"You Tell Her - I Stutter"

by "The Happiness Boys" (Billy Jones & Ernest Hare)

Courtesy of Hourglass Antiques The Edison recording of this used to be featured here, but that is now on-line at "Archive.org" so I have replaced it with the rarer Grey Gull version. This was probably recorded in December of 1922 and the masters leased to Silvertone (which was sold through the Sears-Roebuck catalog). Their joviality is evident on this waxing despite having to shout a little bit - the recording equipment for Grey Gull was primitive - but they manage to pull it off quite well despite the limitations. The disc from which this was sampled was not treated well in its time, and a decent sample was finally achieved by trying many different sizes of needles. The song itself, written by Cliff Friend (prolific songwriter who gave us "June Night" and "Out Where the Blue Begins") and Billy Rose (this was his first hit, followed by "Barney Google" and "Does Your Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bed Post Overnight"), is "politically incorrect" by today's standards due to its stereotyping of stutterers though it was a huge hit. It was (and remains) light-hearted, and true to its time. You may find yourself humming it later today. (Tim Gracyk, eminant web Historian, has posted this web page about Jones & Hare - recommended for further reading.)
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