Mary had a little lamb-First Thomas Edison recording 1877 -put to electronic music

Mary had a little lamb-1/22/2012-Frank O' The Mountain

So Edison spoke these words into his tin foil recorder in 1877:
"Mary had a little lamb, Mary... Mary had a little little lamb....ha ha ha ha ha".
It was thought that the original recording was lost, but alas, it has popped up on Youtube. Seems someone put it onto a vinyl record at one point. In the 90's, I was searching for the original recording so I could make a song with it, but had no luck. I even called the Edison museum, and they said it was destroyed by playing it for visitors at the museum. They said it disintegrated and that no copies existed. I made a song with myself saying "mary had a little lamb" back then, but it did not seem nearly as fun.

So here is a little electronic music sequence sampling Thomas as he records voice for the 1st time.

I know there were others who were experimenting with audio recording dating back to 1857. Edison was the first to do it, AND play it back, AND market a playback machine. In his old age, Edison on hearing audio playback for the 1st time: "I was never so taken aback in my life". People were really spooked by the talkie box.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• thomas
• edison
• Mary
• had
• little
• lamb
• first
• record
• audio
• inventor
• 1/22/2012
• Frank
• O'
• The
• Mountain

[CarsonsClub]

I really love what you did with my recording. It came from a german LP called "Das Programm des Jahrhunderts" (Program of the Century 96 original recordings) from Polydor. Number code for the LP 2371 667 for the MC version 3150 667 This recording is displayed as >>18th July 1877 Thomas Alva Edison is saying "Mary had a little lamb" and is laughing. First audio recording of the world. Edison Macine<<

[frankothemountain]

@CarsonsClub Oh cool thanks!

[frankothemountain]

@CarsonsClub Is this it? playitagainsam-online.de/index­.php?a=83842&lang=eng

[frankothemountain]

@CarsonsClub need to add w w w at the beginning.

[citizenkong]

Neat. It sounded like he really had to yell into the contraption.

When I was a kid researching for a science project I came across plans for a recorder that used aluminum foil wrapped around a frozen orange juice can. It needed stuff that I couldn't find and it was kinda complicated. I should have asked my dad to build it for me like all the other kids.

[frankothemountain]

@citizenkong Yeah I was thinking about making one with the kid. Good science project. Saw a few kits out there.

[CarsonsClub]

Just for completion, cause you might wonder about the rarity. It's mentioned that most part of these recordings came from the sound archive of the german grammophone company. Some important records were delivered by the german broadcast archive Frankfurt

[CarsonsClub]

THe LP was issued 1977 to celebrate 100 years of voice recording with a beautiful booklet displaying 10 decades of sound recording. Funniest anecdote mentioned there came from an american critic about vinyl records. "This is the greatest thing a needle had ever sit down since Marilyn Monroe was vaccinated against smallpox"

[CarsonsClub]

Maybe also interesting: 02.01.1959 Lunik 1 in space (radio recording from an observatory 10sec

and American Countdown from the launching site in Florida (TV Satelite audio) 8 sec

12. September 1960 Nikita S. Chruschtschow at the UN plenary assembly 15sec

1961 Interview with the Beatles in german language 25 sec

1904 Alessandro Moreschi "Oremus pro Pontefice" (Sopran Castrato) Sistine Chapel Rome

Gramophone concert. Electrical Matrixcopy from the only recordseries made with a Castrato

[CarsonsClub]

Further records from this LP:

Niggerdance performed by the US Military Band at the World Fair in Paris in 1900 Edison Machine 20 sec.

Emperor Franz Joseph I. Speech of the austrian emporer after demonstrating an edison phonograph at the Paris Worl Fair at the austrian exhibition stand in 1900 Edison Machine 10 sec

Enrico Caruso "And the stars were sparkling" from Tosca (Puccini 1 minute) Matrix copy

[Roobert33]

"Great man Edison"

Nice video, thanks :)