Morton Harvey

Who was Morton Harvey?

Morton Harvey was an American vaudeville performer and singer who had a moderately successful recording career during the 1910s.

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 song, the "Memphis Blues" by W.C. Handy which he recorded on October 2, 1914. Harvey later stated: "[A]lthough 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."

He is also notable for recording the antiwar protest song I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier in 1915, which became popular with people who wished for America to stay out of World War I. Soon after America did intervene in the war in 1917, Harvey stopped recording, as the sentiments of that song were no longer popular and were considered unpatriotic. 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 or tenor.