"Waiting For The Robert E Lee"- AL JOLSON

[ensconse]

Nice record but how I wish there was a 1920s AJ version! :)

[1fornone]

Must be an Orthophonic machine to deliver that sort of fidelity..

[gramophoneshane]

@1fornone Yes, it's HMV's improved version of Victors orthophonic machines. 

[Jim1Johnson]

San Francisco influence. As a boy in Seattle, my father bought a powerful radio. I would listen to The Saturday Night Platter Party on KGO in San Francisco. I learned to love this and similar music played every Saturday. There were no local stations that played this music.

[madamerotten]

Wow! This is so great!

[okhyang]

This is so great......

[xmenrus]

As an 11 year old boy I would sit on a Saturday in San Frncisco in our living room and listen to Al Jolson 78 RPM'S on our RCA radio/record player and listen to Al belt the tunes out for hours. For 40 years if a song writer wanted a hit he would give his song to Al Jolson to interpret. "Sonny Boy' was actually a joke on Al but, sure enough, it became a monstrous hit!

[carlotta306]

splendido,grazie

[K8USW]

I used to have the entire Souvenir album by Al Jolson (several 78 RPM's) which this song was on. My sister knocked it off the record stand and broke them all. I haven't heard this since then and was really glad to hear it again!!!!

[madamerotten]

Amazing!

[EmpressDR]

I remember when I was in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the TV stations used to play Jolson songs just prior to signing-on-air. I think it was KRON the NBC channel. I used to love listening. They had the instrumental versions and the vocal versions alternating. Thus, I gained a real appreciation of Jolson. Later I saw the Jolson Story and Sings Again, recognizing the songs. I remember this version --with the intro. BTW "Shuffling Along" was the name of a breakthrough musical see Wikipedia

[WeekendinLondon]

Thanks for posting this. What a voice! What a song. My dad's 78 rpm record of this song broke when I was a kid, and I haven't heard it since, as most of the Jolson collections do not include it.