People entering a music store to purchase a Columbia record in 1900 would leave not with a flat disc, but a cylinder. Its content would consist of a military band instrumental (probably conducted by...
Born Nora Goldberg, Nora Bayes began her career singing Irish ballads. In 1908 she and her husband Jack Norworth co-wrote the immortal "Shine On Harvest Moon," and her recording of "Over There" was the biggest seller of World War I. She first appeared in showman Flo Ziegfeld's Follies Of 1907 and went on to become one of its biggest stars. This song, about the effect on returning soldiers after being sent overseas, and the resulting migration from rural to urban areas in the years after the war, is a prime example of the sociological aspects of modern popular music.
(W. Donaldson/S. Lewis/J. Young); Nora Bayes, vocal, accompanied by unknown orchestra (probably Charles Prince's orchestra); Rec. New York, December 21, 1918. Columbia 78 RPM A.2687 (mx 78218-1); Originally Released 1918