From Sheet music

It's uncommon to find the old early recording stars on covers of sheet music, as this has become an important area in my collecting, but it's a very hard thing to come across, but once one is found, it's an immediate find. I know that the earliest artists of the 1890's all wrote music here and there, so it's not uncommon to find their names on covers, whether it's a song they wrote, or a song that was dedicated to them. I have mentioned this odd ball "Coon Song" on this blog auite a while back, but I just found it again:

Yep, that one. With this thing on the top of it:

Ha! That's just wonderful. Since this was written by one of Spencer's composer friends(of which included Monroe Rosenfeld, May Irwin, the composer of the song above, Barney Fagan, Fred Hylands, and probably Max Hoffmann). So there must have been several pieces of music from 1893-1899 that had this sort of recognition to Spencer on it. I would not at all be surprised to find another one of these. I have found things like this dedicated to Dan Quinn and especially Russell Hunting. Speaking of Russell Hunting, I have come to the thought that Hunting must have become a big figure generally in the whole New York scene after his whole "bust" with those indecent cylinders, as he was on several pieces of sheet music(not pictured unfortunately...) and was recognized in several communitites other than the recording community. By this, I mean something like this:

The thing at the very top is what I'm referring to:

Yep, that's it. This piece was composed and published the year after Hunting went through all of that commotion with the law, so it's interesting to think that it was alright for the composers to still be friends of his. Hunting was considered "esteemed" by Rosenfeld because of his bravery in the courts and against Comstack's laws, and continuing his "Casey" records after the fact. But in 1898, the idea that recording artists and publishers should try to group as one became a fad. By this, we have the firm of:

There it is. Under the ink pen of Len Spencer, came this beautiful logo. 
This firm was incorporated by Fred Hylands in March of 1899, as can be read here from that edition of The Phonoscope:

That's basically saying that Hylands' last two firms were a failure, so he used the extra money from those two to start this firm with simlar people he already knew. This firm was a much more successful one though. He published music to endorse the records they made and sent the recording artists advance copies of the music. Yous can see that he did this because I saw a song Spencer recorded listed in the "New Records for Talking machines" section the month before Hylands published it. That's a dead giveaway. I'm pretty sure that Hylands did this with many more of his songs, just like his "Darkey Volunteer" of which the manuscript he had been carrying around with him for at least five months before he published it. And by the time he published the song, had had already handed written arrangments to the Columbia orchestra and to Vess Ossman.  
This idea of recording artist and publisher always seemed like an easy deal, where both sides of the business would get their share with ease, and some of the money from the record sales went to the publisher, it seemed like the perfect idea, and this is why Hylands wanted this to happen. From what I have found, this firm was even set up in two out-of-country places as well, just like the Columbia company. You can see this here:

closeup of logo:

See it? Toronto, Canada and London, England. I don't know the story about the Toronto setup, but I have this thing here about the London setup:

Yep, that guy. I have only heard vague little things about him here and there, but I guess that he was one of the small empire under the dictatorship of Fred Hylands. Even with all this endorsing of recording artists, such as these two examples:

Hylands was still losing tons of money from this firm, and it was mostly him who was, due to his irresponsible spending, and anxious means to branch out to other countries, which was certainly a pricey venture. All the other members of the firm were wealthy from their inheritance or from recording, and they were mostly "partying" themselves, without Fred. When this firm collapsed, Fred was broken up, and had to sell all of his stock out to other publishers, further slipping him into debt and depression. Even with this failure, the idea of publisher and recording artist stayed with the music business, as you can see this on music published in the 1910's and 20's, even later than that as well. I have a piece of music from 1904 with Arthur Collins' picture on it, here you go:

Sorry the picture isn't very good, but you get the point, it's one of Collins' mst popular songs of 1904 and he's pictured on the cover, for a reason that's pretty obvious. So Hylands' idea wasn't all that bad, but the firm just didn't work out to well. I know of tunes from the 1900's and 1910's with Byron Harlan on the cover, Vess Ossman, Dan W. Quinn,Henry Burr, Harry Tally, Will F. Denny, and of course Billy Murray. So if you're looking for great reference for these songs just turn to the music, for the artists' picture, and maybe for changed lyrics, because it did happen.
To close off, here are a  few tunes with the sheet music:

This song is from 1890! 

https://ia902302.us.archive.org/18/items/JoeBelmont/JoeBelmont-WhistlingSusannaCoonSong.mp3

By Dan Quinn and Frank P. Banta:
https://ia800300.us.archive.org/17/items/edbw-6950/edbw-6950.mp3
I haven't the sheet music for this, but this is Hylands and Spencer's famous "Negro Song Success":
https://ia800300.us.archive.org/9/items/LenSpencer/LenSpencer-YouDontStoptheWorldFromGoingRoundCoonSong.mp3

I hope you enjoyed this! 

The ever changing Greater New York Quartette

Spencer 

Harding

The quartette of talented singers mentioned in this post's title is a varying mix, and there is only three of the quartette's original personnel pictured above. I'm not really the biggest fan of quartette records from the 1900's and teens', but some groups really get to me. The Quartette records from the 1890's particularly fascinate me. One of the few groups that I like who lasted from 1897 to about 1904 was the Greater New York Quartette. The only problem with this rare group is the fact that its personnel constantly changed, and was updated with newer artists every year or so. Their personnel can get confusing if you're listening to them and trying to figure out who's on it. 

Their earliest two years were wonderful, and the personnel of the original quartette was absolutely wonderful. So, according to The Phonoscope, the original personnel of this group was Steve Porter, Roger harding, Len Spencer and a gent whose full name had never been identified named "Mr. Depew". 

Now this first example is one from c.late-1897 with Fred Hylands on the piano, possibly with the original personnel:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/9000/9989/cusb-cyl9989d.mp3

One thing is for sure, I hear Steve Porter and Roger Harding. 

Their harmonizing is absolutely pristine on their early records, I just cannot get over it! It's absolutely beautiful. They really had that perfected. The thing about their original personnel is that Len Spencer sometimes stuck out like mad. This was only because Spencer's voice was a very hard one to balance and blend with singing with anyone else, but once they got it sorted out, he blended well, even though you can still hear the odd deep-throated tones of Spencer's voice within the harmony.

This next one is from c.-late-1897 as well, with Hylands hitting one muffled A major chord at the beginning. This one is for sure with the original personnel, as I can hear that thing I described with Spencer in their blending. It's hard to hear, but if you known Spencer's voice well enough, you can hear it. 

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/14000/14246/cusb-cyl14246d.mp3

How they do it SLOW....

They sing this very slow compared to the other takes of this, but I'm guessing that that was how Spencer liked it, because in the later takes of this by this group were much quicker. 

Also, note! There's some chatter and faint noise of something else far back in the room if you listen closely!

I wonder what that was...

This next one is hard to pick out the vocal tones of certain singers. I hear Porter just as usual, Roger Harding, and I'm not sure who else because this record is to what I have found, the record by them where their harmonization at the beginning is truly gorgeous. I just wish I could pick out the voices better. 

Skip to 33:15 for the cylinder I mean! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI70A5DIU08

The personnel by mid-1898 was different from the original group for some reason. Spencer had dropped out of the group by that time. As the September 1898 issue of The Phonoscope stated this:

"The Greater New York Quartette composed of Harding,[Will C.] Jones, Porter and Hargrave are furnishing the campaign music throughout the state this fall. They are seasoned singers and make a sure hit."

Hmm... I have heard of Will C. Jones before from the Albert Campbell line of the "Diamond Four" of 1897 and 1898, but I am not aware of this Mr. Hargrave. 

By the time Spencer, Hylands, and Yeager had become one with the publishing business(which was March, 1899), the personnel of the Greater New York had consisted of Harding, Porter, Jones, and the young and new Albert Campbell. 

As stated here:

Among the many other famous names we see here, I might like to call attention to three names(not relating to the Greater New York Quartette) that are present here. 

1: you see "Lenard G. Spencer"(bad editing) who we all know it's Len Spencer.

2:Fred. Hylands is mentioned before Spencer.

3: Harry Yeager is listed as the director.

These three names being listed all at the same performance is very interesting.The reason for this is because they must have already been putting together things like this months before they became a publishing firm. It must have also been a great scheme for the three of them to not only perform together, but to announce the creation of the new firm. 

If they performed together as three, Hylands would be at the piano, singing with Spencer and Yeager(as Yeager was a tenor), even though I'm not sure what range Hylands had, but he was indeed a singer. 

Back to the main subject of this post. The quartette's personnel had what was listed above in 1899 and 1900, as this same group can be heard here, with Albert Campbell taking the lead:

 http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/7000/7926/cusb-cyl7926d.mp3

Sorry about the skipping groove at the beginning. 

This one is from 1900, and that's for sure because of the year that the song was composed, and who's in the group itself all line up with that year. 

To close off, here are two more takes of this quartette doing "Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield", one from c. December 1897 and the other from mid-1898.

(There's a short home recording at the end, sorry...)

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/13000/13289/cusb-cyl13289d.mp3

Oh! How Spencer is drunk! This one is really clear with that. His rattling deep-throated voice REALLY sticks out, this is exactly what I was talking about before. 

This last one is a quicker take(hence the thing about Spencer dropping out before!) by the second installment of the quartette from early or mid-1898

(this one also has a home recording at he end...)

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/13000/13309/cusb-cyl13309d.mp3

Hear all of that chatter in the background! 

The reason why I like this quartette so much is because they had a much fuller sound on the cylinders and they always had a great mix of voices, and with the changing personnel, it was slightly different every year they were together. Which makes them more interesting. The personnel changes make them interesting(and easier to date their cylinders!) but it also unfortunately makes figuring out who's on the record harder.They did all of this quartette work years before the "barbershop quartette" era of the 1900's and the teen's hit the record business hard.They are still a pleasure to hear nearly 120 years later. 

I hope you enjoyed this!