Скачать или смотреть Aileen Stanley sings Irving Berlin's "All By Myself" on Victor 18774, recorded on May 16, 1921

Aileen Stanley sings Irving Berlin's "All By Myself" on Victor 18774, recorded on May 16, 1921.

I'm so unhappy--what'll I do?
I long for somebody who
will sympathize with me.
I'm growing so tired of living alone.
I lie awake all night and cry.
Nobody loves me--that's why!

All by myself in the morning.
All by myself in the night.
I sit alone in a cozy Morris
chair--so unhappy there, playing solitaire.
All by myself I get lonely
watching the clock on the shelf.

I'd love to rest my weary
head on somebody's shoulder.

I hate to grow older all by myself.

Her real name was Maude Elsie Aileen Muggeridge. She was born in Chicago so it is fitting that she was among the first singers--in January 1923--to record Fred Fisher's newly published "Chicago" (dance bands recorded it months earlier but Stanley's Okeh 4792 was the first by a vocalist).

Her father and mother had emigrated from England though her father died of typhoid several months before she was born, contracting it from another daughter who also died of the disease.

Her mother, Maria, encouraged young Aileen and her brother Stanley to develop their singing and dancing talents. Another brother was named Robert.

They formed a brother and sister team called Stanley and Aileen, also the Peerless English Juveniles, even the Premier Versatile Entertainers. They toured the Midwest and West Coast by 1904, playing Nickelodeons and burlesque houses.

Discussing Aileen's early career in the Spring-Summer 1984 issue of the Journal of American Culture, Grayce Susan Burian reports that Stan ran off with a chorus girl and began a new act. Aileen chose to perform solo in vaudeville, forming a new stage name (Aileen Stanley) by reversing the name of the old act (Stanley and Aileen).

When she began working alone in vaudeville is unknown, but Billboard on February 22, 1915, included this review of her debut at New York City's Palace Theatre: "Aileen Stanley was splendid to look at and sang four songs with excellent effect. She was making her first bow to Times Square and produced applause galore and laughs for her comedy incidents..."

Her best-selling records of the 1920s were made for the Victor Talking Machine Company.

Her first Victor recordings were made on August 10, 1920, around the time "Alibi Blues" was issued by Pathé and following her success in Silks and Satins. "Broadway Blues" and "My Little Bimbo Down on the Bamboo Isle" were issued on Victor 18691 in November 1920 (the same month as Paul Whiteman's debut discs--Victor was introducing many new artists at this time), and the disc sold very well.

In the early 1920s she was known in vaudeville as "The Personality Girl." Edison promotional literature announcing new Blue Amberols for April 1922 identifies "Boo-Hoo-Hoo" (4487) as a "serio-comic song, which suits the style of Aileen Stanley to perfection." It adds, "In vaudeville, Miss Stanley is known as 'The Phonograph Girl,' because of her popularity on records."

For any company to dub Stanley "The Phonograph Girl" as early as 1922 was bold given the relatively few Stanley records released at this time--more records were being sold of Marion Harris, Nora Bayes, and possibly Mamie Smith. Stanley's popularity did increase and by 1923 may have been the most popular female singer making records though those of blues singer Bessie Smith, new to the industry in 1923, possibly sold in larger quantities than Stanley's in Smith's first year. By the mid-1920s Stanley records probably sold better than those of any other female singer.

By 1926 Stanley was dubbed "The Victrola Girl" (after cutting two final titles for Gennett in the fall of 1924, Stanley had sessions only for Victor and British affiliate HMV).

In the early 1920s she was identified on some labels as a contralto, on others as a soprano, but most labels identified her only as "comedienne," a term used on labels throughout the 1920s for a wide range of female artists who sang popular material, including blues singers Clara Smith and Bessie Smith.

On January 4, 1922, she married Robert Buttenuth in Minneapolis. Page 135 of the June 1922 issue of Talking Machine World identifies Buttenuth as her piano accompanist and manager. He was co-composer of "I'm a Lonesome Cry Baby," recorded by Stanley for Victor 19144 on June 26, 1923.

She died in Los Angeles.




Aileen Stanley sings Irving Berlin's "All By Myself" on Victor 18774, recorded on May 16, 1921