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The RCA Sessions
Bluebird Records, 1940–41


By Allan Sutton

With thanks to John Bolig and Dick Carty for supplying the RCA ledger data
Latest Updates: January 10, 2010

The Billy Murray Pages  |  Murray Online Discography: Index
The Mainspring Online Discography Project

   

    
Murray's Bluebird remake of his 1917 Victor hit. Murray never served in
the army, but his draft card proves he did register.
(Author's collection)
        

Victor session ledger sheet for Murray's Bluebird releases, showing simultaneous recordings of
each title on different wax formulations. Well-known to researchers and advanced collectors,
this was a not-uncommon practice at RCA beginning in the 1930s.
(Courtesy of Dick Carty)
   

Victor Recording Book sheet for Murray's Bluebird releases. These artist ledgers are just one of several components of the Victor files, and they do not contain the full data found in the session ledgers.
(Courtesy of Dick Carty)
      
             

Telegram from Billy Murray and Jimmy Martindale informing Jim Walsh of what would be
Murray's final Bluebird session. The session was later rescheduled, but Murray's voice
on that day was considered "too husky" for recording, and all masters were rejected.
(Jim Walsh Papers, Library of Congress)
    

Letter from Jimmy Martindale to Jim Walsh informing him that the final Bluebird session had
been moved to August 11. "Len" is Leonard Joy, the studio director for the session. Murray's
next, and final, commercial recording session would be for the small Beacon label.
(Courtesy of Dick Carty)

1942 RCA catalog listing for Murray's Bluebird records
(Courtesy of Anna-Maria Manuel)

Billy Murray returned to the RCA-Victor studios in July 1940, after a hiatus of more than a decade. During his last visit, on June 13, 1929, he had recorded two duets with Aileen Stanley, only one of which ("Katie, Keep Your Feet on the Ground," on Victor 22040) was ever issued.

The new Murray sessions were all booked for RCA's low-priced Bluebird label, in the company of what was termed "Harry's Tavern Band." The name covered a pickup group whose varying personnel included studio as well as outside (union) musicians. The sessions came about at the urging of Jimmy Martindale — publisher of the prestigious Martindale's American Law Directory — who, along with columnist Jim Walsh, was one of Murray's chief cheerleaders during the entertainer's declining years. Martindale at first assumed the recordings would be released on the full-priced Victor label, but RCA intended otherwise.

At his first RCA session, Murray sang only the vocal chorus. The record was not a great hit for Bluebird, but Murray eventually was invited back for several more sessions. This time he would be the featured soloist, with the Tavern Band in an accompanying role. None of the records were large sellers, however, and at his final RCA session — his last for a major company — Murray's voice was judged to be "too husky for recording."

THE BILLY MURRAY BLUEBIRD DISCOGRAPHY

All details are from the RCA-Victor recording ledgers. During the period Murray was recording for Bluebird, RCA often recorded twin masters simultaneously, using a split line feeding separate cutters,
on two different wax compositions. Thus, takes 1 and 1A are identical performances. Bluebird was
RCA's cheapest brand, and corporate policy at the time strongly discouraged the making of second
takes for the label.

Note: John Bolig has supplied the RCA file data for the first two sessions. Although listed as "missing" on a hobbyist's Murray website prior to our first publication of this material, the data were in fact missing only from the published Murray discography from which that site copied its information — not from the Victor archives themselves.