Billy Murray

Billy Murray was the most successful recording artist of the acoustic era of recording that stretched from before the turn of the 20th century to the mid-'20s. He possessed a penetrating tenor voice, a strong sense of phrasing and enunciation, and a comic style that overcame the sonic limitations of early recording. The first singer ever to make a living solely from recording, he is ranked by chart researcher Joel Whitburn as the top recording artist of the first decade of the 20th century, and journalist Jim Walsh estimated that he was also the biggest record-seller of the pe...