Morton Harvey sings \"I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier\" on Victor 17716.
It was moderately successful (not easy to find--but not impossible). The issued take was recorded on January 8, 1915. An earlier take of December 30, 1914 was rejected. The song was copyrighted by composer Al Piantadosi on December 19, 1914 (lyrics were supplied by Alfred Bryan), which means Victor executives wasted no time recording it.
It remained available in the Victor catalog for the duration of America's neutrality and slightly beyond. As its title suggests, the song has an anti-war theme and urged non-intervention. I
It no longer fit our nation's mood after America entered the European conflict. The Victor Talking Machine Company committed itself to patriotic numbers throughout 1918.
The disc is listed in the November 1917 catalog but is missing from the May 1918 catalog.
Ten million soldiers to the war have
gone who may never return again.
Ten million mothers'
hearts must break
for the ones who died in vain.
Head bowed down in sorrow
in her lonely years, I heard a
mother murmur thru' her tears:
I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier!
I brought him up to be my pride and joy.
Who dares to place a musket on his shoulder
To shoot some other mother's darling boy?
Let nations arbitrate their future troubles.
It's time to lay the sword and gun away.
There'd be no war today
If mothers all would say,
\"I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier.\"
What victory can cheer a mother's
heart when she looks at her blighted
home? What victory can bring her
back all she cared to call her own?
Let each mother answer in the
years to be, \"Remember that my
boy belongs to me!\"
Morton Harvey (1886 - 15 August 1961) was a baritone identified as \"tenor\" on Victor records.
He was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His paternal grandfather, T. W. Harvey, brought the first Aberdeen Angus cattle over to America and later founded the town of Harvey, Illinois.
His family discouraged young Morton's theatrical ambitions, instead wanting him to become a preacher. However, at the prompting of Phil Schwartz, an employee of the Jerome Remick music firm, Harvey went to Chicago to try out for a road show of The Time, the Place and the Girl. He joined the chorus and finally got a chance to play the organ grinder.
After the show disbanded in 1913, he found work in motion picture theaters which featured illustrated songs between silent films. While in Memphis he was signed up by the Al. G. Field Greater Minstrels organization. Alfred Solman heard Harvey sing when the company passed through New York and introduced him to Billy Murray, who told the young performer to look him up when the troupe's season closed. When Harvey did, Murray took him to companies for auditions, which in turn led to recording dates.
His first Victor discs were issued in December 1914. \"At the Ball, That's All\" was coupled on 17649 with Collins and Harlan's \"Do the Funny Fox Trot.\" \"I Want to Go Back to Michigan\" on 17650 was coupled with the American Quartet's \"At the Mississippi Cabaret.\"
His rendition of W.C. Handy's \"Memphis Blues\" (17657)--cut on October 2, 1914, and issued in early 1915--is the earliest known vocal record of a song with \"blues\" in the title.
His records continued to be listed regularly in Victor supplements through September 1917, the last release being \"From Me to Mandy Lee\" (18206). The label for \"The Melody of My Dream\" (18151) is unusual in that it states below the title, \"Composed by 'Unknown.'\"
The baritone (or tenor, as Victor insisted) made several recordings for Edison in 1915, two of which were issued on both Diamond Discs and Blue Amberol cylinders--\"There's a Bungalow in Dixieland\" and \"In the Hills of Old Kentucky.\" His sole Columbia effort, \"They're Wearing 'Em Higher In Hawaii,\" was recorded on November 15, 1916 and issued on A2143, backed by George H. O'Connor's \"Pray for the Lights to Go Out.\"
He returned to Victor on December 1, 1916 and again on March 21, 1917 to record an additional five titles, but no performances from these sessions were issued.
While touring in Chicago, they met C. L. Carrell, who was selling transcriptions to radio stations. He urged the Harveys to move to Ponca City, Oklahoma, to manage a radio station and build up good will. They remained there 14 years before relocating to the West Coast following America's declaration of war.
Harvey spent most of the WWII years as an instructor on job relations in the San Francisco area for the War Manpower Commission. After D-Day he was in charge of personnel at a nearby Army hospital. When it closed in 1946, he purchased a photography studio in Los Gatos, California.
