Arthur Collins & Byron G. Harlan - The Village Maid (1902)

Arthur Collins & Byron G. Harlan

"The Village Maid"

Max Hoffmann song featured in the show titled The Rogers Brothers in Paris

The team of Collins and Harlan was the most successful duo of the acoustic era.

Before teaming with tenor Byron G. Harlan, baritone Arthur Collins had a partner in tenor Joe Natus for a year. Collins and Natus made 19 Edison cylinders in 1901-1902 and several Victor recordings. Around this time Collins sang in an Edison ensemble called the Big Four Quartet, which recorded five titles issued in 1901. Harlan was one of the quartet's tenors; Natus was the other; A. D. Madeira was bass.

Collins and Harlan probably harmonized for the first time as members of this Edison quartet. By 1903 Natus no longer worked for Edison. The June 1903 Edison Phonograph Monthly announces that "I Must Have a Been a Dreamin'" (Standard 7850), sung by Arthur Collins and Joe Natus, would be "hereafter...sung by Collins and Harlan." Collins and Harlan made new takes of various titles originally cut for Edison by Collins and Natus.

The first time Arthur Collins was paired with Byron G. Harlan for a Victor session was on October 31, 1902 (Harlan's first Victor session).

They were again paired a day later, on November 1. They cut five titles on October 31, including "The First Rehearsal of the Huskin' Bee" (1723), a rube skit. Many of their early recordings are "rube" sketches with songs, such as "Closing Time in a Country Grocery" (Victor 1728; Burke & Rous cylinder 236) and "Two Rubes in a Tavern" (Victor 1727; B & R 239), and they continued recording rural comedy for years, Harlan performing it into the 1920s. Harlan recorded these same three titles with Frank C. Stanley, who wrote the sketches.

Collins and Harlan's first Edison cylinders were "Down Where the Wurzburger Flows" (8238) and "Troubles of the Reuben and the Maid" (8239), issued in late 1902 (they cut the latter for Columbia seven-inch 944 and ten-inch 944). They recorded many "rube" skits for Edison.

The duo made cylinders for the Lambert Company, with "Jerry Murphy Is A Friend of Mine" issued around 1903 on blue Lambert 935.

A Victor session on March 3, 1903, is noteworthy since Collins cut duets with Natus, then recorded numbers with Harlan. It was the last session for the team of Collins and Natus. Natus made Victor discs for another two years but only solo recordings, mostly of popular ballads. His last Victor session was on April 28, 1905.

Walsh reports in the December 1968 issue of Hobbies that the duo sang "what may have been the last Victor Monarch record to have a spoken announcement...It was 2451, and the title was 'It Was The Dutch.'" This Theodore Morse song was recorded on September 11, 1903, with Collins doing the announcement. The next four numbers, 2452 through 2455, were Billy Murray's first Victor discs and are unannounced.

Another change in the industry in 1903 was a shift from piano to orchestral accompaniment.