Collins & Harlan, the team of American singers
Arthur Collins and
Byron G. Harlan, formed a popular comic duo between 1903 and 1926. They sang
ragtime
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its Syncopation, syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers ...
standards as well as what were known as "
coon songs" – music sung by white performers in a black dialect. Their material also employed many other stereotypes of the time including Irishmen and farmers. Rival recording artist
Billy Murray nicknamed them "The Half-Ton Duo" as both men were rather overweight. Collins and Harlan produced many number one hits with recordings of minstrel songs such as "My Gal Irene", "I Know Dat I'll be Happy Til I Die", "Who Do You Love?" and "Down Among the Sugarcane". Their song "That Funny Jas Band from Dixieland", recorded November 8, 1916, is among the first recorded uses of the word "jas" which eventually evolved to "jass", and to the current spelling "
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
".
Songs by year
;1902
"First Rehearsal for the Husking Bee", "Jerry Murphy is a Friend of Mine", "Two Rubes in a Tavern",
"The Troubles of the Reuben and the Maid", "Under the Bamboo Tree", "Down Where the Wurtzburger Flows"
;1903
"It Was The Dutch", "Parody on Hiawatha", "Moriarity", "Hurrah For Baffin's Bay", "They Were All Doing the Same", "Oh, Didn't He Ramble?", "He was a Sailor", "Strike Out McCracken", "Closing Time at the Country Grocery", "Trouble",
;1904
"What Would the Neighbors Say?", "Barney", "
Under the Anheuser Bush", "Goodbye, Fedora", "Possum Pie", "Down on the Brandywine", "Gone, Gone, Gone", "Village Maid", "Heinie", "
Does You Love Me As You Used To, Miss Jane?"
;1905
"Tammany", "Leader of the German Band", "Mule Song", "Down Where the Sweet Potatoes Grow", "Coax Me", "Oh, Oh, Sallie", "Jaspar, Don't You Hear Me Calling You?", "Murphy", "Farewell Mister Abner Hemingway", "Peter Piper", "Take a Car", "Come on, Little Girl, Come Along", "Hey! Mister Joshua"
;1906
"Camp Meeting Time", "Nigger Loves His Possum", "I'm A-Dreaming of You", "Out in an Automobile", "My Lovin' Henry", "Central, Give Me Back My Dime", "Gretchen", "Traveling", "When Mose With His Nose Leads the Band", "It's Up to You to Move", "Honey, Won't You Love Me Like You Used to?", "Come Take a Skate With Me", "Susan, Kiss Me Good and Hard", "Won't You Leave Your Happy Home For Me?", "Afloat On a Five Dollar Note", "Anxious"
;1907
"Arrah Wanna", "Good-a-Bye John", "I'm Thinkin' Bout You Honey All the Time", "Won't You Throw a Kiss To Me", "I'm Keeping My Love-Lamp Burning For You", "Lovin' Time", "And a Little Bit More", "Every Little Bit, Added to What You've Got", "Just Help Yourself", "I'm Runnin' After Nancy", "Who Do You Love?", "Bake Dat Chicken Pie", "I Know Dat I'll be Happy Til I Die"
;1908
"Down in Jungle Town", "My Gal Irene", "Come on and Kiss Your Baby", "Nothing Hardly Ever Troubles Me", "Cohan's Rage Babe", "A High Old Time in Dixie", "Alexander and His Clarinet", " My Brudda Sylvest'"
;1909
"Down Among The Sugar Cane", "My Wife's Gone to the Country", "The Right Church, But the Wrong Pew", "Alabam
;1910
"Ain't You Coming Out Tonight?", " Casey Jones", "Swingin in De Sky", "The Chanticleer Rag"Alexander's Ragtime Band
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" is a Tin Pan Alley song by American composer Irving Berlin released in 1911; it is often inaccurately cited as his first global hit. Despite its title, the song is a march as opposed to a rag and contains little sync ...
", "Baby Rose", "On Mobile Bay"
;1912
"Hitchy-Koo", " The Ragtime Soldier Man"
;1913
"When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam, "The International Rag", "Melinda's Wedding Day", "At the Levee on Revival Day"
;1914
" Aba Daba Honeymoon", "I Love the Ladies", "It's a Very Easy Thing to Put a Ring Upon a Finger, But Try to Take it Off"
;1915
" Alabama Jubilee", "Auntie Skinner's Chicken Dinner", "Those Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
Feet"
;1916
"That Funny Jas Band from Dixieland", "Oh, How She Could Yacki Hacki Wicki Wachi Woo (That's Love in Honolulu)", "All Aboard for Chinatown", "At the Old Plantation Ball", "Come Along to Caroline"
See also
*Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley was a collection of History of music publishing, music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the American popular music, popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally ...
*Minstrel Show
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of Afr ...
References
;General
*
External links
That Funny Jas Band from Dixieland (1916) on Archive.orgCollected Works of Collins & Harlan Part 1Collected Works of Collins & Harlan Part 2Collected Works of Collins & Harlan Part 3Collected Works of Collins & Harlan Part 4Collins & Harlan cylinder recordings
from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...
Library.
Collins and Harlan recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
*
Discography at 45worlds.com/78rpm/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins and Harlan
American comedy duos
American comedy musical groups