Morton Downey

Morton Downey
1943
Background information
Birth name	John Morton Downey
Also known as	Morton James
Born	November 14, 1901 Wallingford, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	October 25, 1985(1985-10-25) (aged 83) Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.
Genres	Popular song
Instruments	Vocalist, piano

John Morton Downey (November 14, 1901 – October 25, 1985) was a singer popular in the United States, enjoying his greatest success in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Downey was nicknamed "The Irish Nightingale".

John Morton Downey was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, the fourth of six children of James A. and Bessie (Cox) Downey, a well-known family in both Wallingford and Waterbury, Connecticut. The grandson of Irish immigrants, he was always known by his middle name since so many of his near relatives were also named John. His father was the chief of the Wallingford Fire Department until a near fatal automobile accident necessitated his retirement. Downey began his singing career as a member of the choir of Most Holy Trinity Church in Wallingford.

Downey's signature sound was a very creamy and very high-timbred Irish tenor which an uninformed listener can easily mistake for a female voice. The popularity of such highly artificial and "heady" male pop vocals peaked in the late 1920s and early 1930s. By the mid-1930s the style was out of fashion, so Downey toned down some of his broader mannerisms and made a transition to a somewhat more "chesty" vocal timbre.

For a time in the 1920s, Downey sang with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra. He first recorded in 1923 for Edison Records under the pseudonym Morton James; the following year he recorded for Victor with the S.S. Leviathan Orchestra. In 1925 he began four years of recording for Brunswick Records. In 1926 he had a hit in the show Palm Beach Nights.

Downey toured London, Paris, Berlin, New York City and Hollywood. He also began appearing in motion pictures, including Syncopation (1929), the first film released by RKO Radio Pictures.

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