Thomas Edison made the first recording of the human voice in 1877. He recited the nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb. He re-recorded it in 1927 for posterity.
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.
Listen to Thomas Edison reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb, MP3
UPDATE: It was discovered in 2008 that Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville was actually the first man to make a recording of a human voice back in 1860. It was a recording of a person singing part of the French song “Au Clair de la Lune“. You can hear the clip here and here.
This article was posted on Tuesday, January 24th, 2006 at 11:55 am and is filed under American Nursery Rhymes, Countries & Cultures, English, English Nursery Rhymes, Languages, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Mary Had a Little Lamb mp3, MP3 Recordings, Nursery Rhymes, People, Podcasts, Recordings of Nursery Rhymes, Thomas Edison, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
26 Responses to “The First Recording Ever Was of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” by Thomas Edison”
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May 21st, 2006 at 10:05 pm
OMG THOMAS EDISON LOL
November 19th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
I was looking for a nice melody of a beautiful song for kids – and what I fount!?? A strange man voise… My kids will be scared! Why did they record him at all? I really dont understand
November 19th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
The point is that Thomas Edison is the first person to record his voice any time, any where, ever! He invented the device to record. The first thing he recorded was Mary Had a Little Lamb.
It’s a recording for posterity – for older kids to appreciate that this guy invented this incredible device all the way back in 1877 and we can hear voices from back in time now – because of what he invented then.
I think that’s miraculous!
-Mama Lisa
January 11th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Agreed Mama Lisa…
Jane, what do you mean ‘Why did they record him at all?’ -You`re looking for a nice melody for your children, this man is the reason nice melodies are able to be recorded… He may have had a “strange man voice”, but it’s him we have to thank for every type of recordable music that exists today!!
Kurt
March 26th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Thomas Edison was not actually the first man to record, technically. during the stone age, dogs were domesticated and taught to repeat the words of their owner. To some, this is not a real recording, but hey.. What the h**l
March 27th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
If Thomas Edison could only see and experience the results of that one little recording…
What song do you think he would have chosen to sing today? “Baby Got Back”? Lol, j/k
– Josh
myspace.com/joshuabonano
March 28th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville was actually the first man to make a recording of voice before Edison on April 9th 1860.
March 28th, 2008 at 4:32 am
This was just discovered! It’s a clip of a woman singing the French song “Au Clair de la Lune“.
March 28th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Wrong!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7318180.stm
March 29th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
You’re right that it wasn’t just discovered. They’ve known about it, but they weren’t able to play the recording. They just figured out how to play it.
You can now hear the first ever recording! Though you have to listen very carefully.
That makes Thomas Edison the first person to record his voice and play it back and listen to it. He wasn’t the first person to record a voice.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Check out my twin brother’s web site and his log about the French recording.
http://www.dograt.com/2008/03/
Click on his link to the strange world of digitized music. Listening to a super-compressed file of “Layla” which has been slowed down enough to understand it sounds eerily like this new “very first recording.”
January 27th, 2009 at 6:41 am
[…] can hear this historic recording of Mary Had a Little Lamb from […]
February 26th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
it is amazing what he did to make that. he simply spoke into the phonograph, and a needle moved according to his sound waves. that put the needle back, and it playing it again. amazing….
April 1st, 2009 at 8:38 pm
that was good
April 6th, 2009 at 10:14 am
cool
April 16th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Hi everyone.
1question.
Why did he sing mary had a little lamb? This was just plain FREAKY.
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I’m pretty sure he used “Mary had a Little Lamb” because it was a commonly known poem, simple and short. I don’t think the term, “Testing… 1…2…3”, was popular at the time.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Lol the Au Claire de la Lune song is really weird… Was it a man or a women singing?
August 16th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I accidentally found this recording while looking for something that still does not exist in the world of modern musical technology today… but – to say the very least, I was elated and truly impressed to hear the clarity and quality this genius (word actually applies) created from a mere sequence of collective thought in his mind.
Ponder this all you intellectual giants… he did not borrow/sample nor reapply for-given creative knowledge- he brought this forth from his own mental reflections and made it a reality.
We would not know Billie Holiday/ Freddie Mecury/ or Mario Lanza… need I go on?
March 3rd, 2010 at 8:50 pm
A spoken letter by Emile Berliner, founder of Deutsche Grammophon, was recorded in 1897. I guess that makes it the oldest record ever…
January 2nd, 2011 at 9:30 pm
Um Robert Power, 1877 is 20 years before 1897. Edison invented the grammophone.
March 20th, 2011 at 3:38 am
I am looking for the full recording of Thomas Edison reading, do you have access to it or is your snipet the entire recording?
Thanks!
November 19th, 2011 at 12:51 am
Could any of us imagine life without recorded music? Thomas Edison was one of the smartest people we were lucky to have born here in the great U.S.A..
Rebecca, this was the whole recording. Edison re-recorded it for posterity. Imagine, this man just dreamed up this machine, handed the drawing to one of his machinists, and “POOF” we have audio recording. He recorded it on a piece of rolled up tin foil. As another point of, what would we do without it, Edison also invented moving pictures. We would be in the stone age. Oh yeah, he also invented a little thing called the light bulb, talk about being in the dark. VIVA Tomas Edison, a great example of the opportunity afforded us in a FREE SOCIETY.
May 3rd, 2012 at 10:43 am
FALSE.. Edison did not make the first voice/sound recording.. The first ever sound recording was made by Edouard-Leon Scott in 1860. The recording was of a woman singing Au Clair De La Lune.. This is not a hate message. I am aware this site was made years ago. I am just bringing the site up to date.
May 3rd, 2012 at 10:48 am
You’re right – this was pointed out in the comments a while back. We have a link to the recording above… I just added the new info to the original post. Thanks for writing!
August 10th, 2015 at 10:38 pm
[…] – Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound recording. “Mary Had A Little Lamb” 1960 – The Silver Beetles recruited drummer Pete Best. 1966 – John Lennon apologized in […]