Bob Roberts

Robert S. Roberts (April 27, 1871 – January 21, 1930), sometimes referred to as "Ragtime" Bob Roberts, was an American novelty singer and ragtime song composer in the early years of the 20th century. Biography He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Nicholas (Nick) Roberts, a well-known clown who became the proprietor of one of the country's leading touring pantomime companies, and his French-born wife Augustine C. Zahn. Bob Roberts is assumed to have traveled widely with his father's shows in his youth, and indeed for the 1880 census when he was 9-years-old, his mother and brother were found lodging in a Richmond, New York hotel while father and son were performing somewhere nearby. Roberts, who had published compositions in Cincinnati as early as 1897, made his recording debut for Columbia Records in 1900, and initially recorded remakes of other artists' cylinders before starting to make recordings of new songs.<ref name=sutton>[http://www.mainspringpress.com/bobroberts.html Allan Sutton, American Recording Pioneers - Bob Roberts] . Retrieved 16 May 2013</ref> Among the most successful of his early recordings for Columbia were "Hurrah For Baffin's Bay" and "By The Sycamore Tree", both in 1903. Roberts also recorded for Edison, Victor, and other companies. He recorded prolifically, recording some songs for several different labels. One of his biggest comedy successes was with "The Woodchuck Song", written by Theodore Morse, with a chorus of "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?", which he recorded in 1904 for Edison, Columbia, Victor, and Zon-O-Phone Records. He also recorded for both Edison and Columbia as part of a duo with Albert Campbell. He was at the peak of his recording career between 1903 and 1907, when he rivaled Billy Murray for popularity, and received a similar payment of $30 (equivalent to $905 in 2023) for each recording. He and Murray occasionally recorded together, as on "Oh! Oh! Sallie", in 1905. Roberts was a leading exponent of the comedic "coon song", such as "Wouldn't It Make You Hungry", written by Harry Von Tilzer, and "I'm Satisfied", many of them recorded for Zon-o-phone, a subsidiary of Victor.