Vernon Dalhart - wikipedia Vernon Dalhart Vernon Dalhart Dalhart in 1917 Background information Birth name Marion Try Slaughter ( 1883 - 04 - 06 ) April 6, 1883 Jefferson, Texas September 14, 1948 ( 1948 - 09 - 14 ) ( aged 65 ) Bridgeport, Connecticut Genres Country Occupation ( s ) Singer, songwriter Years active 1913 -- 1940 Labels Edison, RCA Victor, Columbia, Old Homestead Marion Try Slaughter ( April 6, 1883 -- September 14, 1948 ), better known by his stage name Vernon Dalhart, was a country music singer and songwriter. He recorded the first country song to sell one million copies. Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Music career 1.2 Hits 2 Awards and honors 3 References 4 External links Biography Dalhart was born in Jefferson, Texas on April 6, 1883. He took his stage name from two towns, Vernon and Dalhart in Texas, between which he punched cattle as a teenager in the 1890s. Dalhart 's father, Robert Marion Slaughter, was killed by his brother - in - law, Bob Castleberry, when Vernon was age 10. When Dalhart was 12 or 13, the family moved from Jefferson to Dallas, Texas. He sang and played harmonica and jaw harp at local community events and attended the Dallas Conservatory of Music. He married Sadie Lee Moore - Livingston in 1901 and had two children, a son and a daughter. In 1910, he moved the family to New York City, where he worked in a piano warehouse and took occasional singing jobs. Music career Dalhart 's education was rooted in classical music. He wanted to be an opera singer, and in 1913 he got parts in Madame Butterfly and H.M.S. Pinafore. He saw an advertisement in the local newspaper for singers and applied. He was auditioned by Thomas Alva Edison and went on to record for Edison Records. From 1916 until 1923, he made over 400 recordings of light classical music and early dance band vocals for various record labels. In the 1920s and 1930s, he sang on more than 5000 singles ( 78s ) for many labels, employing more than 100 pseudonyms, such as Al Craver, Vernon Dale, Frank Evans, Hugh Lattimer, Sid Turner, George White ( with original Memphis Five ) and Bob White. On Grey Gull Records, he often used the name `` Vel Veteran '', which was also used by other singers, including Arthur Fields. He was already an established singer when he made his first country music recordings. To some, Dalhart 's Southern accent sounded artificial. In a 1918 interview, Dalhart said, `` When you are born and brought up in the South your only trouble is to talk any other way... the ' sure ' nough Southerner ' talks almost like a Negro, even when he 's white. I 've broken myself of the habit, more or less, in ordinary conversation, but it still comes pretty easy. '' Hits Dalhart had a hit single with his 1924 recording of `` The Wreck of the Old 97 '', a classic American ballad about the derailment of Fast Mail train No. 97 near Danville, Virginia in 1903. Recorded for the Victor Talking Machine Company, the song alerted the national record companies to the existence of a sizable market for country - music vocals. It became the first Southern song to become a national success. With `` The Prisoner 's Song '' as the b - side, the single eventually sold as many as seven million copies, a huge number for recording in the 1920s. It was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America ( RIAA ) and was the biggest - selling, non-holiday record in the first 70 years of recorded music. Joel Whitburn, a statistician for Billboard magazine, determined that `` The Prisoner 's Song '' was No. 1 hit for twelve weeks in 1925 -- 26. Wanting to repeat the success of the single, the Victor Company sent Ralph Peer to the southern mountains in 1927 to facilitate the Bristol Sessions. These sessions led to the discovery of singer Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, after which Peer 's royalty model would become the standard of the music industry. Dalhart died in Bridgeport, Connecticut on September 14, 1948. Awards and honors Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, 1970 Country Music Hall of Fame, 1981 Grammy Hall of Fame Award, `` The Prisoner 's Song '', 1998 Gennett Records Walk of Fame, 2007 Songs of the Century, `` The Prisoner 's Song '' References ^ Jump up to : `` Vernon Dalhart, Song Writer, 65 ''. New York Times. September 17, 1948. Retrieved 2015 - 09 - 11. ^ Jump up to : Manheim, James. `` Vernon Dalhart ''. AllMusic. Retrieved 20 December 2016. Jump up ^ Country Music Originals - The Legends and the Lost. Tony Russell. Oxford University Press. 2007. page 15. ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 532509 - 6 Jump up ^ Murrells, Joseph ( 1978 ). The Book of Golden Discs ( 2 ed. ). London : Barrie and Jenkins. p. 14. ISBN 0 - 214 - 20512 - 6. Jump up ^ Whitburn, Joel ( 1986 ). Pop Memories 1890 - 1954. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin : Record Research, Inc. ISBN 0 - 89820 - 083 - 0. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vernon Dalhart. Partial discography Vernon Dalhart, Victor Library Dalhart in the Country Music Hall of Fame Vernon Dalhart cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library. Vernon Dalhart : from opera to country recordings - by Jack Palmer on Thomas Edison 's Attic radio program, WFMU, February 7, 2006. Country Music Hall of Fame 1980s Johnny Cash ( 1980 ) Connie B. Gay ( 1980 ) Sons of the Pioneers ( 1980 ) Vernon Dalhart ( 1981 ) Grant Turner ( 1981 ) Lefty Frizzell ( 1982 ) Roy Horton ( 1982 ) Marty Robbins ( 1982 ) Little Jimmy Dickens ( 1983 ) Ralph Peer ( 1984 ) Floyd Tillman ( 1984 ) Flatt and Scruggs ( 1985 ) The Duke of Paducah ( 1986 ) Wesley Rose ( 1986 ) Rod Brasfield ( 1987 ) Loretta Lynn ( 1988 ) Roy Rogers ( 1988 ) Jack Stapp ( 1989 ) Cliffie Stone ( 1989 ) Hank Thompson ( 1989 ) VIAF : 19864964 LCCN : no91007920 ISNI : 0000 0001 2022 048X GND : 135456622 BNF : cb13892926g ( data ) MusicBrainz : bcbbc073 - dc37 - 43c1 - 8eb8 - 9ee2c40a0620 IATH : w6r81286 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vernon_Dalhart&oldid=801103108 '' Categories : 1883 births 1948 deaths American country singers American male singers American pop singers American country singer - songwriters Country Music Hall of Fame inductees People from Marion County, Texas People from Dallas Gennett Records artists Vocalion Records artists Burials at Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport RCA Victor artists Edison Records artists Columbia Records artists Old - time musicians Songwriters from Texas Hidden categories : Articles with hCards Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC - ID identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Deutsch Español فارسی Français Italiano Edit links This page was last edited on 17 September 2017, at 17 : 46. 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Question: what type of music did vernon dalhart sing before switching to country music
Answer: classical music