"Oh Daddy" and "Down Home Blues," by Ethel Waters

Founded in 1921 by 37-year-old Harry Pace, Black Swan Records was the first recording company to be owned and operated by African Americans. Its best-selling recording was Ethel Waters' "Oh, Daddy," backed by "Down Home Blues." Though the fledgling company declared bankruptcy in December 1923, both Waters and Fletcher Anderson, who provided the accompaniment, achieved long-term success in the entertainment industry.

In 1921, 37-year-old Harry Pace founded Black Swan Records, the first recording company to be owned and operated by African Americans. He named his company "Black Swan" after the 19th century African American soprano Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield. Pace intended to record a cross section of musical styles, including classical music, performed by Black artists for a middle-class African American audience.

The company's best-selling recording was Ethel Waters', "Oh, Daddy" backed by "Down Home Blues." Recorded in May 1921, it sold about 500,000 copies in six months.

Black Swan's success was short lived, however. The introduction of radio broadcasting in 1922-23 had an enormous impact on the entire recording industry as audiences began listening to music on the radio rather than buying records. Pace also encountered insurmountable difficulties with record production and distribution. As a result, Pace's fledgling Black Swan record company was quickly toppled. The company declared bankruptcy in December 1923 and was purchased in April 1924 by Paramount Records.

Ethel Waters, a performer on the vaudeville circuit in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York at the time she made this recording, went on to achieve success as an accomplished singer and actress. Fletcher Henderson, who provided the accompaniment, became of the leading pianists and bandleaders of the 1920s and 1930s.