Category: Vintage Recordings Pre-1950

Nostalgia Trip: Relive the Golden Age of Florida Tourism Through Vintage Recordings

By , June 23, 2023 6:03 pm
Relive the Golden Age of Florida Tourism Through Vintage Recordings

We’re excited to share with you our latest collection of vintage Florida recordings! If you’re looking for a way to transport yourself to the sunshine state this summer, this is the perfect opportunity. With over 13 recordings featuring the state itself and various cities within it. You’re sure to find something that captures the essence of Florida. Whether you’re a longtime resident or a first-time visitor, these recordings will allow you to experience Florida in a whole new way. So, sit back, relax, and let the sounds of Florida transport you to a time gone by. Close your eyes and let your imagination take you on a journey through the Sunshine State. Imagine if you will the gentle rustling of palm trees, the distant sound of waves crashing against the shore, and the chirping of tropical birds to transport you from your current location to Florida!

Relive the Golden Age of Florida Tourism Through Vintage Recordings

Here are just a few of our favorite recordings from this collection.

  1. Florida by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians
  2. Tamiami Trail by Gene Austin
  3. Miami Beach Rhumba by Xavier Cugat & his Orchestra; Aladdin & The Boyd Triplets
  4. Miami by Al Jolson with the Carl Fenton’s Orchestra
  5. Moon Over Miami by Lud Gluskin and his continental Orchestra

Check out our website to relive the golden age of Florida Tourism through vintage recordings and discover the entire collection of Florida recordings within the Recorded Sound Archives.

Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with what’s new at the RSA!

Please note, due to copyright some items may only be available as a 45 second snippet.


If you are a researcher or educator in need of full access to these recordings, you can apply for Research Station Access


FAU Students, Faculty and Staff can listen to recordings unrestricted by clicking the Research Station icon located in the upper right corner of the website logging in using their FAU NET ID and password.

Let’s Talk About Party Records

By , September 19, 2022 3:50 pm

As part of Banned Books week here at FAU Libraries, we wanted to share Party Records. Learn more about these records and why they were made in the video below.

Here at the Recorded Sound Archives , we have one Party record which you can listen to on our website to get a taste of what was deemed obscene at the time.

To listen to this recording visit: https://rsa.fau.edu/album/56743

And let us know in the comments, what are some other banned recordings we should talk about?

Please note, due to copyright some items may only be available as a 45 second snippet.

If you are a Researcher or Educator in need of full access to these recordings, click here.

FAU Students, Faculty and Staff can listen to recordings unrestricted by logging into the Research Station using their FAU NET ID.

Happy 14th Anniversary BioShock! – Lets Talk Vintage Music!

By , August 27, 2021 7:06 pm

Did you know that the whole BioShock video game franchise features vintage music from the early 1930s-50s? Music can be heard playing on a phonograph throughout Rapture. In total, 30 licensed songs can be heard throughout the game. Here at the Recorded Sound Archives you can discover and listen to 8 of these vintage songs.

This year in celebration of BioShock’s 14th anniversary we created this collection highlighting original recordings that can be heard throughout the Bio Shock video game.

Discover the inspiration behind the video game series BioShock and listen to the ORIGINAL recordings here at the Recorded Sound Archives in the collection below.

Happy 14th Anniversary BioShock!

Happy 14th Anniversary BioShock! - Vintage Music Collection

In this collection you can listen to 8 original recordings or versions of those songs that can be heard throughout the video game itself.

[Click here to visit collection]

 

Celebrate Pride Month with these 5 Vintage Songs!

By , June 18, 2021 2:47 pm
celebrate-pride-month-with-these-vintage recordings-recorded sound archives
June is Pride month and here at the Recorded Sound Archives we wanted to share 5 vintage songs you should know, in some cases we have the original while in other cases, we have other singers who also sang the song as well.

Celebrate Pride Month with these 5 Vintage Songs!

    1. Prove It On Me Blues (1928) by Ma Rainey – https://rsa.fau.edu/track/129948
    2. If Love Were All  by (1929) Noël Coward – https://rsa.fau.edu/track/21779
    3. Mad About the Boy (1932)by Noël Coward – https://rsa.fau.edu/track/35018
    4. Easy Living (1937) by Billie Holiday & Teddy Wilson – https://rsa.fau.edu/track/123567
    5. My Funny Valentine by Rodgers & Hart- https://rsa.fau.edu/track/33989

 

Please note, due to copyright some items may only be available as a 45 second snippet.

If you are a Researcher or Educator in need of full access to these recordings, click here.

FAU Students, Faculty and Staff can listen to recordings unrestricted by logging into the Research Station using their FAU NET ID.

Happy 5th Anniversary Fallout 4! – Lets Talk Vintage Music!

By , November 10, 2020 11:27 pm
happy-fallout-4-5th-anniversaryHappy 5th Anniversary Fallout 4!
Did you know that the whole Fallout video game franchise features vintage music from the early 1930s-50s?
This year in celebration of Fallout 4’s 5th anniversary we created this collection highlighting original recordings that can be heard throughout the Fallout 4 video game series.
Discover the inspiration behind the video game series Fallout 4 and listen to the ORIGINAL recordings here at the Recorded Sound Archives in the collection below.

Happy 5th Anniversary Fallout 4! – Lets Talk Vintage Music

 Happy 5th Anniversary Fallout 4
In this collection you can listen to 4 original recordings or versions of those songs that can be heard throughout the video game itself.

[Click here to visit collection]

6 Vintage Songs Made Infinitely Creepier by Horror Movies

By , October 31, 2019 8:05 am

6 Vintage Songs Made Infinitely Creepier by Horror MoviesWhile some horror films feature blood-curdling scores (Jaws, Halloween, The Exorcist), there are certain songs that will forever be associated with the movies they helped make all the more terrifying. Just in time for Halloween, here are six vintage songs made infinitely creepier by horror movies, four of which you can find here at the Recorded Sound Archives.

First up, is the Jeepers Creepers franchise which features the song Jeepers Creepers playing through the radio prior to the creature approaching and can be found playing on an old-timey radio as the movie progresses.

jeepers-creepers-movie

 

Jeepers Creepers by Ethel Waters Record LabelHere at the Recorded Sound Archives, you can listen to a few versions of the song by artists such as Larry Clinton and his orchestra , Jack Teagarden and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

But our personal favorite here in the sound archive is Ethel Water’s version of Jeepers Creepers.

 

 

Next up is a classic from the 90s, while not necessarily a horror movie we’ve included it in honor of all things spooky. Hocus Pocus features three witches that come back to life after being accidentally summoned. In the movie, Winifred Sanderson along with her sisters sing the tune I Put a Spell on You at the town’s Halloween Party which was originally released in 1956 and sung by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.

hocus-pocus-spell-on-you

Watch the clip below to see Screamin’ Jay Hawkins perform I Put a Spell On You back in 1989 on the Arsenio Hall Show.

 

Tip-toe thru the Tulips With Me record label

Another haunting tune that can be found in the Recorded Sound Archives, is Tip-Toe Thru the Tulips by Johnny Marvin who originally sang the song prior to Tiny Tim which is featured in the movie Insidious.

Tip-Toe Thru the Tulips starts to play as the Demon who is terrorizing this family uses a victrola-like device to sharpen its nails while the song plays on with marionettes and puppets moving about.

 

tip-toe-thru-the-tulips-insidious

You can listen to the original by Johnny Marvin in the sound archive by clicking here.

Next up is the movie Misery which features Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes an obsessed fan who kidnaps her favorite writer forcing him to rewrite his novel.

Misery

At one point, she exclaims with happiness that she’ll play her favorite song in the movie which just so happens to be Liberace’s Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 along with I’ll be seeing you both of which can be found here at the Recorded Sound Archives on the album Liberace by Candlelight.

Liberace by Candlelight as Heard in Misery 3-823-03

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, we have Halloween II with the song Mr. Sandman by the Chordettes which can be heard playing at the beginning of the movie’s opening credits and as the film comes to an end.

halloween2

click here to watch the opening scenes from the movie to listen to the song.

While we only feature six songs, there are tons out there to be discovered four of which you can listen to here at the Recorded Sound Archives.

Please note, due to copyright some items may only be available as a 45 second snippet.

If you are a Researcher or Educator in need of full access to these recordings, click here.

 

 

 

 

Discover Walter Camp the Father of American Football

By , August 19, 2019 1:41 pm

Walter Camp - Daily Dozen ExercisesIn celebration of college football season starting, we wanted to share a recording we have here at the Recorded Sound Archives by Walter Camp known as the Father of American Football.

While working as an adviser to the United States military during World War I, Camp devised a program to help servicemen in both the Navy and Army become more physically fit. Camp wrote a book explaining the exercises and extolling their benefits. This book was later taken and recorded in 1921 and marketed to a wider audience with the Musical Health Builder record sets called the Daily Dozen Health Building Exercises.

The names of the exercises in the original Daily Dozen, as the whole set became known, were hands, grind, crawl, wave, hips, grate, curl, weave, head, grasp, crouch, and wing.

All of which can be heard here at the Recorded Sound Archives, click here to listen.

 

Celebrate Children’s Book Week with Records!

By , May 1, 2019 1:38 pm

2019-childrens-book-week-april-29-may5-subpage

In celebration of children’s book week, discover our children’s collection of recordings featuring stories, lullabies, nursery rhymes and more.

This collection of children’s music was produced mostly during the 1940s and 1950s, a time when vinyl replaced hard shellac as the basic material used in the making of phonograph records. The innovation of vinyl allowed manufactures to produce kid-friendly recordings that could be handled without adult supervision. These recordings became an extremely popular form of entertainment for children in the days before families had television sets.

Here are the Recorded Sound Archives we have over 480 children’s recordings for you to choose from.

Discover our Superstorm Sandy Restoration Project which features over 380 children’s recordings that were donated by Peter Muldavin as a result of Hurricane Sandy, along with our Vintage children’s collection with over 130 recordings for you to choose from!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please note, due to copyright some of these recordings may only play for 45 second snippet to give the user a taste of what this music sounded like back in the day, if you are interested in full access consider applying for Research Station Access. Access to Research Station is limited to educators, students and serious researchers.

Pianist Irving Fields Mixed Bagels and Bongos

By , August 2, 2017 9:52 am

Irving Fields-playing piano

Two weeks after his 101th birthday, pianist and composer Irving Fields passed away August 20, 2016 in Manhattan. He was perhaps the longest working musician in the world. At the age of hundred, he used to play the piano several nights a week at Nino’s Tuscany restaurant in Manhattan. Irving Fields became known by fusing Jewish tunes, jazz, and popular songs with Latin music.

Born as Isidore Schwartz in 1915 New York City to Jewish immigrants, Irving Fields started working as a pianist in the thirties during the years of the Great Depression. In this time of high unemployment, he started playing piano in resort hotels in the Catskills Mountains, and then he found work as a pianist on cruise ships sailing from New York to Havana, capital city of Cuba. In Havana, Irving Fields listened to the great Cuban orchestras, and developed his love for Latin music. Attracted by pictures from palm trees and beaches in travel magazines, Irving decided to settle in Miami Beach and performed in hotels playing dinner music, and did sessions with local orchestras.

After joining the army, he began the Irving Fields Trio, with a bass and a drummer, and started composing his own songs. In 1947, his song Miami Beach Rhumba became a big success by versions of Kay Kyser, Freddy Martin, Carmen Miranda, and even by the popular band leader Xavier Cugat. During the Latin craze trend in the 40s, Irving Fields was at the right time and place, and soon Miami Beach Rhumba was followed by the number one hit song Managua, Nicaragua (1947) recorded by big band leader Guy Lombardo, and ten years later by Chantez-Chantez (1957) by singer Dinah Shore.

Bagels and Bongos - Irving Fields TrioIn 1959, the Irving Fields Trio recorded the album Bagels and Bongos blending popular Jewish tunes with Latin rhythms such as Bei Mir Bist Du Schön as a mambo, Havannah Negila a paso doble, and I Love You Much Too Much a rhumba. The album became a big hit all over the world, and was followed by the albums More Bagels and Bongos (1960), Pizzas and Bongos (Italian traditionals), Champagne and Bongos (with French standards), and Bikinis and Bongos (with Hawaiian music). Every song was mixed with a Latin beat, which turned out to be a story of success.

After the success with his trio in the sixties, Irving Fields went back working as a solo pianist on cruise ships again, where he sailed the whole world, and finally settled as a music entertainer in restaurants, from 2004 six nights a week in Nino’s Tuscany, Manhattan. This would become the place, where he started his second career.

In the last decade, several films appeared about Fields playing piano on YouTube. These films form a good impression of his talent, wisdom, and humor. Although Irving Fields was not a user of a computer or the Internet, he did compose the YouTube theme song.

 

Regarding my research about the influence of Jewish tunes in American popular song, I contacted Irving Fields, and then I received several handwritten letters from him. At my birthday March 2010, I met Irving Fields and his lovely wife Ruth in person in Nino’s Tuscany restaurant, where he entertained the guests with his music. From my letters, he knew that I should visit him this special evening. To my surprise, he welcomed me with a newly composed personal anniversary song. When listening to his music and talking to him, I knew that I was close to one of the last persons, already in his nineties, who could tell me first-hand about the history of popular music in the Tin Pan Alley period before the second World War.

 

Irving Fields and Niels Falch at Nino's

Irving Fields and Niels Falch at Nino’s

Of course, I also asked him about his secret for longevity, and he replied with more than ten rules. The first three rules for longevity are; (1) Have a sense of humor (you’ll never get ulcers), (2) Think of these three magic letters before you make a decision: L.T.D. Look, Think and Do, and (3) Be the first to say “hello” with a smile on your face and a friendly glow. Following these rules during his life, Irving Fields became ultimately 101 years young.

Even U.S. President Donald J. Trump admired Irving Fields, and shared one of his secrets for longevity: “Irving has said that work is a blessing, especially when you like your work. He loves his work, and that love is evident in his music. Irving is a great pro.”

Irving Fields will be remembered as the pianist who blended bagels and bongos, although he never had a way to play a bagel…

You can listen to over 30 recordings by Irving Fields on the Recorded Sound Archives website by clicking here.

 

RSA Guest Blogger, Niels Falch, is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and is currently writing a dissertation on the influence of Jewish music in American popular songs.

Please note, due to copyright some of these recordings may only play for 45 second snippet to give the user a taste of what this music sounded like back in the day, if you are interested in full access considering applying for Research Station Access. Access to Research Station is limited to educators, students and serious researchers.

Vintage Songs About Fourth of July – Independence Day

By , June 30, 2017 5:52 pm

Vintage Songs about Fourth of JulyCelebrate this Fourth of July by listening and discovering some vintage songs from the early 1900s. Listen to a funny monologue and learn how the Fourth of July was celebrated at the Pun’kin Center back in 1915 or learn more about the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and other Americana.

Below you will find a list of 5 songs and albums for you to share and enjoy this year with family and friends.

 

 

Fourth of July at Pun’kin Center by Cal Stewart and Steve Porter

Spirit of Independence March by Conway’s Band

The Liberty Tree by The Sand Pipers & Mitch Miller and Orchestra

Our American Heritage Album by Wesley Addy

American Patriotic & Marching Songs by Various Artists

Please note, due to copyright some of these recordings may only play for 45 second snippet to give the user a taste of what this music sounded like back in the day, if you are interested in full access considering applying for Research Station Access. Access to Research Station is limited to educators, students and serious researchers.

Panorama Theme by Themocracy