“OKeh Crying Record” ca 1923
There is not a lot of information about this record out there. I could not find an exact recording date or the names of any of the performers. It did come out after the success of the “OKey Laughing Record” from 1922 and is in a series of release numbers from 1923 and 1924. So, I decided it was more or less 1923. Like the “OKeh Laughing Record” it was recorded in Europe and imported to the USA on the OKeh label. If you think the “OKeh Laughing Record” is a bit obnoxious, wait until you hear this one!
If you like (or hate) this one check out the "Okeh Laughing Record":
• "The OKeh Laughing Rec...
From the Library of Congress article on The OKeh Laughing record:
“OKeh (originally “OKeH”) was a record company founded in 1918 by German-born Otto K.E. Heinemann and drew its name from both his initials and, reportedly, from the 19th Century Anglo-American spelling of a Choctaw Indian phrase that means “it is so.” Though today best known for releasing a variety of early “race” records (including several by Mamie Smith), OKeh was also an important early importer of foreign-produced recordings especially those manufactured in Germany where Heinemann still had contacts.
Once renamed and released as the “OKeh Laughing Record” in the US, the recording proved as successful on American soil as it had been on foreign shores. Though exact figures are hard, if not impossible, to verify, various sources theorize that more than a million pressings of the original “OKeh” were sold, an extraordinary feat in those days before music superstores and digital downloads. Soon the recording’s inexplicable, surprising success inspired a host of imitators, copy cats and pseudo sequels.
The OKeh label itself issued the self-explanatory “Second Laughing Record” and “The OKeh Laughing Dance Record” as well as the equal-time-inclined “OKeh Crying Record” all before the end of the decade. In late 1922, there seemed to also have been an unlicensed American remake issued over Cardinal/Gennett. It featured American vaudevillians and emerging recording stars Al. H. Weston and Irene Young guffawing over a soprano saxophone. Perhaps because they were easy and quick to produce, a host of other “laughing” records also soon flooded the market, effectively creating their own bizarre subgenre. How they were ultimately used-as party background noise or for cheering up its listeners-is, of course, open to speculation.“
Wikipedia article on OKeh Records:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okeh_Re...