Harry Macdonough & S. H. Dudley - When Two Little Hearts Are One (1901)

Harry Macdonough and S. H. Dudley sing “When Two Little Hearts Are One” on Victor 665, recorded on October 5, 1901.

The song was featured in the show Hoity Toity.

Lyrics are by Edgar Smith.

Music is by John Stromberg.

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..."

Miller objected to the name John, claiming it was not "romantic enough," and told the singer, "You're Harry Macdonald from now on." However, on the singer's first cylinder, the last name had been mistakenly printed as "Macdonough." The tenor later explained why he continued using this name: "...I was completely indifferent to what they called me. I thought then that record-making was a sort of lowdown business, anyway."

It is a curious explanation for a name change since "Harry" seems no more romantic than "John," but the singer reported this to Walsh without any hint of jesting.

His assumed name led to some embarrassment since veteran theatrical comedian named Harry Macdonough was asked to sing ballads when on stage.