What was the first-ever single released by Columbia Records?
While many like to perceive record companies as the money-grabbing scourge of the industry, there’s no denying that without their support of artists and financial input to the commercial availability of the medium, then music would probably still be an art form reserved for the upper classes, just as it was during the era of classical composers. You might still want to debate that this is the case, but the birth of record labels directly coincides with the gradual popularisation of music and the rapid diversification of styles that has helped the music industry become what it is today.
While today, the market is dominated by streaming platforms and the digital consumption of music, there have been many other formats that have been popular over the years, resulting in periods where CDs, cassettes and vinyl records have been the preferred means of owning and listening to your favourite music. However, long before any of these inventions, the earliest available physical releases were recorded onto phonograph cylinders; a primitive means of hearing recorded sound, that while remarkably functional, was also unwieldy and quickly rendered obsolete by more convenient formats.
As far as established record labels go, one of the first to begin releasing these cylinders was Columbia Records, a titan that still remains standing today despite having first formed as an entity in 1889. Set up by New Jersey businessman and lawyer Edward D Easton, the company quickly struck a monopoly on the East Coast of America when it came to the manufacturing and sale of phonograph cylinders and the players that inventor Thomas Edison had patented.
But considering this was an entirely new medium, what demand was there to own physical recordings, and what were the first singles released on the fledgling label if so few people were able to purchase them? While the label may have gone on to have immense success with some of the best-selling artists of all time, including Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé and Adele, things began with some more unusual releases, and it all stemmed from an era where pop and rock megastars didn’t even exist.
What was the first single released by Columbia Records?
There might not have been any big bands in 1889, but there was certainly a ‘big band’ that the public wished to buy the records of, and remarkably, they’re still going today. In fact, the first handful of releases on Columbia Records were all attributed to the US Marine Band, with them recording 49 individually listed songs as part of the label’s first official catalogue, dated October 1st, 1890.
According to online music database Rate Your Music, the first recording of the US Marine Band to be released as part of the catalogue was ‘Hornpipe Polka’, which is a crackly two-minute recording of a brass band playing a rousing march under the guidance of bandleader John Philip Sousa. Within the first three years of the label, the band would go on to record over 200 cylinders for Columbia with Sousa at the helm, before he later departed to form his own concert band.
Allegedly, due to the limitations of the recording methods, not all members of the band were able to be recorded in a close enough proximity to one another, meaning that only around a dozen performers were able to contribute to the recordings and be picked up with enough clarity to be heard when played back. It may not be the finest recording ever heard, but is certainly a remarkable achievement in showcasing early recording capabilities.
Despite there being plenty of recordings issued by Columbia in the cylinder format in the early years of the label, they would move on to pressing onto the now standardised phonograph records onto brown and black wax by the start of the 20th century, and began to move onto releasing works by singers from the Metropolitan Opera and signing some of the first contracts for the label. It may now be one of the most significant labels in the world, and a subsidiary of Sony, but its humble beginnings are a reminder of just how far we’ve come technologically since the first recorded music became available at the end of the 19th century.
