Not My Victrola

Pax41 has posted a 1911 recording of "Alexandar's Ragtime Band" performed by Collins and Harlan. Irving Berlin had just published this song,and it is fun to listen and see how the singing styles have changed. Below are the notes included with this record by Pax41:

"United Record A1032 recorded 6/7/1911, this is a Columbia recording used by United Talking Machine Co.

The song was written by Irving Berlin in 1911.

Collins and Harlan were the most successful duo of the acoustic era. Collins and Harlan came to be largely identified with black dialect work but they were not limited to this. They sang comic songs in various dialects, performed rube skits and recorded songs satirizing trends of the day.

Collins and Harlan were the first to record Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band". The choice of Collins and Harlan for "Alexander's Ragtime Band" was natural considering they had recorded more Berlin songs than any other artists up to that point in time. They were also well known for singing syncopated melodies, what Tin Pan Alley called ragtime."