the "steady ease of hobo song, and was simple enough to imitate", unlike the yodeling of other contemporary performers. Rodgers' recording and performing successes in the late 1920s and early 1930s ensured that yodeling "became not only an obligatory stylistic flourish, but a commercial necessity". By
875-449: The name in "His Master's Voice" In America , he writes, "One story claims that Johnson considered his first improved Gramophone to be both a scientific and business 'victory.' A second account is that Johnson emerged as the 'Victor' from the lengthy and costly patent litigations involving Berliner and Frank Seaman's Zonophone . A third story is that Johnson's partner, Leon Douglass , derived the word from his wife's name 'Victoria.' Finally,
910-548: The new technology and introduced its new records and the Orthophonic Victrola on November 2, 1925, dubbed "Victor Day". Victor's first commercial electrical recording was made at the company's Camden, New Jersey studios on February 26, 1925. A group of eight popular Victor artists, Billy Murray , Frank Banta, Henry Burr , Albert Campbell, Frank Croxton , John Meyer, Monroe Silver , and Rudy Wiedoeft gathered to record "A Miniature Concert". Several takes were recorded by
945-513: The old acoustical process, then additional takes were recorded electrically for test purposes. The electrical recordings turned out well, and Victor issued the results that summer as the two sides of twelve inch 78 rpm disc, Victor 35753. Victor's first electrical recording to be issued was Victor 19626, a ten-inch record consisting of two numbers recorded on March 16, 1925, from the University of Pennsylvania 's thirty-seventh annual production of
980-506: The original windows is located at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C. In the company's early years, Victor issued recordings on the Victor, Monarch and De Luxe labels, with the Victor label on 7-inch records, Monarch on 10-inch records and De Luxe on 12-inch records. De Luxe Special 14-inch records were briefly marketed in 1903–1904. In 1905, all labels and sizes were consolidated into
1015-482: The painting, the contours of the Edison-Bell phonograph are visible beneath the paint of the gramophone. In 1915, the "His Master's Voice" logo was rendered in immense circular leaded-glass windows in the tower of the Victrola cabinet building at Victor's headquarters in Camden, New Jersey. The building still stands today with replica windows installed during RCA 's ownership of the plant in its later years. Today, one of
1050-468: The prestigious Red Seal label. After Victor merged with RCA in 1929, the company maintained its eminence as America's foremost producer of records and phonographs until the 1960s. In 1896, Emile Berliner , the inventor of the gramophone and disc record, contracted machinist Eldridge R. Johnson to manufacture his inventions. There are different accounts as to how the "Victor" name came about. RCA historian Fred Barnum gives various possible origins of
1085-438: The spring of 1925 were not advertised as such; in order to create an extensive catalog of records made by the new process to satisfy anticipated demand, and to allow dealers time to liquidate their stocks of old-style Victrolas, Victor and its longtime rival, Columbia Records , agreed to keep electrical recording secret until the autumn of 1925. Then, with the company's largest advertising campaign to date, Victor publicly announced
Blue yodel - Misplaced Pages Continue
1120-651: Was an American talent scout , recording engineer , record producer and music publisher in the 1920s and 1930s. Peer pioneered field recording of music when in June 1923 he took remote recording equipment south to Atlanta, Georgia , to record regional music outside the recording studio in such places as hotel rooms, ballrooms, or empty warehouses. Peer, born in Independence, Missouri , spent some years working for Columbia Records , in Kansas City, Missouri , until 1920, when he
1155-570: Was hired as recording director of General Phonograph's OKeh Records label in New York. In the same year, he supervised the recording of Mamie Smith 's " Crazy Blues ", the first blues recording specifically aimed at the African-American market. In 1924, he supervised the first commercial recording session in New Orleans, Louisiana , recording jazz , blues, and gospel music groups there. He
1190-421: Was music becoming available over the air free of charge, but a live radio broadcast made using high-quality microphones and heard over amplified receivers provided sound that was startlingly more clear and realistic than a contemporary phonograph record. Victor was initially dismissive of the encroachments of radio, but after plummeting sales and much apathy and resistance from the company's senior executives brought
1225-584: Was recorded by The Browns . In the 1950s, Peer published " Mockingbird Hill ", a million seller for Patti Page , " Sway " ( Dean Martin and Bobby Rydell ), and the novelty "I Know An Old Lady" ( Burl Ives ). Then came rock 'n' roll and Southern published hits by Buddy Holly , Little Richard , The Big Bopper , and The Platters . In 1948, Peermusic founded its concert music division, today Peermusic Classical ; composers published by Peermusic include Lou Harrison , Jerome Kitzke , Mario Lavista , Tania León , Charles Ives , and Stefan Wolpe . Starting in
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