"Waltz Me Around Again, Willie" Billy Murray & the Haydn Quartet (1906) Victor 4738 LYRICS HERE

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Billy Murray & the Haydn Quartet sing "Waltz Me Around Again, Willie" on Victor 4738

Recorded May 10, 1906.

The quartet, formed in 1896 as the Edison Quartet, had different singers over the years. Here the singers are S H. Dudley, Harry Macdonough, John Bieling, and William F. Hooley.

The music is by Ren Shields.

Lyrics are by Will D. Cobb.

Written for a 1906 production called “Miss Dolly Dollars.”

Willie Fitzgibbons, who used to sell ribbons and
stood up all day on his feet, grew very spoony on
Madeline Mooney, who'd rather be dancing than eat.
Each evening she tag him to some dance hall drag him, and
when the band started to play, she'd up like a silly and
grab tired Willie, steer him on the floor, and she'd say:

"Waltz me around again, Willie--around, around, around.
The music is dreamy. It's peaches and creamy. O don't let my
feet touch the ground. I feel like a ship on an ocean of joy.
I just want to holler out loud 'Ship ahoy!' Waltz me
around again, Willie--around, around, around."

Willie De Vere was a dry goods
cashier. At his desk he would sit all the
day till his doctor advised him to start
exercising or else he would soon fade
away. One night this poor looney met
Madeline Mooney. Fitzgibbons then
shouted with joy: "She's a good health
regainer--you've found a good trainer!
Just wait till she hollers, my boy!"

Billy Murray was born on May 25, 1877. He died on August 17, 1954.

This tenor was arguably the most popular recording artist of the acoustic era, sales of his records probably exceeding those of any other artist.

Only a few other singers, such as Henry Burr and Harry Macdonough, may have cut more titles.

Murray often worked as a solo artist but was equally comfortable in duets, trios, quartets, and quintets.

Famous as a singer of comic songs, he also recorded love songs, sentimental ballads, patriotic numbers, hits from Broadway musicals, vaudeville skits, and refrains for dance band numbers. His ability to adapt to changing musical trends resulted in heavy session work from 1903 until the advent of electric recording.

Though his popularity was in decline from the mid-1920s onwards, he recorded steadily until the onset of the Great Depression, even returning to studios during World War II.

William Thomas Murray "squalled for the first time in 1877" in Philadelphia, according to an article attributed to Murray and titled "My Twin--The Phonograph" in the January 1917 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly, the only account close to an autobiographical sketch (it was probably written for him after he was interviewed by the company's advertising department). He points out that he was born in the year Edison invented the phonograph, adding, "I didn't do very much for ten years after that; but neither did the phonograph...I can understand just why Mr. Edison did not make any attempt to improve or market the phonograph he invented in 1877 until 1887...I was not ready to sing for it, that's all."

His parents, Patrick Murray (born in 1849) and Julia Kelleher Murray, appear to have emigrated from County Kerry, Ireland, when young. The family moved from the East to Denver, Colorado. To reflect his Colorado upbringing, Victor catalogs nicknamed him "The Denver Nightingale."

Printed in 1912 was a record slip for Edison Blue Amberol 1602, featuring "When I Get You Alone Tonight," which gives some biographical information. It states, "Billy Murray...ran away from his home in Denver when but thirteen years old, and after working as a newsboy and jockey in San Francisco, returned to Denver and got a job as property man in a local theatre. He became friendly with the night watchman of the theatre, and together they originated a singing and dancing act, which they practiced in secret in a nearby barn, until finally they were able to try it on the stage."

An Edison advertising writer undoubtedly wrote this after interviewing Murray. The Edison company and Murray himself may have been more interested in providing a colorful account for record buyers than an accurate one. That he was in San Francisco in the early 1890s is doubtful. Jim Walsh wrote on page 7 of Antique Phonograph Monthly (Volume V, Number 9), "According to what Billy told me, he ran away from home when he was 13, but not to San Francisco; he actually went to a racetrack near Denver where he worked as a jockey. After a few weeks his mother found him and brought him home."

When he was around 16, his parents allowed him to join Harry Leavitt's High Rollers Troupe as an actor in 1893, reports Jim Walsh in the April 1942 issue of Hobbies. Harry Leavitt was a touring impresario.




"Waltz Me Around Again, Willie" Billy Murray & the Haydn Quartet (1906) Victor 4738 LYRICS HERE