Ed McCurdy

Ed McCurdy (born Edward Potts McCurdy; January 11, 1919 – March 23, 2000) was an American folk singer and songwriter. His most well-known song was the anti-war "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream", written in 1950.^[1][2]

Ed McCurdy
Born	Edward Potts McCurdy (1919-01-11)January 11, 1919 Willow Hill, Pennsylvania, US
Died	March 23, 2000(2000-03-23) (aged 81) Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Genres	Folk
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, character actor
Instrument	Guitar
Years active	1938–1994

Career

McCurdy first found success in 1938 as a singer and disc jockey at a gospel radio station in Oklahoma. By the early 1940s, McCurdy had become a popular singer of romantic songs in nightclubs across North America, until burlesque dancer Sally Rand caught his act, hired him to join her show, put him in a tuxedo, and had him sing his romantic songs to her on stage while pushing her on her swing.^[3]

He stayed in vaudeville for several years as a singer and straight man to comedian Jack E. Leonard before moving, in 1948, with his wife and family to Vancouver, Canada, where he hosted his own radio show for CBC Radio.^[3] With the success of this show, the CBC transferred him to the flagship national station in Toronto where he starred in a morning children's show and an adult evening show. During his Canadian radio period, he developed friendships with the guests on his show, such as Pete Seeger, Josh White, and Oscar Brand. He developed a love for folk music and released his first folk album in 1949.^[4]

After achieving success with his folk show at New York's Village Vanguard in 1950, McCurdy and his family moved to New York City, where he went on to become a well-known folk singer. He recorded many albums in the 1950s and 1960s for Elektra Records and Tradition Records,^[1][3] and performed several times at the Newport Folk Festival.^[3] He also emceed the George Gobel Show (national TV) and, by 1956, starred in the children's TV show Freddie The Fireman.^[3]

His collection of risqué Elizabethan folk songs in a three-part series of albums titled When Dalliance was in Flower (and Maidens Lost Their Heads), became a favorite record series on college campuses.^[1]

In the mid 1980s, he and his wife moved to Nova Scotia, where he enjoyed a second career as a character actor on Canadian television.^[5]

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

Main article: Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

McCurdy's anti-war song, "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream", has been recorded by dozens of artists in seventy-seven languages.^[2] Early covers were by American folk artists Pete Seeger, The Weavers, Chad Mitchell, The Kingston Trio, Simon & Garfunkel, and Canadian folk group The Travellers.^[6] Other covers have been made by rock star Bruce Springsteen, country singer Garth Brooks, jazz musician Charles Lloyd, and pianist and showman Liberace.^[6][2]

In 1980, recordings by Josh White Jr. of "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" and another McCurdy composition,"King's Highway", became the official theme songs for the Peace Corps and VISTA, respectively.^[7][8] In 1989, during the fall of the Berlin Wall, NBC-TV recorded children singing the song while the wall came down.^[6] In 1992, the song earned McCurdy The Peace Abbey's Courage of Conscience award.^[5][9]

In 2005, "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.^[6]

Personal life

Born January 11, 1919, to a farming family in Willow Hill, Pennsylvania, Edward Potts McCurdy was the youngest of 12 children.^[10][11] He left home at 18 to pursue a singing career.^[1][2] He met his future wife, dancer Beryl English, in 1942 in Vancouver, Canada; they married in 1946.^[11]

By the late 1960s, McCurdy's health was in decline and he spent the better part of the 1970s bedridden.^[3] In 1986, four years after moving from New York to Nova Scotia, he became a naturalized Canadian citizen.^[5]

McCurdy died from heart failure on March 23, 2000, in Halifax, Canada. In addition to his wife, he was survived by three children: daughters Mary and Dana, son, James; and three grandchildren, all of New York.^[11][10]

Discography

• 1949: Sings Canadian Folksongs (Manhattan)
• 1955: Sings Folk Songs of The Canadian Maritimes (Whitehall Records)
• 1955: Badmen, Heroes, and Pirate Songs (Elektra Records)
• 1955: Sin Songs Pro & Con (Elektra EKL 124)
• 1955: The Ballad Record (Riverside Records)
• 1956: The Miracle of the Wheat (single – Kapp Records)
• 1956: Blood Booze 'n Bones (Elektra)
• 1956: Bar Room Ballads (Riverside)
• 195(?): Let's Sing Out (Capri 507) Canada
• 1956: The Folk Singer (Dawn Records)
• 1956: A Ballad Singer's Choice (Tradition Records, Empire Musicwerks)
• 1956: When Dalliance Was In Flower (and Maidens Lost Their Heads) vol. 1 (Elektra)
• 1957: Sin Songs — Pro and Con (Elektra)
• 1957: Songs of the Old West (Elektra)
• 195(?): "Songs I Learned Coming Thru The Great Smokies" (FolkArt FLP 5001)
• 1958: When Dalliance Was In Flower (and Maidens Lost Their Heads) vol. 2 (Elektra)
• 1958: When Dalliance Was In Flower (and Maidens Lost Their Heads) vol. 3 (Elektra)
• 1958: Children's Songs (Tradition Records)
• 1959: Son of Dalliance (Elektra)
• 1959: Children's Songs and Stories (Folkways Records)
• 1961: A Treasure Chest Of American Folk Song Double LP (Elektra)
• 1962: Folk Songs (Coronet)
• 1963: The Best of Dalliance (Elektra)
• 1968: Songs of the West (Tradition/Everest TR 2061)'
• 1976: "Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream" (Bear Family Records) Germany
• 1977: On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand: Sacred Songs of America with Dana McCurdy (Folkways Records)
• 1980: Songs and Stories (Folkways Records)
• 1996: Cowboy Songs (Tradition Records)
• 1996: Naughty & Bawdy Songs of Olde England (Warner Bros. Records)
• The Legend of Robin Hood (Riverside)
• American Folk Songs (Spoken Arts)
• A Child's Introduction to American Folk Songs (Spoken Arts)
• Sings Folksongs Of The Sea (Tiara Spotlight Series – TST 537)
• 2019: Cowboy & Western Songs (BACM)

See also

• Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy