Billy Merson

Billy Merson (born William Henry Thompson; 29 March 1879 – 25 June 1947) was an English music hall performer and songwriter. 
He was born in Nottingham. He began his career while working in a lace-making factory, and doing shows in the evenings. It took some time until he could make a living from his stage work. "For five or six years on the stage, I survived on a salary hardly enough to keep body and soul together", he said. He was initially an acrobat and clown, and first played in London in 1905 under the character name "Ping-Pong".
He wrote songs and sold some of his compositions to other performers, including Wilkie Bard and Harry Ford, before finding success in 1909 with a song that he performed himself in pantomime, "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life", sung in a pseudo-operatic style. The song also became one of Al Jolson's first hits, in 1913, and a hit again when Jolson re-recorded it with Bing Crosby in 1947. Merson took Jolson to court over performing the song without authorisation; he lost on a technicality, and the costs of the legal action left him bankrupt. Other songs that Merson wrote include "The Photo of the Girl I Left Behind", and "Desdemona".
==Links to Peel==
Peel played Merson's track, 'The Photo Of The Girl I Left Behind', for the Peelenium 1911. No other tracks from the artist seemed to have been played by Peel according to available tracklistings on this site.
==Shows Played==
;thumb|220x220px1999
*09 June 1999: The Photo Of The Girl I Left Behind (Peelenium 1911)
==External Links==
*Wikipedia
*Discogs
Category:Artists