100 years ago: American Quartet's "Casey Jones" hit #1 for the first of 11 weeks

Casey Jones American Quartet

Writer(s): Wallace Saunders, T. Lawrence Seibert, Eddie Newton (see lyrics here) First Charted: June 18, 1910 Peak: 111 US, 3 GA, 6 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Folk ballads about railroad tragedies became their own musical genre in the five centuries following the Civil War. With more than 40 versions, the song “Casey Jones” came to make its subject matter a mythological figure on par with Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyan. SS It has been called “the most notable railroad song ever” JA and, according to Pulitzer-prize-winning poet Carl Sandburg, “the greatest ballad ever composed on the North American continent.” SS John Luther “Casey” Jones ran the Illinois “Cannon Ball Express.” His promptness was so well known that some folks set their watches by his runs. Of course, his obsession with being on time had also got him cited for numerous infractions – and was likely a factor in his fateful final run. SS On April 30, 1900, Jones was at the helm when “Old No. 3” left Memphis en route to Canton, Mississippi. Despite signs warning trains to slow down, Jones was going full speed when they pulled into Vaughn, Mississippi, and realized there were still cars on the main track. Not able to stop in time, Jones pushed a brakeman out of the cab and to safety. Then he grabbed the brakes with all his might to try to avert disaster. He couldn’t safe himself, but he spared the lives of many of the passengers. Railroader Wallace Saunders, who knew Casey, adapted a song called “Jimmie Jones” about another railroad accident. SS Vaudeville performer Tallifero Lawrence Seibert heard the song, which had been popularized on the vaudeville circuit by the Leighton Brothers, and wrote a sketch into his act about Jones. When Seibert met Eddie Walter Newton, a ragtime piano player, the two streamlined the lyrics, reset the song in the Far West, and added a catchier rhythm. SS They published it and gained all rights to the sheet music. With fifteen #1 songs already to his name, Billy Murray was already a superstar when he joined the American Quartet. However, it was their recording of “Casey Jones” that became the biggest of Murray’s career. It was also the biggest hit of 1910 WHC and, if the likely-inflated figure of two million sales is to be believed, the biggest American seller up to that point, passing Murray’s own “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” SS Resources: JA David A. Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 33. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 7. WHC Joel Whitburn (1999). A Century of Pop Music. Record Research, Inc.: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 21. Related Links: First posted 7/2/2014; last updated 8/26/2022.

Billy Murray Anthology released

Anthology: The Denver Nightingale Billy Murray

Released: April 27, 2018 Recorded: 1903-1940 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: traditional pop

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. The Way to Kiss a Girl [1:58] (1903) Bedelia [2:13] (1/23/1904, 13 US, 1 GA) Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis [2:11] (7/23/1904, 19 US, 1 GA) Alexander (Don’t You Love Your Baby No More?) [2:11] (9/19/1904, 13 US, 4 GA) Come Take a Trip in My Air-Ship [2:15] (1/4/1905, 14 US, 1 GA) Yankee Doodle Boy [2:34] (2/25/1905, 18 US, 1 GA) Under the Anheuser Bush [2:32] (2/20/1904, 2 US, 4 GA) Give My Regards to Broadway [2:33] (6/17/1905, 15 US, 3 GA) In My Merry Oldsmobile [2:52] (10/14/1905, 17 US, 2 GA) Everybody Works But Father [1:49] (12/23/1905, 13 US, 3 GA) Youre a Grand Old Flag (aka “The Grand Old Rag”) [2:46] (5/5/1906, 110 US, 1 GA) He Goes to Church on Sunday [2:17] (7/6/1907, 2 US, 6 GA) Harrigan [2:29] (9/14/1907, 19 US, 1 GA) Shine on, Harvest Moon (with Ada Jones) [2:07] (5/15/1909, 15 US, 1 GA) Carrie (Carrie Marry Harry) [3:05] (1/15/1910, 12 US, 4 GA) By the Light of the Silvery Moon (with the Haydn Quartet) [2:50] (4/9/1910, 19, 1 GA) Casey Jones (with the American Quartet) [2:46] (6/18/1910, 111 US, 3 GA) The Cubanola Glide [2:30] (6/4/1910, 6 US, 2 GA) He’d Hae to Get Under, Get Out, and Get Under to Fix Up His Automobile [3:15] (2/17/1914, 2 US, 1 GA) He’s a Devil in His Own Home Town [2:50] (7/4/1914, 2 US, 2 GA) I Love a Piano [2:46] (4/8/1916, 11 US) Pretty Baby [2:40] (10/7/1916, 11 US, 1 GA) K-K-K-Katy (Stammering Song) [2:58] (6/1/1918, 3 US, 1 GA) He Went in Like a Lion and Came Out Like a Lamb [2:56] (6/19/1920, 10 US) You’ve Got to See Mama Ev’ry Night (with Aileen Stanley) [2:57] (6/30/1923, 11 US) That Old Gang of Mine (with Ed Smalle) [3:04] (9/23/1923, 16 US, 1 GA) Charley, My Boy (with the International Novelty Orchestra) [3:11] (1924) I Faw Down and Go Boom! (with the Midnight Ramblers) [2:55] (1928) I Wonder What Amos ‘N Andy Will Do Tomorrow Night (with Walter Scanlan) [3:05] (1930) It’s the Same Old Shillelagh (with Harry’s Tavern Band) [2:08] (1940) Total Running Time: 78:56

Rating: 4.728 out of 5.00 (average of 10 ratings) Quotable: Billy Murray “set a standard for natural, conversational singing that informed popular music long after he himself passed from the scene.” – William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Billy Murray may have been the best-selling recording artist of the first quarter of the 20th century, but his name and work had fallen into obscurity before his death in 1954.” AMG “He remained forgotten in the LP era and for the first decades of the CD era. But this disc belatedly brings him into the digital realm, and it does so with spectacular success.” AMG “Murray’s excellent articulation and comic timing made him a perfect singer for the acoustic era of recording, allowing him to be understood and appreciated despite the technical limitations. He led the way for such successors as Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, and he set a standard for natural, conversational singing that informed popular music long after he himself passed from the scene. This long-overdue compilation presents the highlights of his extensive catalog; there is plenty more where it came from.” AMG He was “one of the best interpreters of the music of George M. Cohan—America’s preeminent songwriter.” AZ This includes the songs Yankee Doodle Boy, Give My Regards to Broadway, You’re a Grand Old Flag, and Harrigan. “From rousing anthems to biting wit, Billy had a knack for entertaining as a solo artist and with bands.” AZ That means that in addition to his solo recordings, there are representations here of songs he recorded with the American and Haydn Quartets as well as duo efforts with Ada Jones, Aileen Stanley, Ed Smalle, and Walter Scanlan. This collection gathers 30 songs from throughout his career, spanning from 1903 to 1940. Given the chart success of so many of these songs, this set is on par with the greatest compilations of all time, such as the Beatles’ One and Elvis Presley’s 30 #1 Hits. Seventeen of these songs reached #1. Another seven were top-ten hits. Six of the songs here are featured in the Dave’s Music Database book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era. “Murray had so many popular recordings that a single disc could not hope to encompass them, but given the time limitations the producers have done the best possible job.” AMG In addition to some of Murray’s most important recordings, this collection also includes “the rare brown wax cylinder of The Way to Kiss a Girl, from one of Billy’s first recording sessions.” AZ It works its way through his more popular years, and then his “decline in the late 1920s and ‘30s and his attempted comeback in the early ‘40s with It’s the Same Old Shillelagh, performed with Harry’s Tavern Band, “giving a full sense of his recording career.” AMG Notes: Originally released in 2002, this was remastered in 2018 and a “24-page booklet contains a biographical essay and song notes by Murray biographer Frank Hoffmann and a reminiscence of Murray by a man who knew him, Quentin Riggs.” AZ

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Billy Murray AMG All Music Guide review by William Ruhlmann AZ Amazon AR Archeophone Records First posted 2/9/2022.

Grateful Dead Workingman’s Dead released

Workingman’s Dead The Grateful Dead

Released: June 14, 1970 Peak: 27 US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU, 12 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Genre: folk rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Uncle John’s Band (7/1/70, 69 BB, 4 CL, 6 DF) High Time Dire Wolf (5/2/81, 16 CL, 37 AR, 27 DF) New Speedway Boogie (21 CL) Cumberland Blues Black Peter Easy Wind Casey Jones (3 CL, 11 DF) Total Running Time: 35:33 The Players: Jerry Garcia (vocals, guitar, piano) Mickey Hart (percussion) Robert Hunter (lyrics) Bill Kreutzmann (drums) Phil Lesh (bass, guitar, piano, vocals) Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (harmonica, vocals) Bob Weir (guitar, vocals)

Rating: 4.307 out of 5.00 (average of 20 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

From Psychedelic to Roots Rock The “Dead are long-term champions of the mind-shredding psychic frontier.” JSH Prior to this album, they “were already established as paragons of the free-form, improvisational San Francisco psychedelic sound.” AM Their previous album, Live/Dead, was “their magnum opus of the free-jamming style.” JSH Then they “abruptly shifted gears for the acoustic Workingman’s Dead” AM and “concentrated on writing a more concise series of songs.” JSH The group was also in a position where they needed to make the album cheaply. They owed Warner Bros. nearly $200,000 and were in trouble with the law after a marijuana bust. This compelled lead singer Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter to return to their “roots and come up with a collection of tight, melodic songs with a simple acoustic framework.” TB The band “knew exactly what needed to be done right from the start – and the simplicity of the arrangements made the going that much easier.” TB “Despite its sharp contrast to the epic live space jams on which the group’s legend primarily rests, Workingman’s Dead nonetheless spotlights the Dead at their most engaging, stripped of all excess to reveal the true essence of their craft.” AM They offer up “a lovely exploration of American roots music illuminating the group’s country, blues, and folk influences.” AM “There’s a rollicking western outlaw spirit to this album that actually lives up to the album cover, which shows ‘em hangin’ out in a railyard like hippie hobos.” JSH They churn out “eight spooky blues and country songs that rival the best of Bob Dylan.” 500 Joe S. Harrington, in writing for the web zine Blastitude, called it “the best country-rock album of all-time.” JSH It was also their commercial breakthrough. The Influence of CSN The sound was influenced by the band’s friendship with Crosby, Stills & Nash. Grateful Dead frontman Garcia said, “Hearing those guys sing and how nice they sounded together, we thought, ‘We can try that.’” WK He also said, “We weren’t feeling like an experimental music group, but were feeling more like a good old band.” 500 Drummer Mickey Hart further explained that “Stills lived with me for three months…and he and David Crosby really turned Jerry and Bobby onto the voice as the holy instrument…That turned us away from pure improvisation and more toward songs.” WK The Title The album’s title came from a comment Garcia made to lyricist Robert Hunter (who is featured on the album cover as the band’s seventh member) that “this album was turning into the Workingman’s Dead version of the band.” WK The Songs Garcia and Hunter “proved themselves one of rock’s sharpest songwriting teams, with the acoustic hymn Uncle John’s Band, “a nod to the three-part harmonizing” of CSN. TB Hunter said, ‘It was my feeling about what the Dead was and could be. It was very much a song for us and about us, in the most hopeful sense.’” 500 It “opens the record and perfectly summarizes its subtle, spare beauty; complete with a new focus on more concise songs and tighter arrangements, the approach works brilliantly.” AM That song as well as “the countrified” TB “High Time and Cumberland Blues were brought to life with soaring harmonies and layered vocal textures that had not been a part of the band’s sound” WK previously. There’s also the “slow blues” TB of Black Peter. The album features “Garcia’s best singing ever” on Casey Jones and the “amazing Dire Wolf,” JSH which Harrington calls “purely American expression…as good as Hank Williams or the Everly Brothers.” JSH New Speedway Boogie “is the Dead’s ode to Altamont, and it’s one of their best rockers.” JSH Notes: An expanded edition was released in 2003 which included an alternate mix of “New Speedway Boogie” as well as live versions of “Dire Wolf,” “Black Peter,” “Easy Wind,” “Cumberland Blues,” “Mason’s Children,” and “Uncle John’s Band.”

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Jason Ankeny JSH Blastitude (2003). “A Loaded Proposition: Joe S. Harrington Picks the All-Time Top 100 Or…Who Pulled the Trigger?” by Joe S. Harrington 500 Rolling Stone (12/21/2023). “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 130. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 8/1/2011; last updated 11/4/2025.