Ada Jones

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Ada Jones was an English-American singer from the early days of recorded music. She was born in Lancashire in 1873 and moved with her family to Philadelphia when she was six. As early as the 1880s she was on stage as a child. She sang as an alto, learned her songs by ear and could not read music or play an instrument.

Music and breakthrough

In 1893 and 1894 she recorded for Edison Records on wax cylinders. This made her one of the first women to be recorded. After that her recording career collapsed when one of her record companies disappeared. She did not return to the studio until 1905. Her repertoire consisted of ballads, ragtime, vaudeville and comic songs in all kinds of dialects. She sang together with Billy Murray, Cal Stewart, Len Spencer and the American Quartet, among others. She also recorded duets with her daughter Sheilah. Travelling and performing became difficult for her because of epilepsy.

Influence

In 1909 she recorded The Yama Yama Man with the Victor Light Opera Company. It became the most popular song of her career and a bestseller. She died in North Carolina in 1922. Her recordings let us hear how pop music sounded in the days when the public still listened to a gramophone with a horn, and singers then had to put comedy and theatre above all into their voices.

Listening