Happy Birthday, Louis Armstrong! Today would have been Louis Armstrong’s 121st birthday. Did you know that a Jewish immigrant family helped Armstrong buy his first horn?

In a memoir from 1970 titled Louis Armstrong and the Jewish Family in New Orleans, LA the year of 1907 Armstrong described his time working for the Karnofsky family, a local Lithuanian-Jewish family who hired him to do odd jobs for their peddling business.

The jazzman would later write that the Karnofskys treated him as though he were their own child, often giving him food and even loaning him money to buy his first instrument, a $5 cornet which he paid back. (he wouldn’t begin playing the trumpet until 1926). As a sign of his gratitude to his Jewish benefactors, Armstrong later took to wearing a Star of David pendant around his neck until the end of his life in memory of the family who had helped him.

Here are a few RSA staff favorites of Louis Armstrong to get you started:

RSA Staff Favorites by Louis Armstrong

1. You’re Next
2. Melancholy
3. Frankie And Johnny
4. When the Saints Go Marching In
5. Satchel Mouth Swing

Celebrate Armstrong’s birthday today by listening to the music behind one of the most influential figures in jazz by visiting the RSA Website: https://rsa.fau.edu/louis-armstrong

And let us know in the comments, what is your favorite Louis Armstrong song?

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.

While 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.

 

Here 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.

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

 

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.

 

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

Celebrate this Mothers Day by listening and discovering some vintage songs from the early 1900s about mothers. There’s even a song or two about Dad and a fun Monologue called How Mother Made Soup for your enjoyment.

Below you will find a list of over 20 songs for you to share and enjoy this year with family and friends.

 

 

 

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.

 

Go Home and Tell Your Mother by Guy Lombardo & Keneke

Mother of My Heart by Frances Alda

Rembember Dad (On Mother’s Day) by Jerry Colonna

Mother O’ Mine by John McCormack

I Wouldn’t Trade the Silver in My Mother’s Hair (For All the Gold in the World) by Eddy Arnold

My Mother’s Sweet Voice by Eddy Arnold

Go Home and Tell Your Mother by Gus Arnheim and his Cocoanut Grove

If the Rest of the World Don’t Want You (Go Back to Mother and Dad) by Franklyn Baur

Baby Your Mother (Like She Babied You) by Don Bestor and his Orchestra

Dear Mom by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra

How Mother Made the Soup by Charley Case

Ireland Must Be Heaven for My Mother Came From There by Charles Harrison

Mother’s Hands by Henry Burr

Daddy has a Sweetheart and Mother is her Name by Charles Munch

My Mother by Orville Harrold

Dear Old-Fashioned Irish Song My Mother Sang to me by Henry Burr

I’m in Heaven When I’m in My Mother’s Arms (I Don’t Have to Die to Go to Heaven) by William Robyn

Mother O’ Mine by Conrad Thibault

Mother Of Mine, I Still Have You by Al Jolson and William F. Wirges and his Orchestra

Angel Mother by George Morgan

Always Think of Mother by Manuel Romain

An Meine Mutter (To My Mother) by Biedermann, Lufsky and Prince

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.