Over There - Enrico Caruso - 1918

Dorothy Park Benjamin, whom Caruso married six weeks after the recording was made, used phonetics to coach Caruso on the English text.
She later said: "He liked everything about 'Over There'. The text, the melody, the idea and the composer George M. Cohan." Caruso sang this song at Liberty Bond Rallies around the Country, and even at the Metropolitan Opera House! The recording has become famous for Caruso's energetic singing of the English, and his far more polished French in the second verse.
Early recordings were made entirely acoustically, the sound being collected by a horn and piped to a diaphragm, which vibrated the cutting stylus. Sensitivity and frequency range were poor, and frequency response was very irregular, giving acoustic recordings an instantly recognizable tonal quality. A singer practically had to put his or her face in the recording horn.
Technical Notes: Acoustic; Swishing and distortion throughout