A three-minute minstrel show from 1898,
the Alabama Troubadours with the
Ancient City Quartette singing Because.
Alabama Troubadours - Because
Company
Edison's National Phonograph Company
Cylinder #
4701
Category
Minstrels
Title
Alabama Troubadours - Because
Performed by
Ancient City Quartette, S. H. Dudley, Billy Heins
Circa
1898-1899
Announcement
"Alabama Troubadours' Original Minstrel First Part."
This recording is a fine example of the interesting selection #4701 –
part of Edison's 4700 minstrel "first part" series of records.
Generally announced as the "Alabama Troubadours" (and no mention of the Edison brand name),
#4701 was unique in that, as far as I know, it was the only Edison record
whose content regularly changed and was updated.
Not only would the overture and jokes (in this case, joke) change, but the
feature song (taking up half or more of the recording) would be updated –
for example, "Good Bye Dolly Gray (1901), "Elsie From Chelsea" (ca. 1900), and
"Just One Girl" (1899).
This recording may however be among the earliest versions of #4701
because it features a hit song of 1898, "Because".
Another interesting quality to the 4700 series is the Ancient City Quartette.
A somewhat mysterious quartette, probably because its members morphed according
to who was available at the time.
Typically everyone heard speaking in the recording is also a quartette member.
In this recording of the quartette we hear S. H. Dudley, Billy Heins,
Harry MacDonough (or maybe John Bieling), and the bass sounds to me like William F. Hooley.
Confession:
Several years ago, when I first heard the song presented in this cylinder,
I thought it was a hilarious parody because, as you will hear,
the lead is pining about the great love of his life then the touching
chorus mentions his only regret 'is that we've never met'!
It's funny what hearing lyrics incorrectly can do to a song . . .
