Song:Will You Love Me In December As You Do In May?
Album:1906: When Things Was Lookin' Bright
The Haydn Quartet was a very popular vocal group in the early days of recorded sound. They were formed in 1896 as the Edison Quartet recording for Edison Records owned by phonograph inventor Thomas Edison. They changed the name to Haydn Quartet to record for other companies. Harry Macdonough was born John Scantlebury Macdonald May 30, 1871 in Hamilton, ON. He joined the Haydn Quartet in 1898. The group signed with Victor Records in 1901 and had success with songs like In The Good Old Summertime and Sweet Adeline. Will You Love Me In December As You Do In May? was released in 1906. While Macdonough was singing for the Haydn Quartet, he was recording studio manager for Victor in New York. By 1908, he left the Haydn Quartet and after several years at Victor as sales manager and later A & R manager, he moved to Columbia Records in 1925. He died on Sept. 26, 1931 at age 60. Will You Love Me In December As You Do In May? was written by future New York City mayor Jimmy Walker and Ernest Ball who also wrote When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. The song is a barbershop quartet standard. This recording is on a CD that is part of a series released by the historic music label Archeophone. This one covers songs from 1906. In 1910, Victor replaced the Haydn Quartet with the American Quartet featuring several Haydn Quartet members. The Haydn Quartet disbanded in 1914. Their sheet music was very popular in the early days of sound recording. And yes, this is the oldest recording I have ever featured on this blog. Here's a video for Will You Love Me In December as You Do In May? by the Haydn Quartet featuring Harry Macdonough.
Wow.., Frank thank-you this is very old and yet historical. I really did not know they even did any of this way back in 1906. I guess its easy to feel that recording music and singing groups are a fairly modern phenomenon. I keep thinking of music starting in the 40's and then taking off in the 60's which is wrong of course, people have been singing since ancient times. And Edison's phonograph was an invention that caught on right away and was very popular, hence "popular music".
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