Charles Harrison
11 September 1878 Jersey City, NJ – 2 February 1965 New Providence, NJ
Charles W. Harrison was an American tenor ballad singer.
Harrison studied singing in New York City with Leo Koeffler (other source Frederick Bristol). In 1911 he began recording for the Columbia
Phonograph Company, making a number of recordings that were popular hits of the day: "Peg o' my heart" (1913), "Ireland must be heaven for
my mother came from there" (1916), and "I'm always chasing rainbows" (1918).
He also recorded an extensive operatic and concert song repertoire in English for Columbia, Victor, Edison (on both cylinder and disc),
Emerson and other companies such as Domino, Regal, Melotone, and other "dime-store" labels.
Simultaneously recording as a solo artist, Harrison also performed as a member of the era's most popular quartets. He was a founding
member of the Columbia Stellar Quartet, performing as first tenor until the quartet disbanded in 1921. He was also a member of the
Columbia Mixed Quartet and in September 1925 joined Albert Campbell, John H. Meyer, and Frank Croxton to form a Peerless Quartet that
was an alternative to Henry Burr's quartet of the same name.
Harrison formed the American Singers Quartet around 1927, with tenor
Redferne Hollinshead, baritone Vernon Archibald, and Frank Croxton.
Lambert Murphy later replaced Hollinshead. By 1924, he organized
the Eveready Mixed Quartet for the popular variety show The Eveready Hour radio show. His distinct and
riveting tenor caused Victor Records to advertise him as "a voice in a million."
Charles Harrison was married to Beulah Gaylord Young, another pioneer recording artist. They performed together as members of
the Eveready Mixed Quartet on The Eveready Hour.
Beginning in 1930, Harrison performed on the Broadway stage in the plays This one man, Precedent, The sellout and One more honeymoon.
He lived in Summit, New Jersey, and later moved to nearby New Providence, where he spent his final years and even recorded an
LP in 1954 at the age of 75 entitled, "Charles Harrison sings again". Charles Harrison recorded mostly under his own name, but
also used Billy Burton and other pseudonyms when recording for smaller labels.
Reference 1
Reference 2
In RA format
One of Harrison's pseudonyms was Hugh Donovan... and on this record, we have the rather unlikely case of a
pseudonymized pseudonym!
I wish to thank Richard J. Venezia for the recording (Faust).
Many thanks to Anton Bieber for the recordings and label scans (Elisir d'amore, Martha, Sleepin' pretty pretty).
Selective discography
(Harrison also recorded innumerable popular songs for Edison, Columbia, Pathé
and other, minor companies, and made another host of records as a member of various
vocal groups.)
Edison 4-min cylinders, New York City, about January 1912
1003 Stabat mater (Rossini): Cuius animam 1003
Edison 4-min cylinders, New York City, about February 1912
1033 Mignon (Thomas): Never the maiden dreamed 1033, BA 1994
Edison 4-min cylinders, New York City, about March 1912
1057 Faust (Gounod): All hail thou dwelling 1057
Edison 4-min cylinders, New York City, about August 1912
1503 The palms (Faure) BA 1503
Victor, Camden, 5 March 1913
B-12962 When I met you last night in Dreamland (Rossiter/Williams) 17317
B-12964 A dream (Bartlett) 17321
Victor, Camden, 14 March 1913
B-12963 I hear you calling me (Marshall) 17321
Edison discs & cylinders, New York City, 17 March 1913
2184 Funiculì, funiculà (Denza) 80105, BA 2525
Edison discs & cylinders, New York City, 28 March 1913
2205 Trovatore (Verdi): Miserere (w. Kimball) 82516
Victor, Camden, 9 May 1913
B-13013 Then I'll stop loving you (Piantadosi) 17355
B-13261 Just say again you love me (Goldstein) 17359
Victor, Camden, 24 July 1913
B-13628 Peg o' my heart (Fisher) 17412
B-13012 Alice, where art thou? (Ascher) 17498
B-13630 Rigoletto (Verdi): Woman is fickle unpublished
Victor, Camden, 2 October 1913
B-13895 When you and I were young, Maggie (Butterfield) 17474
B-13629 Come into the garden, Maud (Balfe) 17498
Edison 4-min cylinders, New York City, about November 1913
2184 Bohème (Puccini): Your tiny hand is frozen BA 2184
Operaphone, New York City, 1915 or 1916
Bohemian girl (Balfe): When other lips and other hearts 2006
Edison discs & cylinders, New York City, April 1916
4632 The land of the long ago (Ray) 80414
Edison discs & cylinders, New York City, May 1916
4753-C For Killarney and you (Teasdale) 80341, BA 3020
Victor, Camden, 22 October 1913
B-13894 You went away (Straight) 17485
B-13980 Don Pasquale (Donizetti): Com'è gentil unpublished?
Victor, Camden, 11 November 1913
C-14057 Elisir d'amore (Donizetti): A furtive tear 35354
C-14058 Faust (Gounod): All hail, thou dwelling pure and lowly 35354
Victor, Camden, 3 December 1913
B-14148 A little love, a little kiss (Silésu) 17509
B-14149 Rigoletto (Verdi): Questa o quella unpublished
B-14150 Little grey home in the West (Löhr) 17522
Victor, Camden, 7 July 1914
B-15019 You planted a rose in the garden of love (Ball) 17638
B-15020 Where my caravan has rested (Löhr) 17618
B-15048 Pagliacci (Leoncavallo): On with the play unpublished
B-15048 Pagliacci (Leoncavallo): Vesti la giubba unpublished
Victor, Camden, 25 August 1914
B-15147 Once again (Sullivan) unpublished
Victor, Camden, 10 September 1914
B-15029 Mary, you're a little bit old-fashioned (Marshall) 17638
Victor, Camden, 20 November 1914
B-14199 Macushla (MacMurrough) 17676
Victor, Camden, 24 March 1915
B-15826 Runaway June (Freeman) 17765
Victor, Camden, 6 April 1915
B-15827 Mother Machree (Olcott/Ball) 17780
B-15861 A little bit of heaven (Ball) 17780
Victor, Camden, 3 May 1915
B-15983 Sprinkle me with kisses (Ball) (w. Elsie Baker) unpublished
B-15984 Jane (Mohr) (w. Andrea Sarto) unpublished
Victor, Camden, 9 August 1915
B-16332 In the gold fields of Nevada (Gottler) unpublished
Victor, Camden, 6 October 1915
B-16333 When you're in love with someone (Piantadosi) 17877
B-16609 Little Honolulu Lou (Kailimai) 17883
Victor, Camden, 6 January 1916
B-16979 My mother's rosary (Meyer) 17948
Victor, Camden, 20 January 1916
B-16978 She's the daughter of Mother Machree (Ball) 17948
Victor, Camden, 3 March 1916
B-16980 Kilkenny (trad) 17958
Victor, Camden, 22 March 1916
B-17042 Give a little credit to your dad (Vincent) 18027
Victor, Camden, 12 May 1916
B-17351 The ashes of my heart (Lange) 18064
B-17676 We're too old to go to you (de Costa) 18080
Victor, Camden, 19 July 1916
B-18039 All Erin is calling Mavourneen (O'Hara) 18111
B-18133 I lost my heart in Honolulu (Edwards) (w. Herbert Stuart) 18114
B-18134 Ireland must be heaven for my mother came from there (Fisher) 18111
Victor, Camden, 14 September 1916
B-18369 Nora (Pigott) 18188
B-18370 Oh, for a day of spring (Andrews) unpublished (18348)
Victor, Camden, 22 November 1916
B-18749 When I found the way to your heart (Vanderpool) 18201
B-18750 Any place is heaven if you are near me (Löhr) 18201
C-18750 Any place is heaven if you are near me (Löhr) unpublished
B-18751 Molly Dhu (Frey) 18154
Victor, Camden, 17 January 1917
B-18994 A picture of dear old Ireland (Glogau) 18234
B-18995 Down in lily land (Wallace Regá) (w. Elsie Baker) unpublished (18263)
Victor, Camden, 6 February 1917
B-18996 The magic of your eyes (Penn) 18244
Victor, Camden, 30 March 1917
B-19536 Would you take back the love you gave me (Ball) 18281
B-19537 Mister Butterfly (Edwards) 18282
Victor, Camden, 4 May 1917
B-19690 All the world will be jealous of me (Ball) 18302
Victor, Camden, 4 June 1917
B-20011 Your eyes have told me so (Hardy) unpublished
B-20012 The secret of home, sweet home (Trinkaus) 18392
Victor, Camden, 22 June 1917
B-20083 A study in black and white (Harris) 18351
B-20084 Somewhere in Ireland (Ball) 18327
Victor, Camden, 29 June 1917
B-20308 You brought Ireland right over to me (Ball) unpublished
B-20309 Sorter miss you (Clay Smith) 18351
Victor, Camden, 19 October 1917
B-20883 I'm coming back to you poor Butterfly (Hubbell) unpublished
B-20884 That's what Ireland means to me (Hanley) unpublished (18416)
B-20885 Whenever I think of you (Grant) unpublished
Victor, Camden, 31 October 1917
B-21031 There's something in the name of Ireland (Ager) unpublished
B-21032 Daddy found you down beside the garden wall (Olman/Greer) unpublished (18416)
Victor, Camden, 7 December 1917
B-21222 The land where the good songs go (Kern) (w. Olive Kline) 18410
B-21242 Last night you told me that you loved me (Spencer) unpublished
Victor, Camden, 26 July 1918
B-22180 What a wonderful message from home (Eugene) unpublished
B-22181 I'm always chasing rainbows (Carroll) 18496
Victor, Camden, 4 November 1918
B-22288 Dreaming of home sweet home (Hanley) 18508
Victor, Camden, 31 December 1918
B-22489 I found the end of the rainbow (Tierney/Mears) 18523
B-22493 In the land of beginning again (Meyer) 18523
Victor, Camden, 13 March 1919
B-22625 Waiting (Orlob) unpublished (18542)
B-22626 When shadows softly come and go (Layton) unpublished (18542)
Victor, Camden, 1 October 1919
B-23181 I love you just the same, sweet Adeline (Armstrong) 18624
B-23182 Girl of mine (Freeman) 18623
Victor, Camden, 8 October 1919
B-23196 Someday you'll want me back (Morgan) unpublished
B-23197 The new moon (Berlin) unpublished
Victor, Camden, 11 November 1919
B-23468 When I hear the gate a swinging (Croke) unpublished
B-23469 Life's perfect promise (Stickles) unpublished
Victor, Camden, 3 December 1919
B-23513 Hand in hand again (Whiting) (w. Reed Miller) unpublished
Victor, Camden, 26 December 1919
B-23555 You're a million miles from nowhere (Donaldson) 18645
B-23556 Just like the rose (Bridges) 18656
Victor, Camden, 3 June 1920
B-24150 I'll be with you in apple blossom time (Tilzer) 18693
B-24151 Pretty Kitty Kelly (Nelson) 18679
Victor, Camden, 25 October 1920
B-24658 Avalon (Rose/Jolson) 18707
B-24659 Home, sweet home (Bishop) 16195
B-24660 There's a vacant chair at home sweet home (Hanley) 18705
Victor, Camden, 19 January 1921
B-24792 Look for the silver lining (Kern) (w. Elsie Baker) 18731
Victor, Camden, 18 February 1921
B-24952 Springtime 18776
Victor, Camden, 28 April 1921
B-25241 Little crumbs of happiness (Ball) 18776
Victor, Camden, 10 August 1921
B-25510 Mother, I didn't understand (Piantadosi) unpublished
Victor, Camden, 10 October 1921
B-25593 I want you morning, noon and night (Edwards) 18848
Victor, Camden, 26 October 1921
B-25594 Love's ship (Morrison) 18829
Victor, Camden, 18 January 1922
B-25967 Play that 'Song of India' again (Rimskij-Korsakov/Whiteman) 18877
Victor, Camden, 27 January 1922
B-25978 Leave me with a smile (Burtnett/Koehler) 18862
B-25979 April showers (Silvers) 18862
Victor, Camden, 3 April 1922
B-26166 My Machree's lullaby (Mullane/Schuster) 18934
Victor, Camden, 5 April 1922
B-26197 It's a wonderful world after all (Alexander) 18893
Victor, Camden, 5 May 1922
B-26454 Life's railway to heaven (Tillman) (w. Cairns) 18925
Victor, Camden, 2 June 1922
B-26493 Coo-coo (Jolson) 18906
Victor, Camden, 9 June 1922
B-26453 Pass me not, o gentle saviour (Doane) (w. Cairns) Gramophone 4-4030
B-26524 The harbor bell (Sankey) (w. Cairns) 18925
Victor, Camden, 15 August 1922
B-26833 Call me back, pal o' mine (Dixon) 18944
B-26834 I love a little cottage (O'Hara) unpublished
Victor, Camden, 4 December 1922
B-27097 O Jesus, thou art standing (Knecht/Husband) (w. Cairns) unpublished (19012)
Victor, Camden, 23 March 1923
B-26453 Pass me not, o gentle saviour (Doane) (w. Cairns) 19324
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