Mayol, singing "Amour de Trottin" on Pathé #3927
(MP3 format, approx. 600Kb)

Description:

Felix Mayol was born at Toulon in 1872, and died in the same city in 1941. He was one of the most famous singers of the Cafe-Concert and Music-Hall eras. It is believed that he composed over 1500 songs, although 250 to 275 were recorded. In 1930, Mayol said he composed 495 songs, but "limited" himself to 500.

A very comprehensive page about Mayol can be found here. This page links to his discography, his songs, and the complete recording of Amour de Trottin (5 minutes) with lyrics.

This particular recording of Amour de Trottin was originally released on Céleste cylinder (link above), a very special format (as big as two concert cylinders stuck together), which last 5 minutes at normal speed (up to 15 at lower speed). Because Céleste cylinders were extremely expensive (the machine itself cost 1000 french francs), some titles were also released on two Salon cylinders. The cylinder featured here is the first part of the whole song, hence the straight ending before the piano stops.

Left: we can see that this cylinder is the first part of the song: N°1 is written just right to the original number.