Arthur Tracy

Arthur Tracy was one of the most famous of all recording stars of the 1930s and '40s. With his suave style and sentimental ballads he captured the hearts of housewives in both America and Great Britain. His voice was both a baritone and a tenor, which he described as "bari-tenor", and he claimed that the biggest influence on his singing was Enrico Caruso. Born in the Ukraine, he emigrated to America at the age of six with his parents. The family was poor and he received little education and no musical training. Once asked how he became known as "The Street Singer", he said it was because he had sung in the streets of Philadelphia for pennies. One of his most enduring hits was the song "Pennies from Heaven". As a teenager he began singing in operettas and quickly became a headliner in vaudeville, appearing with such stars as Will Rogers and W.C. Fields. Columbia Records put him under contract and a stream of hits followed, such as "Roses of Picardy" and "It's A Sin To Tell A Lie". On radio he co-starred with Groucho Marx, Jack Benny and Bing Crosby, and in Hollywood he made a special guest appearance in The Big Broadcast (1932). He went to London where he topped the bill at the London Palladium, and while in Britain made several films including Backstage (1937) alongside Anna Neagle, followed by The Street Singer (1936) with Margaret Lockwood, and Follow Your Star (1938) with Lilli Palmer. He returned to America in 1940 but gradually his style of singing had become passé and he was forced into semi-retirement. During the 1960s he made something of a comeback and record companies in both America and Britain started to re-release most of his material. In 1996 he was awarded a gold CD to mark the huge sales of his records over 60 years.