When did recorded performance detach from live performance?

A music history question:

What was the first musical composition to be in recorded form but not in a form intended for live performance?

The earliest instance that I know of is whatever song was completed first on Revolver by The Beatles.

 

Welcome to the forum, where everyone else also thinks the Beatles were the first to do everything and anything.

There's music composed and recorded for, say, use in a movie rather than to be performed live.

Or music composed and recorded on cylinders for World War I, to be distributed for broadcast to boost morale and the war effort.

 

I would imagine, though, that these were still recordings of “performances,” i.e. the musicians gathered at the same time in front of the recording equipment and played the music as a group.

Is it known what the first recording was where an element was recorded separately from the rest and then put together with it? Or the first recording where someone played or sang along with themselves?

 

Phil Spector and Motown?

 

Sidney Bechet did an overdubbed one man band recording in the '30s, IIRC.

 

Maybe Les Paul, when he recorded "Lover" in 1948 with overdubbed guitars that were sped way up. Some quotes of his about it can be found here.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but multitrack recording wouldn't have been technically possible until 1955.

 

„Revolver“ by the Beatles and „Pet Sounds“ by the Beach Boys

 

That would be the pieces of Musique Concrète by Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer in the early 50s.

 

Well, they could have recorded a track and then played it back and recorded a live performance along with the playback, if that makes sense..

 

Correct, but the date was April 18, 1941 at the RCA Studios on 24th Street in New York City. Bechet overdubbed six instruments (clarinet, soprano, tenor saxophone, piano, bass and drums) for two songs ("The Sheik Of Araby" and "Blues of Bechet") by playing each successive instrument live on top of the previously recorded instrument via two 78 rpm cutting machines (one for playback and one in record mode). The two completed songs were then issued as "Sidney Bechet's One Man Band."

However earlier in the late 1920s RCA used the same very basic technique to add a studio orchestra to several of Enrico Caruso's duet recordings with solo piano, and then reissued the recordings. I'd call those the first true overdubbed recordings.

 

I thought about that, but wouldn't that have sounded terrible?

 

Yes of course, with every successive overdub the record lost more and more fidelity. But it was more of an experiment back then. No one really took this technique seriously as a viable recording method. It was a novelty until tape recorders came along.

 

Makes sense. It was more of, "Look what we can do now!"

 

Here's the earliest "one man band" using dubbing that I'm aware of:



http://jazzmuseuminharlem.org/today-in-jazz/sidney-bechet-the-sheik-of-araby/

Later in the 1940s, Les Paul started doing things that were 'recording dependent,' even though some of his 'tricks' were things that could be done in real time.

 

True enough, but Bechet was "bouncing," playing along to a previously recorded disc which was then recorded; a loss with each generation, but with strong signals, not that big of a deal.
I've done the same thing many times with tape decks, as have "thousands of others."

 

Now that there were earlier Caruso recordings that had dubbing is news to me. I'd have jumped in less above had I seen your posts re: Bechet earlier.

 

Everything is the Beatles.

To answer your question you've got to know the history of recorded music. Which means it all started around 1877 with our good friend Edison. That said, there was something called "phonautograms" that were made in 1850-ish, which you can hear in this set: PICTURES OF SOUND: ONE THOUSAND YEARS OF EDUCED AUDIO: 980-1980 — Dust-to-Digital

Given the above, if you really think it's the Beatles, then.......

 

That site is incredible! I'm going to download the digital version!

 

If knowing what "really old" music is is of interest, this is a great label:
Archeophone Records

 

Correction: Seems it was actually 1932 when RCA did those first orchestral overdubs onto earlier Caruso recordings, not the late 1920s as I previously stated.

 

Well before Bechet regardless, though Bechet's one man band might be closer 'conceptually' to later 'rock' usage; the Carusos perhaps might be compared to "sweetening" I suspect.

 

Well clearly the answer is not Revolver or anything by the Beatles. That was recorded 65 or 66.

I don't know what the answer may be, I don't even know if there is a right answer, but Spector and also Red Bird predate the Beatles.

I think the Motown songs from the early 60s could be played live and we're intended to, all those artists did those songs live very well.

Some of the Shangri-Las material though is proper studio material. Leader of the Pack was 1964.

 

Here's the session info for that Bechet first true overdubbed recording:

Victor matrix BS-063785. The sheik of Araby / Sidney Bechet - Discography of American Historical Recordings

Several attempts were made, the first four takes were considered "not fit." Eventually he nailed it though.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. Music history is one of my historical interests. I've always loved history and music, but my middle school music teacher turned me onto music history when he showed the PBS documentary The History of Rock And Roll in class.