Episode
The Billy Murray Story
- Published
- May 25, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3124
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Summary
Today would have been his 149th birthday, and we are marking the occasion by telling the story of Billy Murray — the Denver Nightingale, the Phonograph King, the Irish-American kid from Colorado who talked his way into a New York recording studio in 1903 and never really left. We open with a song he recorded on his own birthday in 1922, a comic gem that catches him at the height of his powers and right on the edge of the upheaval to come. From there we travel back to one of the defining recordings of the acoustic era — a love song to the automobile that became so embedded in American culture it outlasted practically everything around it. And we close with the song that proved he still had it, a Jazz Age novelty that put him back on the charts at 47, even as the industry was quietly pulling the rug out from under the technique that had made him famous. Three songs, three decades, one remarkable career — happy birthday, Billy. Lyrics I Certainly Must Be in Love Mamey McShane was a dumb, dizzy dame that lived over on Hoist Avenue. She couldn’t be beaten for dancing and eating those two things was all that she knew. She met Jimmy Peter, a nifty cake eater, one night at the gasp at a stall. That guy danced her lame, now the girl’s all kidmame, but here’s how she answers them all. Since I met that kid, I’m clean off a mean litchie, I certainly must be in love. I can’t do me work and I can’t sleep at night, I’m dreaming of moiders and boiklers and fights. That guy’s got me vamped when he looks in me lamps, I feel like I’m in heaven above. We go to a dance and get home about two, but I don’t get upstairs till the boys start to coo. When I stand in cold hallways and flight with the blue, gee, I certainly must be in love. Jimmy’s not smart, but that guy’s got a heart that’s as b…