Then I'd Be Satisfied With Life - S. H. Dudley (1903)

Tiny Tim sang his own version of this in the 1960s, using some of the original lyrics but adding some new lines of his own.

"Then I'd Be Satisfied With Life"

S. H. Dudley

Victor 2412

June 24, 1903

George M. Cohan song

How seldom will you meet a man as through the
world you go--a man, I mean, who's satisfied with life.
He may be blessed with wealth, but where's his health?

All I want is 50 million dollars
And seal skin to protect me from the cold.

If I only knew how stocks would go in Wall Street
And was living in a mansion built of gold.

All I want is plumbing bird for breakfast
A champagne fountain sprinkling at my feet
Pierpont Morgan waiting on the table
And Sousa's band a-playin' while I eat.

If I only owned the Western Union cable
If Hetty Green would only be my wife
If I only owned the Pennsylvania Railroad
Then I'd know that I'd be satisfied with life.

S. H. Dudley (15 January 1864 - 6 June 1947) may have been the most popular baritone to record at the turn of the century, his output by 1900 exceeding that of baritone J. W. Myers.

Dudley was in the right place at the right time in that his voice suited the crude recording devices of the time better than most. As a featured solo artist he was in studios regularly from 1898 to 1904, after which there is a noticeable drop-off.

In a letter to Jim Walsh quoted in the May 1946 issue of Hobbies, Dudley even calls himself the Bing Crosby of 1900, stating that "more records were sold of Dudley, Kernell, duets, quartets, than of any other singer of the time." Dudley adds, "Too bad the days of royalties had not arrived!" The Bing Crosby analogy is misleading since Dudley records did not dramatically outsell those of Arthur Collins, Harry Macdonough, and a handful of other pioneers.

He was born Samuel Holland Rous in Greencastle, Indiana. His father was a professor at Asbury College and then a superintendent of county schools, a position that required constant moving.

Rous wrote to Walsh in a letter transcribed in the May 1946 issue of Hobbies, "I never even went through high school, but was forced to get a job at 13 when my father lost his hearing and could no longer teach. Then I jumped into opera without ever having a single voice lesson!"

The singer adopted the name S. H. Dudley as a stage name early in his career, and this is the name used for most of his Berliner, Victor, and Edison records. Some cylinders from 1898 and early 1899 give the name S. Holland Dudley, including Excelsior cylinders--the three principal Excelsior artists in 1898 were Dudley, Roger Harding, and William F. Hooley.

From mid-1899 onward the shorter "S. H. Dudley" was used on records. On a few Victor discs, he is identified as Frank Kernell, such as on "The Whistling Coon" (1982). When making duets with bird imitator Joe Belmont, he also used the name Kernell.