It's sung by Arthur Altman. It is a record. It's sung by Arthur Altman.
Sing me to sleep, I heard a man fall At the suburban music hall He was a long-haired tenor bold Voiced like a crow with a terrible cold Sing me to sleep, he yelled once more The audience ground and looked at the door Half of them rushed to get outside Then from the pit a loud voice cried Your voice is awful, what can we sling? We'll stop that song that you're bursting to sing Just then a half-breed from by us wept And on his napper and put him to sleep
Transcribed by AI from the recording above. These are noisy hundred-year-old cylinders, so expect misheard words and the occasional invented line — trust your ears over the text.
This transfer and transcript: CC BY 4.0. The performance itself is public domain. Free to reuse, including commercially, with credit.
Arthur Osmond stage name of Arthur Gilbert
A stage name — UCSB's catalogue annotates every one of these cylinders “Arthur Osmond [i.e. Arthur Gilbert]”. Gilbert was a recording engineer as well as a singer, and recorded comic songs with orchestra for several labels under more than one name. The practice was routine: studio singers moved between companies under whatever name a contract allowed.
Written from UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive. Corrections welcome.