Acoustic Recordings 1 Edmund O'Rourke, writing as Edmund Falconer/Michael William Balfe, Killarney 3.51 Rec: 3 January 1910 Matrix: C 8594-1 Victor Cat: 74157
2 Thomas Moore/Old Irish Air, 'The Moreen'/The Minstrel Boy 2.58 Rec: 1 February 1910 Matrix: B 8590-1 Victor Cat: 64117
3 Harold Lake, writing as Harold Harford/Charles Marshall, I Hear You Calling Me 3.55 Rec: 16 March 1911 Matrix: B 8695-2 Victor Cat: 64120
4 Annie Barry Crawford/Frederick Nicholls Williams Crouch, Kathleen Mavourneen 3.47 Rec: 16 March 1911 Matrix: C 10061-1 Victor Cat: 74236
5 Josephine V. Rowe/Dermot MacMurrough, Macushla 3.12 Rec: 30 March 1911 Matrix: B 10134-1 Victor Cat: 64205
6 Thomas Dunn English/Nelson Kneass, Ben Bolt 3.05 Rec: 7 April 1914 Matrix: B 14675-2 Victor Cat: 64433
7 Thomas Moore/Old Irish Air, 'Open the Door' arr. Frank Lambert/She is Far from the Land 4.27 Rec: 31 March 1911 Matrix: C 10138-1 Victor Cat: 74242
8 Sir Stephen Edward De Vere/Old Irish Air, 'Pearl of the White Breast' arr. Joseph Robinson/The Snowy Breasted Pearl 5.35 Rec: 23 March 1910 Matrix: C 8741-1 Victor Cat: 74166
9 Stephen Foster, Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming 3.22 with Harry Macdonough (tenor), Lambert Murphy (tenor), Reinald Werrenrath (baritone) Rec: 8 April 1914 Matrix: B 14678-2 Victor Cat: 64423
10 George F. Root/H.S. Washburn, The Vacant Chair 3.09 with Harry Macdonough (tenor), Reinald Werrenrath (baritone), William F. Hooley (bass) Rec: 31 March 1915 Matrix: B 15417-3 Victor Cat: 64499 with celeste
11 Eileen Newton/Arthur F. Tate, Somewhere a Voice is Calling 2.58 Rec: 23 November 1914 Matrix: B 15419-1 Victor Cat: 64405 with orchestra conducted by Walter B. Rogers
12 Adelaide A. Proctor/Sir Arthur Sullivan, The Lost Chord 4.18 Rec: 20 October 1922 Matrix: C 27043-1 Victor Cat: 74791 with orchestra conducted by Josef A. Pasternack
13 Sara Teasdale/A. Walter Kramer, Swans (from 'Rivers to the Sea') 2.30 Rec: 26 September 1923 Matrix: B 28613-1 Victor Cat: 1081-B with Edwin Schneider piano
Electric Recordings 14 Trad. Old Irish Air, arr. Herbert Hughes, Norah O'Neale 3.22 Rec: 18 October 1929 Matrix: BVE 56198-2 Victor Unpublished Francis J. Lapitino harp with orchestra conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret
15 C. Mordaunt Spencer/Charles W. Glover, The Rose of Tralee 3.28 Rec: 19 February 1930 Matrix: BVE 58586-2 Victor Cat: 1452 with orchestra conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret
16 Robert Louis Stevenson/Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, She Rested by the Broken Brook 3.27 Rec: 1 October 1926 Matrix: BVE 35891-1 Victor Unpublished with Edwin Schneider piano
17 M. Ashworth-Hope/Ernest Torrance, God Gave Me Flowers 2.22 Rec: 6 July 1931 Matrix: PBVE 61097-2 Victor Unpublished with Edwin Schneider piano
18 William Butler Yeats/Thomas F. Dunhill, The Cloths of Heaven (from 'The Wind Among the Reeds') 2.37 Rec: 23 July 1935 Matrix: OEA 2182-1 Victor Cat: DA 1445 with Edwin Schneider piano
19 Harold Boulton/Sir Granville Bantock, Song to the Seals (from 'Songs of the Western Isles') 3.44 Rec: 27 June 1935 Matrix: OEA 2126-1 Victor Cat: DA 1444 with Edwin Schneider piano. Spoken introduction by McCormack 20 Harold Boulton/Old Irish Air, arr. Herbert Hughes, The Little Boats 2.19 Rec: 25 June 1941 Matrix: OEA 9328-1 Victor Cat: AGSA 52 with Gerald Moore piano
21 Harold Boulton/Old Irish Air arr. Arthur Somervell, The Gentle Maiden (from 'Songs of Four Nations') 2.44 Rec: 9 August 1940 Matrix: OEA 8851-1 Victor Cat: AGSA 55 with Gerald Moore piano
“... remarkably good sound. Which only goes to prove that 78s can still pack a fair sonic wallop”
John McCormack was a world-famous Irish tenor singer, celebrated for his performances of the operatic and popular song repertoires, and renowned for his diction and breath control.