Joseph Cyrus Smith (August 13, 1883 – March 22, 1965) was an American violinist, composer, dance band leader and recording artist most popular in the second and third decades of the 20th century.

Biography

Joseph Cyrus Smith was born in

Sag Harbor, New York Sag Harbor is an Administrative divisions of New York#Village, incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, in the Administrative divisions of New York#Town, towns of Southampton, New York, Southampton and East Hampton (town) ...

in 1883. He was of Russian ancestry on his father's side, and Austrian on his mother's. He was a working musician by the time he was 16, and by 1903 was known for working in dance bands. In 1914 he landed the important post as resident dance band at New York's

Plaza Hotel The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, ...

, where he stayed for nine years. He moved to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and began a sequence of broadcasts on station

CKAC CKAC is a Canadian French, French-language radio station located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Owned by Cogeco, the station operates as a commercial travelers' information station, traffic information service branded as ''Radio Circulation 730''. ...

. In the late 1920s he traveled widely as leader, including Canada, Europe, and both coasts of the United States. From the 1920s through the 1940s he worked as an arranger for the Robbins Music Corporation. He settled down in the New York City area in the 1930s, and retired in 1945, moving to Florida. He died of a myocardial infarction at a

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

hospital on March 22, 1965. At the time of his death he was married to Margaret Lynch.

Style

Smith was instrumental in the transition from the heavy sound of military marching bands so popular before World War 1 to the lighter sounding dance music of the 1920s. Most of his recorded output are instrumentals, although

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became ...

would sometimes assign an in-house vocalist to some sides. He was the first to record a

Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became Standard (music), standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway the ...

song. Although not a jazz unit as thought of in the modern sense, Smith did often use jazz colorings in his arrangements. It was Smith's lack of use of instrumental soloists that led to his sound becoming outdated and the corresponding decline in his popularity as a recording artist.

Recordings

Smith was active as a recording artist from 1916 until 1925. He first recording session was for Victor, and his first recordings met with mediocre success, but in late 1917 several of his records became big sellers.

Joel Whitburn Joel Carver Whitburn (November 29, 1939 – June 14, 2022) was an American author and music historian, responsible for setting up the Record Research, Inc. series of books on record chart placings. Early life Joel Carver Whitburn was born in W ...

estimates that 21 of his records were among the top-15 in popularity at some point. His recording of ''Smiles'', featuring Harry Macdonough on vocals, is estimated to have been the #1 record for a week in August 1918. Many of his records featured medleys taken from current Broadway shows. By 1922 his records were not selling as well, and he made his last recordings for Victor in March of that year. He then recorded briefly for

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History 1916–1929 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing ...

in 1923. He last recorded in Montreal in 1925.

Notable alumni

Hugo Frey (14 April 1915 – 6 March 1944) was a Luftwaffe fighter ace, ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II. On 6 March 1944, Frey was killed over Sleen, the Netherlands after attacking a formation of Boeing B-17 ...

* Fred Guy * Harry Raderman

Compositions

* ''Lovely Summertime''

Discography

* ''Songs of the Night: Dance Recordings, 1916–1925'' ( Archeophone, 2015)

References

External links

Joseph C. Smith recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database catalog of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The 78rpm era was the time period in which any flat disc records were being played at ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Joseph C. 1883 births 1965 deaths Victor Records artists Brunswick Records artists American male violinists People from Sag Harbor, New York Musicians from New York (state) 20th-century American violinists 20th-century American male musicians