Morton Harvey (1886 – August 15, 1961) was an American vaudeville performer and singer who had a moderately successful recording career during the mid-1910s.

Career

Harvey was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His family wanted him to become a minister, but he had theatrical ambitions, and was able to secure a position in a traveling show while on a trip to Chicago, Illinois. He eventually gained a recording contract, just a few years after records began to become popular. Though most of his recordings were not best sellers, he is notable for being the first singer to record a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

song, the "Memphis Blues" by

W.C. Handy William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was an American composer and musician who referred to himself as the Father of the Blues. Handy was one of the most influential songwriters in the United States. One of many musici ...

which he recorded on October 2, 1914.Tim Gracyk's Phonographs, Singers, and Old Records - Morton Harvey, First to Sing a Blues Tune on a Record
/ref> Harvey later stated: " though the orchestra that accompanied me...was composed of symphonic players, it wasn't their fault that they didn't get a 'blues' quality into the record. The 'Blues' style of singing and playing, which became so familiar later, was just about to be born. Even the dance records of 'The Memphis Blues' made during that period were played as straight one-steps. However, there were a few good old-fashioned 'trombone smears' in the orchestral effects of my 'Memphis Blues' record."Tim Gracyk's Phonographs, Singers, and Old Records - Morton Harvey, First to Sing a Blues Tune on a Record
/ref> Harvey is also notable for recording the antiwar protest song “

I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier" is an American anti-war song that was influential within the pacifist movement that existed in the United States before it entered World War I. It is one of the first anti-war songs.Pelger, Martin, "Sol ...

” in 1915. The song became a hit as, at the time, the majority of Americans wanted the United States to stay out of World War I. The song fell out of favor when, in 1917, the United States joined the war effort. Shortly thereafter, Harvey stopped recording,Tim Gracyk's Phonographs, Singers, and Old Records - Morton Harvey, First to Sing a Blues Tune on a Record
/ref> as the sentiments of ”I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” and other protest songs came to be considered unpatriotic.Tim Gracyk's Phonographs, Singers, and Old Records - Morton Harvey, First to Sing a Blues Tune on a Record
/ref> Many documentaries about World War I contain the song, however, and it is still on this song that Harvey's voice is heard by the most people. There is some dispute as to whether he was a

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

or tenor.

Later years and death

Harvey remained a vaudeville performer through the mid-1920s, often as half of a duet. He also performed with his new wife, Betty Baxter, on occasion. After his retirement from show business, he moved to

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

where he managed a radio station.Tim Gracyk's Phonographs, Singers, and Old Records - Morton Harvey, First to Sing a Blues Tune on a Record
/ref> In 1941 after the outbreak of World War II, he moved to San Francisco, California, where he served as director of job relations at the War Manpower Commission, and then as personnel director of an Army hospital. In 1946 he opened a photography studio in

Los Gatos, California Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the ...

and photographed the Santa Clara Valley. Even after he moved onto other careers, he still continued to sing and write songs in his spare time. Harvey died in Los Gatos, California on August 15, 1961.

References

External links

Morton Harvey
from the Internet Archive
Biographical article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harvey, Morton 1886 births 1961 deaths 20th-century American photographers American anti-war activists American blues singers American entertainers American male singer-songwriters Columbia Records artists Musicians from Omaha, Nebraska People from Los Gatos, California American vaudeville performers Victor Records artists 20th-century American singer-songwriters 20th-century American male singers Singer-songwriters from Nebraska Singer-songwriters from California