Arthur Francis Collins (February 7, 1864 – August 2, 1933) was an American baritone who was one of the pioneer recording artists, regarded in his day as "King of the Ragtime Singers".

Biography

Collins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and moved with his family to Barnegat, New Jersey, around 1879 and as a teenager worked as a volunteer lifeguard on the Jersey shore, beginning an enthusiasm for sailing that became a lifelong pursuit. However, his fine baritone voice – heard in church and in local concert appearances – convinced Collins' family to send him back to Philadelphia for formal training. After concluding his studies, Collins spent some 15 years touring with various stock companies and appearing in summer opera in St. Louis. None of these ventures turned out any long term prospects for Collins, and when he married actress and singer Anna Leah Connelly in 1895, Collins swore off show business and decided to study for a career in bookkeeping. Taking occasional roles for extra money, Collins appeared in a production given by the DeWolf Hopper Opera Company in 1898, and talent scouts for Edison Records requested Collins audition which, according to his wife, took place on May 16, 1898. Within a few years, Collins proved one of the most productive and successful singers in the record business, and in his long career between 1898 and 1926, he worked for every record company active in the United States. He specialized in what were then called coon songs; popular African-American dialect numbers associated with vaudeville and minstrel shows. Collins also utilized an array of vocal effects and caricature voices which gave the impression that there were multiple persons at the horn on his recordings, though it was just Collins. Towards making that end of it more effective, Collins began to work in a duo format with tenor Joe Natus in 1901 and both sang in an Edison group called the Big Four Quartet. It is assumed that Collins first came into contact with tenor Byron G. Harlan within the context of the Big Four Quartet, and from then until the end of Collins' career in the early 1920s, Harlan was Collins's duet partner. Collins & Harlan were probably the most famous and popular male duo on early records. In 1909, Collins joined John H. Meyer, Henry Burr, and Albert Campbell in the Peerless Quartet, a successful barbershop music group which toured as the Record Makers, and later as the Eight Popular Victor Artists. However, by 1917, bass Frank Croxton began to replace Collins on some records, a situation that became permanent by mid-1919 as Collins did not get along with Burr, who also served as the group's manager. During a personal appearance at the Princess Theater in Medina, Ohio on October 20, 1921, Collins was badly injured when he fell through an open trap door. While he recovered well enough to resume his singing and recording career, his health began to decline afterward and, in 1926, Collins retired, relocating to Florida with his wife. He died at the age of 69 in Tice, Florida on August 2, 1933.

Recordings and legacy

Arthur Collins recorded hundreds of songs, and in many cases he recorded the same song multiple times for various recording outfits. His signature song was Arthur Longbrake's The Preacher and the Bear, which he first recorded in 1905. His rendition, widely dispersed among a variety of releases, constitutes the most popular non-operatic record made during the first decade of the twentieth century. Collins was still recording the number in 1922, and a 1908 remake of the piece for Victor remained in their catalog until 1941; at his personal appearances "The Preacher and the Bear" was invariably requested. His recording sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc, only the second one ever presented. Collins lived up to his reputation as the "King of Ragtime Singers" and recorded more ragtime songs than any other singer during the era when ragtime was at its peak of popularity. Collins recorded some of Bert Williams's songs before Williams did, and even recorded some numbers associated with Williams that the latter never waxed. Collins and Harlan also made best-selling records of tunes such as "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee", "Alexander's Ragtime Band", "Lily of the Valley", and "The Old Grey Mare". Collins survived into the early years of the Jazz Age, and he and Harlan recorded the earliest record known to mention jazz, "That Funny Jas Band from Dixieland" (Victor 18235, recorded January 12, 1917). Some of his songs can be listened to online.

Selected discography

1890s

1898 1899

1900s

1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909

1910s

1910 1911 1912 1913 1916 1918 1919

1920s

1920

1924

† Indicates a recording that reached number one on sales charts.