Harry Macdonough and the Haydn Quartet - Sunbonnet Sue (1908)
Harry Macdonough and the Haydn Quartet sing "Sunbonnet Sue" on Victor 5568, recorded on August 12, 1908.
The song is by Gus Edwards (music) and Will D. Cobb (lyrics).
So that is your new Sunday bonnet?
Well, Sue, it’s becoming to you.
With those wonderful thing you have on it,
You’ll make them “some jealous,” dear Sue;
But somehow it sets me to dreaming,
Of the day we first said “Howdy do,”
And I see you once more,
In the bonnet you wore,
When I nicknamed you “Sunbonnet Sue.”
Sunbonnet Sue, Sunbonnet Sue,
Sunshine and roses ran second to you,
You looked so nice, I kissed you twice,
Under your sunbonnet blue.
It was only a kind of a “kid kiss,”
But it tasted lots nicer than pie;
And the next thing I knew,
I was dead stuck on you,
When I was a kid so high.
Harry Macdonough was born on March 30, 1871, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, as John Scantlebury Macdonald. During the two decades he was active as a recording artist, the tenor was perhaps the most popular ballad singer to make records aside from Henry Burr, also a tenor from Canada.
Determining who made more records before 1920 would be a challenge since both Macdonough and Burr worked regularly as solo artists and also within duos, trios, quartets, and larger ensembles.
He first made cylinders for the Michigan Electric Company in Detroit. In a letter written to Jim Walsh dated February 9, 1931, he states that these cylinders "were not sold but merely used in their `Phonograph Parlor' on the slot machines in use at that time." The June 1920 issue of Talking Machine World states he "spent his early business life in Detroit."
John Kaiser, who recorded "Casey" monologues and later served as a U.S. Phonograph Company executive, helped Macdonald enter the record business on the East Coast. After Macdonald made a test record in October 1898 at the New York studio of Harms, Kaiser & Hagen, Kaiser himself played the test record for Walter H. Miller, then Edison's recording manager. As a result, Macdonald began making commercial recordings at the Edison laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, on October 17, 1898.
He wrote to Walsh, "At my first session I made twelve selections, for which I received $9.00. The regular rate was at that time $1.00 per song but being a beginner I was supposed to be satisfied with anything they chose to pay me and, as a matter of fact, I was. That $9.00 seemed pretty big pay for the afternoon and I had no complaint...shortly after that they paid me the regular rate of $1.00 per 'round' as it was described in those days. Each morning or afternoon session consisted of 30 'rounds,' consisting of five or six songs..."
The song is by Gus Edwards (music) and Will D. Cobb (lyrics).
So that is your new Sunday bonnet?
Well, Sue, it’s becoming to you.
With those wonderful thing you have on it,
You’ll make them “some jealous,” dear Sue;
But somehow it sets me to dreaming,
Of the day we first said “Howdy do,”
And I see you once more,
In the bonnet you wore,
When I nicknamed you “Sunbonnet Sue.”
Sunbonnet Sue, Sunbonnet Sue,
Sunshine and roses ran second to you,
You looked so nice, I kissed you twice,
Under your sunbonnet blue.
It was only a kind of a “kid kiss,”
But it tasted lots nicer than pie;
And the next thing I knew,
I was dead stuck on you,
When I was a kid so high.
Harry Macdonough was born on March 30, 1871, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, as John Scantlebury Macdonald. During the two decades he was active as a recording artist, the tenor was perhaps the most popular ballad singer to make records aside from Henry Burr, also a tenor from Canada.
Determining who made more records before 1920 would be a challenge since both Macdonough and Burr worked regularly as solo artists and also within duos, trios, quartets, and larger ensembles.
He first made cylinders for the Michigan Electric Company in Detroit. In a letter written to Jim Walsh dated February 9, 1931, he states that these cylinders "were not sold but merely used in their `Phonograph Parlor' on the slot machines in use at that time." The June 1920 issue of Talking Machine World states he "spent his early business life in Detroit."
John Kaiser, who recorded "Casey" monologues and later served as a U.S. Phonograph Company executive, helped Macdonald enter the record business on the East Coast. After Macdonald made a test record in October 1898 at the New York studio of Harms, Kaiser & Hagen, Kaiser himself played the test record for Walter H. Miller, then Edison's recording manager. As a result, Macdonald began making commercial recordings at the Edison laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, on October 17, 1898.
He wrote to Walsh, "At my first session I made twelve selections, for which I received $9.00. The regular rate was at that time $1.00 per song but being a beginner I was supposed to be satisfied with anything they chose to pay me and, as a matter of fact, I was. That $9.00 seemed pretty big pay for the afternoon and I had no complaint...shortly after that they paid me the regular rate of $1.00 per 'round' as it was described in those days. Each morning or afternoon session consisted of 30 'rounds,' consisting of five or six songs..."