All titles available from Archeophone Records.

Off The Record's follow up to their highly accliamed King Oliver set! Cabaret Echoes presents 40 rare recordings by artists that lived and worked in New Orleans alongside 23 spoken introductions by the musicians themselves. The 2-CD set also includes a 60-page booklet with rare photographs and illustrations of the artists--many of which have not been seen since their original publication--and a detailed essay that places the recordings and artists in their historical context. Read more »

With 24 tracks, Broadway's Favorite Clowns features the selections not included in our first collection of the Six Brown Brothers' work. Brown Brothers expert Bruce Vermazen again provides the notes and research, and the set is packaged with a 24 page full-color booklet with rare photos and illustrations. Read more »

Featuring 32 rare tracks that go all the way back to 1892, Masters of the Clarinet, 1892-1920 tells the story of the clarinet's instrumental role in the early recording industry. The set includes a 24 page booklet with notes by clarinet expert Stan Stanford and rare images and photos. Read more »

Gathered for the first time, here are Sophie Tucker's earliest recordings, from Edison wax cylinders and impossibly rare discs, chronicling the rough and ready rise of this lasting icon of the double entendre. A master of self-marketing, Tucker learned long before she became known as The Last of the Red Hot Mamas that the key to her success lie in controlling--and changing as needed--the facts of her personal story. Documentarians Susan and Lloyd Ecker unravel all the loose ends and contradictory threads comprising the early years of one of the 20th century's most colorful stage personalities. With a hardback book-binding and 72 full-color pages, this beautiful package features dozens of illustrations from Sophie's personal scrapbooks, a foreword by Michael Feinstein, and a personal remembrance by Carol Channing. Read more »

With 24 tracks, Sweetheart of the AEF features the almost-complete acoustic-era output of Elsie Janis, a star of the stage who took her act to the soldiers on the front lines in World War I. Sweetheart of the AEF comes with a lavishly illustrated, 24-page full-color booklet with notes and scholarship by our late friend and collaborator, Allen G. Debus. Read more »

1906: "When Things Was Lookin' Bright" features 27 tracks from the year of the great San Francisco earthquake and the publication of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. The CD comes with a generously illustrated 24-page full-color booklet, including notes on each of the selections and an interpretive essay on the events of the year. Read more »

Volume 2 of Guido Deiro's complete recordings includes 25 tracks showcasing Deiro's mastery of both popular and classical material. The package includes a 24-page full-color booklet with extensive notes by free-reed scholar Henry Doktorski, meticulous restorations of the music, and personal photos provided by Guido's son, Count Guido Roberto Deiro. The tracks were recorded between 1911 and 1917 and include the only two accordion duets waxed by Guido and his brother, Pietro. Additionally, Complete Recorded Works, Volume 2 will be of interest to historians of vaudeville and films, as it features new revelations about the marriage of Guido Deiro and Mae West. In his detailed notes, Guido's son recalls his meeting with Mae West in 1959 when she told him the facts of her relationship with Deiro--the mysterious "Mr. D" mentioned in her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It. These are the things she never told any interviewer, and now the historical record is set straight. Read more »

Star of the minstrel stage, singer on hundreds of records, personality of radio and television, and the man who discovered Al Jolson, Will Oakland had a career that spanned more than 50 years. Celebrating his golden jubilee as a performer, he recorded a commemorative LP with stories and snippets of old records and gave them to friends and fans. Made in 1954, this extraordinary souvenir has been the subject of rumors by collectors but has never been available commercially—until now. Read more »

A new animal disrupted the political circus in 1908 when the phonograph carried the voices of presidential candidates directly to the people. Debate '08 marks the centennial of this historic premiere with the first reissue of all 22 Edison wax cylinders recorded by the Democratic candidate, William Jennings Bryan, and the Republican candidate, William Howard Taft. The two-minute duration of these records forced an eager Bryan and a reluctant Taft to excerpt their nuanced speeches and get to the point. Thus began the 20th century's march to the sound bite . . . and the redefinition of political communications for all time. Includes full-color 80-page wide-format booklet with transcripts of the speeches and original research. Read more »

"Ain't Gonna Settle Down" features all 14 recordings made by the obscure but remarkable cabaret star Mary Stafford in 1921 and 1926 and 32 selections by Louisville-born Edith Wilson, covering her entire released repertoire from 1921 to 1930. A handsomely illustrated 32-page booklet with notes by blues scholar Steve Tracy accompanies the two CDs. These records have never sounded better, and for the first time they are presented with the care they deserve. Read more »

Pioneer recording artist Russell Hunting went to jail for what's on this CD. 19 cylinder selections (43 tracks) from c.1892-1900 of the rarest of the rare: explicit indecent spoken-word recordings that brought down the wrath of anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock. Actionable Offenses is a critical edition that places these recordings in their original social and historical context. Featuring an oversized 60-page booklet with complete transcripts of the recordings, annotations on slang and out-of-date references, and a groundbreaking historical essay by Patrick Feaster and David Giovannoni detailing the rise of indecent recordings and arrest of Hunting. Also includes recordings by Cal Stewart, James White, and an unknown gentleman of the 1890s indulging his taste for home recordings. Read more »

Featuring 56 tracks, Archeophone's The Great War: An American Musical Fantasy traces the history of American involvement in World War I by reviewing the kind of records that were released. What unfolds is a drama in which the U.S. transforms through a series of stages: from curious bystander and political neutral to naive dove, then from idealistic booster to jingoistic hawk, and finally from jubilant victors to street-wise questioners asking "What was it all for?" With a 76-page full-color booklet featuring historical graphics, original research on the recording industry and a personal reflection on the war, The Great War is unparalleled in Archeophone's catalogue. Read more »

Fifty-four tracks by 43 artists, and 60 pages of in-depth commentary and analysis: Lost Sounds is a monumental achievement that stretches back to the faint beginnings of commercial recordings and travels to the brink of the Jazz Age to trace the contributions of black artists on American records. Sometimes noisy and raucous, sometimes quiet and austere, these recordings demonstrate the deep involvement and lasting influence of African Americans in the nascent recording industry. Read more »

Vaudevillian Wilbur C. Sweatman impressed audiences by playing three clarinets at once, but he was more than just a novelty. A transitional figure in the move away from ragtime and into jazz, Sweatman and his band were the hottest and the best players of the Dixieland style of jazz that erupted onto the American music scene in the late 1910s. 25 tracks, including the complete Columbia releases of Sweatman's band recorded from 1918 to 1920, along with one rarity, the Little Wonder (5-1/2" disc) of "Lonesome Road." The 24-page booklet with writing by Harlem Renaissance scholar Steve Tracy features an overview of Sweatman's life, detailed and informative notes on the selections, and a persuasive argument for Sweatman's place in the early jazz pantheon. Read more »

With 51 songs on 2 CDs and running for over two and a half hours, Together and Alone is a landmark retrospective of two of Broadway's brightest stars ever, Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. This ambitious collection boasts some of the most classic songs in American history, performed by the pair that brought them to the stage. In addition to a 32-page booklet with extensive illustrations and notes co-authored by Allen G. Debus, the CD includes three never-before released tracks: two by Nora Bayes from 1917 and one by Jack Norworth from ca. 1950—a home recording of Bayes and Norworth's biggest hit, "Shine On, Harvest Moon." Read more »

The San Francisco Sound compiles 25 selections from Hickman's 1919-1920 sessions together with extensive notes by Bruce Vermazen in a 24-page booklet. Hickman's sound influenced big band 20 years later, but you will be amazed at just how hot these guys could play! Read more »

The first volume of The Complete Bert Williams, featuring the legendary comedian's rarest records. 31 tracks from 1901-1909, including several with George Walker: 15 tracks from their 1901 sessions and a further 16 tracks from sessions in 1906 and following. Five selections are featured in both their 7- and 10-inch disc versions, and the collection includes all four of Williams' 2-minute cylinders, one 3-minute cylinder, and one rejected take from 1906. The 32-page full-color deluxe booklet features illustrations as rare as the records, with notes co-authored by renowned scholar Allen G. Debus and also reprints in its entirety George Walker's 1906 reminiscences about the beginnings of Williams and Walker in "The Real 'Coon' on the American Stage." Read more »

25 hits from 1907, the year that American banks suffered one of the worst panics in U.S. history, ushering in a two-year depression.  Features sentimental favorites by Byron G. Harlan ("School Days") and Frank Stanley ("Auld Lang Syne"), comic hits by Collins and Harlan, Bob Roberts, and Helen Trix ("The Bird on Nellie's Hat"), and the first stateside hit for Harry Lauder ("I Love a Lassie"). Other top artists include Billy Murray ("San Antonio" and "Harrigan"), Bert Williams, Ada Jones, Stanley and Burr ("Red Wing"), Enrico Caruso ("Vesti La Giubba" from Pagliacci), and the U.S. Marine Band doing a rousing version of Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag." Deluxe, full-color 24-page booklet features detailed notes on the songs, an historical essay, and rare graphics. Read more »

24 hits from 1922, the year that sales of radios to American homes skyrocketed. The music was also getting jazzier, witnessed by hits such as "Lovin' Sam" by Miss Patricola and the Virginians, "On the Alamo" by Isham Jones, and "Hot Lips" by Paul Whiteman with Henry Busse. Other hits are by Fanny Brice ("My Man" and "Second Hand Rose"), Jones and Hare, Henry Burr, Al Jolson, and Lucy Isabelle Marsh and Royal Dadmun. Features the last hit by Jones and Murray, and the song of the year, the insanely popular "Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean" in two different versions. Deluxe, full-color 24-page booklet features detailed notes on the songs, an historical essay, and rare graphics. Read more »

30 tracks from 1892-1900, transferred from exceedingly scarce brown wax cylinders and Berliner discs. More hits by the biggest artists of the American 1890s, such as Gilmore's Band, Cal Stewart, Dan Quinn, George Gaskin, Arthur Collins, and John Yorke AtLee. Standout tracks include the hitherto unattested cylinder of "Silver Threads Among the Gold" by J. W. Myers, the 1894 recording of "Then You'll Remember Me" by the U.S. Marine Band, an exceptional copy of "Casey at the Telephone," ca. 1896 by Russell Hunting, and the ultra-rare "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow" ca. 1892 by Silas Leachman for the North American Phonograph Company of Chicago. The deluxe 24-page booklet includes lyrics and bios and pictures of selected songwriters, a timeline of when the songs first hit big, and an historical essay focusing on major technological innovations of the decade. Companion volume to ARCH 9004. Read more »

24 hits from 1913, the year that Henry Ford rolled out his first fully operational assembly line. Big songs by Alan Turner, Ada Jones ("Row! Row! Row!"), Al Jolson's first sides for Columbia ("Pullman Porters Parade" and "You Made Me Love You"), the Peerless Quartet, Campbell and Burr doing "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine", Charles Harrison with "Peg O' My Heart," and spirited numbers by Prince's Band ("Too Much Mustard") and the American Quartet, plus many more. Deluxe, full-color 24-page booklet features detailed notes on the songs, an historical essay, and rare graphics. Read more »

30 tracks from 1893-1902, transferred from exceedingly scarce Berliner discs and brown wax cylinders, with top artists such as Dan W. Quinn ("The Band Played On"), George J. Gaskin ("Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill"), John Yorke AtLee ("The Mocking Bird"), George W. Johnson ("The Whistling Coon"), Arthur Collins ("I'd Leave My Happy Home for You"), and Sousa's Band, Vess Ossman, Edward M. Favor, Russell Hunting, and more. The deluxe 24-page booklet boasts extremely rare photos of several of the artists (many only now published for the first time in over 100 years), artist bios, a timeline of when the songs first hit big, and an historical essay focusing on major social problems of the decade. Companion volume to ARCH 9006. Read more »

24 hits from 1912, the year that the unsinkable Titanic went down and Teddy Roosevelt launched his Bull Moose Party. Big songs by Billy Murray and the American Quartet, Heidelberg Quintet, Ada Jones, Bob Roberts doing "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," a very young Al Jolson singing "That Haunting Melody" and "Ragging the Baby to Sleep," Collins and Harlan, Harry Lauder, and more. Deluxe, full-color 24-page booklet features detailed notes on the songs, an historical essay, and rare graphics. Read more »

25 hits from 1921, the year that the Tulsa underwent the worst race riot in American history. Top songs by Paul Whiteman, Campbell and Burr, Al Jolson, Marion Harris, Eddie Cantor, Van and Schenck, Zez Confrey, the Paul Biese Trio and Frank Crumit, Isham Jones, and Vernon Dalhart. 24-page color booklet features detailed notes on the songs, an historical essay, and rare graphics. Read more »

24 hits from 1920, the year that national Prohibition and women's suffrage took effect. Top artists include Al Jolson, Billy Murray, Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, Van and Schenck, John Steel, Selvin's Novelty Orchestra, Nora Bayes, and Art Hickman's Orchestra. 24-page color booklet features detailed notes on the songs, an historical essay, and rare graphics. Read more »

29 songs from 1898-1923, 28-page booklet with historical notes, artist bios, and rare graphics. Includes two extremely rare Berliner discs. Banjos by Ossman and Van Eps, raggy marches by Pryor and Sousa, vocals by Collins, American Quartet, and 'Gene Greene, and much more. These are the ragtime records people heard during the genre's formative years. Read more »

Complete releases from sessions between September 1920 and September 1921 in Camden and Chicago; 26 tracks and over 79 minutes total. A packed 28-page booklet reveals previously unknown details about the life and business of impresario Edgar A. Benson, the man who controlled the dance-band scene in Chicago for many years. This is the band that popularized "stop-time" rhythm and launched the career of pianist and arranger Roy Bargy, later of Paul Whiteman's Orchestra. Read more »

Second edition (2005), featuring newly remastered sound, one bonus track, and expanded and enhanced 20-page booklet. 22 selections, recorded between 1916 and 1919, including one rejected take from 1917, and two final selections from 1927. Marion Harris was the first female vocalist to record songs with "jazz" and "blues" in their titles; she exemplifies the transition from the old school of gutsy ragtime singing to the newer, softer kind of delivery that was typical of female vocalists of the 1920s. Read more »

The third volume of The Complete Bert Williams. 24 songs from 1919-1922, recorded in New York and Chicago, including both "Elder Eatmore" sermons. Booklet now (2005) expanded to 20 pages, with notes on Williams' final years, sheet music illustrations, and other rare graphics. Sound of some noisier tracks now improved. Read more »

The second volume of The Complete Bert Williams. 26 songs from 1910-1918, recorded in New York, including two monologues that were held for release until after Bert's death: "How? Fried" and "You Can't Do Nothing Till Martin Gets Here." 24-page booklet with rare graphics, and notes co-written by Allen G. Debus. Also features the entire article "The Comic Side of Trouble," by Bert Williams, published in 1918 by the American Magazine. Read more »

Complete releases from 1912-1914, with two bonus tracks from 1910 before the ensemble took the name of the Heidelberg Quintet; 26 total songs, including three Edison 4-minute cylinders. Lead vocals by Billy Murray and countertenor Will Oakland. Features a 24-page booklet with previously unpublished notes on the group and a complete reprinting of the hitherto forgotten "Reminiscences of Early Talking Machine Days" by first tenor John Bieling, from The Talking Machine World in April 1914. Read more »

28 songs from 1907-1910, recorded in Camden and New York, with a lavish 28-page booklet containing newly discovered biographical data and rare graphics. Includes all the early rare Victors and Columbias, as well as the Edison 4-minute cylinder of "A Singer Sang a Song," and the Indestructible cylinder of "In the Right Church, but in the Wrong Pew." The former "Singing Cop" from Philadelphia, Eddie Morton was a top stage performer for more than 20 years. Read more »

30 songs from 1903-1940 that provide a career retrospective of the most popular recording artist of the acoustic era. Includes the rare brown wax cylinder of "The Way to Kiss a Girl" from one of Billy's first recording sessions for Columbia, and "It's the Same Old Shillelagh," peformed with Harry's Tavern Band in his comeback of 1940. Features collaborations with Ada Jones, the American and Haydn Quartets, Aileen Stanley, Ed. Smalle, and Walter Scanlan. A thick 24-page booklet contains a biographical essay and song notes by Murray biographer Frank Hoffmann and a reminiscence of Murray by a man who knew him, Quentin Riggs! Read more »

26 tracks, recorded between 1911 and 1927, spanning the entire career of this saxophone troupe that started the "saxophone craze" of the 1910s, and comprising roughly half of their recorded output. Beautiful 24-page, full-color booklet contains extensive notes by Brown Brothers expert Bruce Vermazen, and it includes uncommon illustrations from Vermazen's personal collection. Of special note is the inclusion of three previously unreleased tracks, particularly one in which leader Tom Brown performs his legendary "abandoned-bride" routine--a humorous interplay between a full orchestra and the consummate saxophonist showing his full bag of tricks. Read More »

The first double-CD set in an eventual four-volume series featuring all regular weekly issues of these cardboard records that were the best-selling records during the Depression, along with several advertising and uncommonly scarce promotional records from the Durium Company. The biggest names in 1930s music are here: Ben Pollack, Phil Spitalney, Vincent Lopez, and Duke Ellington, playing as "The Harlem Hot Chocolates." Top vocalists include Smith Ballew, Irving Kaufman, and Scrappy Lambert. More than two hours of music and a very informative 24-page booklet with notes by Doug Benson and Hit of the Week expert Hans Koert. Read more »

Now Available: a career-spanning retrospective, featuring 27 songs, recorded over 25 years by Henry Burr--the most popular ballad singer of the first 30 years of the recording industry. The collection begins in 1903, when disc technology was still in its primitive stages, and ends in 1928, during the early electrical recording era, showing Burr in full vocal power. Duets with Ada Jones, Albert Campbell, and Frank Stanley, trios with Campbell and Oakland and the Sterling Trio, and quartets with the amazing Peerless Quartet-they're all here on this outstanding collection.

25 hits from the year that Woodrow Wilson won re-election to the U.S. presidency on the campaign, "He kept us out of war." Behind the scenes, however, Wilson was preparing the nation for entry into the conflict, which came in April 1917. At the same time, child-labor laws were passed, and Emma Goldman found herself convicted for breaking the Comstock law. Read more »

The San Francisco Sound: Volume 2 compiles 25 selections from Hickman's 1920-1921 sessions together with extensive notes by Bruce Vermazen in a 24-page booklet. The follow-up to our first collection of Art Hickman's recordings, this second volume brings to a close the story of the influential band's dominance of dance floors on both U.S. coasts. Read more »

Irving Kaufman, Anthology: The Last Recording Pioneer represents Irving’s incredible 60-year span of activity, beginning from his first acoustic recordings in 1914 to the final cuts made in his home in August 1974. The booklet includes several rare photographs, some contributed by Irving's family, and features detailed liner notes by Kaufman expert Ryan Barna, examining both the professional and personal life of this legendary performer. Read more »

25 songs from 1915, the year submarine warfare and the sinking of the Lusitania hit the news. Popular songs included the American Quartet's "On the 5:15" and Billy Murray's "The Little Ford Rambled Right Along," Al Jolson's "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers," and one of the most famous war protest songs of all, "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier." 1915: "They'd Sooner Sleep on Thistles" includes a 24 page full color booklet featuring an essay on the Lusitania and the push to war, discographical information on the records, notes on the songs, and rare images and photographs. Read more »

One of the premier conductors of the early 20th century, Pryor was second in reputation only to Sousa, and his band traveled the world spreading Pryor's fame for ragtime, classical adaptations, and masterful musical precision. Guided by trombonist and Pryor expert David Sager, we have assembled these 25 recordings into two simulated "concerts," presenting them the way that visitors to New Jersey's resort spot, Asbury Park, might have heard them in the first decade of the last century. Read more »

26 tracks and a thoroughly entertaining 24-page booklet featuring a new biographical sketch by vaudeville historian Trav S.D. Although he was popular on stage for more than two decades, playing the scruffy but urbane tramp, Wills' recorded output totaled only 26 distinct titles, and they are all here, compiled for the first time ever and sounding like they were recorded yesterday. Read more »

The greatest piano-accordion player ever to grace the instrument! Compiled with the assistance of Guido Deiro's son, Count Roberto Guido Deiro, and featuring the scholarship of master accordion player Henry Doktorski. Tracks range from light classical and operatic to ragtime and the pop hits of the day. Read more »

Volume 3 of The Complete Hit of the Week Recordings picks up where Volume 2 left off and features 51 tracks including the Durium 5 minute records and a number of rare advertising records. The package includes a 24-page booklet with complete discographical information, an essay about the Durium Corporation and notes on the recordings Read more »

27 tracks from 1897-1923, 20-page booklet with historical notes, artist bios, and rare graphics. Includes monologues, dialogues, sketches, "descriptives," and much more from the days before radio. Standout stars are Ada Jones, Len Spencer, Steve Porter, Haydn Quartet, Weber and Fields, Golden and Hughes, Cal Stewart, and Will Rogers. Read more »

27 songs from 1897-1925, 28-page booklet with historical notes, artist bios, and unusual graphics chronicling the rise of "hot" playing in American music over four decades. Rare tracks by banjo virtuosos Cullen and Collins, vocalist Silas Leachman, Jim Europe's Orchestra, and his proteges in the Versatile Four. The ultra-rare "Sunset Medley" by Haenschen and Schiffer is here released for the first time, along with Edison cylinders by Sophie Tucker and Polk Miller. Companion to the book by David Wondrich, published by Chicago Review Press on the A Cappella imprint. Read more »

22 songs, sketches, whistling solos, and band performances from ca. 1902, with detailed notes in a 16-page glossy booklet. Featured artists are the (original) American Quartet, Collins and Natus, Joe Belmont, Harry Macdonough, Sousa cornetist Otto Mesloh, and the Metropolitan Band. Includes original research into the operation of the Lambert Company of Chicago and 22 of the world's rarest records. A glimpse into the culture of 100 years ago. Read more »

26 hits from 1908, the year that Fred Merkle's boneheaded play cost the Giants a trip to the World Series but sent the Cubs to their last series championship. Included here is baseball's anthem, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" by the Haydn Quartet, along with 2 hits by the newly-christened Peerless Quartet and standards by the acoustic-era's great "teams": Collins and Harlan, Stanley and Burr, and Jones and Murray. Also features the collectible hit by Lucy Isabelle Marsh, "The Glow Worm" and hits by vaudeville greats Eddie Morton and Clarice Vance. Deluxe, full-color 24-page booklet features detailed notes on the songs, an historical essay, and rare graphics. Read more »

From the research of Allen Debus comes Monarchs of Minstrelsy: Historic Recordings by the Stars of the Minstrel Stage, a collection of rare recordings by the stars who once performed them in minstrel shows. These are real veterans of the blackface minstrel stage, singing the songs they made famous on stage and performing the minstrel routines that have made them notorious today. Monarchs includes 28 tracks and a full-color 24-page booklet. Read more »

Archeophone is proud to announce its special arrangement with Off The Record, LLC to distribute its new King Oliver set--the finest reissue of the legendary 1923 jazz band sides ever. Taken from pristine original sources, expertly speed-corrected, only lightly processed, and preserved in true flat frequency response: you will hear nuances you never knew were there. It's the next best thing to owning the originals. Contains 37 tracks and an extensive essay, with several unpublished photos. Read more »