Your favorite music from 1925

Can be a single track, a 78 with multiple tracks, early albums (as in literal albums of 78s bound together), a classical piece, a later compilation focusing on the year . . . whatever.

Doesn't have to be a list, though of course you can post a list if you want. You can also just post one title at a time as you think of it/run across it (which is what I do in these threads).

 

Igor Stravinsky - Suite No. 1 for Chamber Orchestra (aka Suite No. 1 for Small Orchestra)

I just posted Suite No. 2 in the 1921 thread--oddly Stravinsky completed what he designed "No. 2" four years prior to No. 1. Both Suites are sets of miniature grotesques--though No. 1 is less exaggerated in those qualities than No. 2, which often seemed to be spoofing Tchaikovsky (and particularly the dances from The Nutcracker), and both grew out of two sets of Stravinsky's piano pieces for students, the "pièces faciles." There's a Trois pièces faciles and a Cinq pièces faciles. Suite No. 1 is an adaptation of the first four pieces of Cinq pièces faciles, while Suite No. 2 is the whole of Trois pièces faciles + the last piece of Cinq pièces faciles.

 

Charlie Poole accompanied by the North Carolina Ramblers


Cover versions of Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues by Charlie Poole accomp. by The North Carolina Ramblers | SecondHandSongs

b/w -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0Um8za5G14&ab_channel=BBYMRLCCOTNBBYMRLCCOTN
Cover versions of Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight, Mister by Charlie Poole accomp. by The North Carolina Ramblers | SecondHandSongs
78 Record: Charlie Poole With The North Carolina Ramblers - Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister (1925)

 

I am a great admirer of the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů. Here is the first part of this String Quartet No. 2, written in 1925 in Paris:

 

Charles Coborn - The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo

He recorded it a few times, so I had to double check, but at least one version is from 1925 according to Discogs. Possibly my favorite music hall/vaudeville song.

 

Gid Tanner and Riley Puckett


78 Record: Gid Tanner And Riley Puckett - John Henry (1925)
Cover versions of John Henry written by | SecondHandSongs

 

Concerto in F - George Gershwin

 

Copenhagen⸻California Ramblers
Columbia–236-D

 

Marchéta⸻Bernard Etté

Vox [Germany]–1698
VOX-Schallplatten-U.-Sprechmaschinen-A.G.


underneath the heavy surface noise on this record is a highly sophisticated and extraordinarily well-performed piece of music. hope you enjoy !

 

"I want all you people to listen to my song (x2)
Remember me until the days I'm gone."

And long after that, as it turns out.

Lonnie Johnson - Mr. Johnson's Blues (1925.11.04 -- St. Louis MO - 9435-A OKeh 8253 - Lonnie Johnson (v,g), John Arnold (p))

 

Ma Rainey accompanied by her Georgia Jazz Band


78 Record: Ma Rainey - Jealous Hearted Blues (1925)
Cover versions of Jealous Hearted Blues written by Lovie Austin | SecondHandSongs

b/w 'See See Rider Blues'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOTTYTGv22k&ab_channel=TravelerIntoTheBlueTravelerIntoTheBlue
Cover versions of See See Rider Blues written by Ma Rainey, Lena Arent | SecondHandSongs

 

Roba Stanley


w. Henry Whitter
78 Record: Roba Stanley - Single Life (1925)
Bluegrass Messengers - Roba Stanley

 

From left, Al Hopkins, Joe Hopkins, Elvis Alderman, John Rector, Uncle Am Stuart and Fiddlin’ John Carson, photo taken Friday, 8 May 1925, in Mountain City, Johnson County, Tennessee (upper northeastern corner next to Virginia and North Carolina).

The Hopkins brothers, Alderman, and banjoist John Rector were in the Hill Billies, whose name was given to the genre of music that would be renamed Country.

This was over two years before the Bristol Sessions in next door Sullivan County, Tennessee, some 33 winding miles apart.

 

Photo taken Friday, 8 May 1925, at the Fiddlers Convention held in Mountain City, Tennessee. Three cash prizes were awarded. The winners were 1st: Dud Vance, the shortest man in the back row; 2nd, Charlie Bowman, second from left in front row; and 3rd, Uncle Am Stuart, second from right in second row.

Full disclaimer: my wife is related, however distantly, to Charlie Bowman.

This day in 1925, Al Hopkins asked Charlie Bowman to join the Hill Billies.

In this group photo the five men in the previous photo are standing together on the right. Behind Uncle Am Stuart stands Fiddlin' John Carson, who traveled from Atlanta, Georgia, to attend this convention.

Other notables: on the left in the third row is G.B. Grayson, and beside him is Clarence "Tom" Ashley.

 

Stravinsky also wrote the "Serenade in A" in 1925, and this recording from 1986 was one of the first CDs I bought. Played it a lot.

 

Whatever was playing when both my parents were born a month apart. For me, a great year indeed and many thanks to both for all they did for me.

 

Alban Berg’s groundbreaking opera, “Wozzeck”.

 

From Tennessee Strings: The Story of Country Music In Tennessee by Charles K. Wolfe, page 56:

In the fall of 1925 and early 1926 the South was in the midst of a fiddling craze; suddenly everyone wanted to hear old-time fiddlers and recapture America's lost folk arts. Much of this interest had been sparked by Henry Ford, whose success with the Model T had earned him the respect of millions of Americans.

Ford saw old-time fiddle music as an antidote to the jazz music and "loose morals" that were sweeping the country; fiddling and square dancing helped keep alive old American values.

Ford sponsored a series of fiddling contests at Ford dealerships across the South, and these contests made thousands aware of fiddling. The atmosphere created by Ford's sponsorship helped the cause of country music immensely by making it much more acceptable to radio stations and record companies, And it helped give George Hay the impetus he needed to start a regular old-time-music radio show in Nashville.

The actual start of the Opry is generally thought to be Saturday, November 28, 1925, when Hay asked a white-bearded old fiddler named Uncle Jimmy Thompson to play informally before the WSM microphones.

 

Bessie Smith


accompanied by (Fletcher) Henderson's Hot Six
78 Record: Bessie Smith - The Yellow Dog Blues (1925)
Columbia matrix W140586. The Yellow Dog blues / Fletcher Henderson’s Hot Six ; Bessie Smith - Discography of American Historical Recordings
Cover versions of The Yellow Dog Blues by Bessie Smith | SecondHandSongs
I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone - Wikipedia

 

Lee Morse

'Yes Sir, That's My Baby'

one of many 1925 versions
Cover versions of Yes Sir, That's My Baby written by Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn | SecondHandSongs

b/w 'Ukelele Lady'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruYQYwneWyw&ab_channel=warholsoup100
again one of many 1925 versions
Cover versions of Ukulele Lady written by Gus Kahn, Richard A. Whiting | SecondHandSongs
Lee Morse – Yes Sir, That's My Baby / Ukelele Lady (1925, Shellac)
Lee Morse - Wikipedia

 

Billy Mack and Mary Mack


'My Heart-Breakin' Gal'
Billy Mack And Mary Mack – Black But Sweet, Oh God! / My Heartbreakin' Gal (1925, Shellac)

 

Margaret Johnson


w. Clarence Williams - piano
78 Record: Margaret Johnson - Death House Blues (1925)

 

Allen Sisson


"Champion Fiddler of Tennessee"; w. John F. Burckhardt - pianoforte
Allen Sisson – Farewell Ducktown / Rymer's Favorite (1925, Edison Disc)
Allen Sisson – Old Time Party

 

'When my sugar walks down the street (all the little birdies go tweet-tweet-tweet)' - Aileen Stanley with Gene Austin


78 Record: Aileen Stanley With Gene Austin - When My Sugar Walks Down The Street (All The Little Birdies Go Tweet-Tweet-Tweet) (1925)
Cover versions of When My Sugar Walks Down the Street written by Jimmy McHugh, Irving Mills, Gene Austin | SecondHandSongs

 

Recorded in November 1925, but not released until 1940, here's "At the Christmas Ball" by Bessie Smith.



It sounds like a great party, with wine and beer (during Prohibition!) and lots of dancing. That's Fletcher Henderson on piano, by the way.

After Smith's untimely passing in 1937, Columbia scoured its archives for unreleased material and found this. When the song was compiled onto an LP in 1950, it became the subject of a landmark copyright suit from Bessie's heirs. The result was that record labels retained the rights to both released and unreleased material by an artist under contract, unless other legally binding instructions were made.