Vintage Audio - 1917
This page of the Vintage Audio section of the website contains archive recordings of songs, skits and speeches from the fourth year of the war, 1917.
This was a tumultuous year which saw America enter the war, the British sustain huge losses at Passchendaele and the French along the Aisne - and the onset of two revolutions in Russia, in February and again in October.
Each recording is titled along with its performer. All files are in MP3 and Adobe Flash format. Sound quality is, alas, sometimes poor, indicative of the state of the then art of sound recording. Lyrics and the text of speeches accompany many files listed.
| Song and Artist | Listen and Download |
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Don't Take My Darling Boy Away J Philips and Helen Clark |
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Keep the Home Fires Burning John McCormack |
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When I Get Back to the U.S.A. Billy Murray |
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| Pack Up Your Troubles Reinald Werrenrath |
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| Welcoming U.S. Troops to France Joseph Joffre |
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Labor's Service to Freedom Samuel Gompers |
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There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding John McCormack |
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| A Bachelor Gay Peter Dawson |
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| Never Mind the Food Controller Florrie Forde |
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Send Me Away With a Smile John McCormack |
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| In the Trenches Major A E Rees |
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| On the British Empire Eleutherios Venizelos |
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| I've a Bit of a 'Blighty One' Vesta Tilley |
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| At the Front Newton Baker |
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I Don't Know Where I'm Going But... Peerless Quartet |
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| Liberty Bell (It's Time to Ring Again) Peerless Quartet |
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| Lloyd George's Beer Ernie Mayne |
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| Fundraising John D Rockefeller |
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| Smoke Clouds Herbert Payne |
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| Sugar Ernie Mayne |
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| Monte Canino Italian Alpine Troops |
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| Have You News of my Boy Jack? Louise Kirkby-Lunn |
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| The Republic Must Awaken Warren G Harding |
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Farmyard on the Brain Ernie Mayne |
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Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty Florrie Forde |
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| Over There Nora Bayes |
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| I'd Feel at Home if They'd Let... Billy Murray |
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| Call of America James Hamilton Lewis |
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| Roses of Picardy Ernest Pike |
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| It's a Long Way to Berlin, But We'll... Maurice Burkhart |
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| My Meatless Day Ernie Mayne |
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| Somewhere in France is a Lily Henry Burr |
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| Over There Billy Murray |
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| Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh! American Quartet & Billy Murray |
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| American Rights William Gibbs McAdoo |
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| Loyalty and German-Americans James W. Gerard |
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| Where Do We Go From Here? Arthur Fields |
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| Announcing Italian Defeat at Caporetto Luigi Cadorna |
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French tanks were used for the first time in battle on 17 April 1917, when the 'Char Schneider' (as they were known) was used during the Second Battle of the Aisne.
- Did you know?
