1923 - Henry Whitter - "Wreck of the Old 97"

Though he did not write the song, Henry Whitter was the first one to record the old-time railroad ballad "Wreck of the Old 97", back in 1923, on Okeh Records. This particular recording was taken from a podcast of old 78 rpm vinyl recordings, played over the internet by WFMU (www.wfmu.org) on November 20, 2007. The original link is http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25299 if you'd like to go check out that whole show and/or grab the original file as broadcasted by WFMU. I hunted around for a long, long time before I was able to find this, so I hope my posting of it on YouTube saved you a lot of trouble. I also hope you enjoy hearing the original, first ever recording of this great song, played from an original old 78 record. :) G.B. Grayson may or may not have been on the recording as well with Whitter; I don't know which is correct. For what it's worth, WFMU credited the song to both Grayson and Whitter on their page that had the recording.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Grayson
• Whitter
• Wreck of the Old 97
• railroad
• song
• ballad

[NewHavenPatriot]

You're welcome, folks. :)

[cm913]

Wow - my great grandfather, David Graves George, wrote the lyrics to Wreck of the Old 97. Thanks for posting this.

[zambalabino]

histori-cool!



[merenderos97]

great song

[musicmandon1]

I'm familiar with that radio show on WFMU. They play a lot of pretty nondescript stuff, then from nowhere at all they dig up a treasure like this one. And what a find it is.

[Mandolin1944]

Wonderful recording thanks for the post!

[InnerSmile72]

Johnny Cash has the best version! WHOA!

[silvanski]

there's also Ernest Thompson's version...1924/25 or so

[lepete315]

Great song. Like this one and the one by Vernon Dalhart. Great music don't make music like this anymore

[fiddlinshim]

That was Henry Whitter without G.B. Grayson. If I recall correctly, they didn't meet until 1925 , at the Mountain City, TN, fiddlers convention.