The information available at the time to the compilers was published twenty years ago in book form. This book, John McCormack - A Comprehensive Discography (Greenwood Press, 1986), published at no profit to themselves (Paul Worth and Jim Cartwright), presented information compiled with the assistance of numerous scholars, collectors, and afficionados here and abroad.

Twenty years have passed, and the time has come to again ask for your scrutiny of the data. Many corrections and additions have been sent to us since 1985, and since that time there have been further reissues of McCormack's recordings on LP, and the Compact Disc has become the dominant recording medium for music. Many CD's of McCormack have already appeared, and more are on the way.

We are nonetheless interested in all LP's, EP's, and 45's, desiring to document all of these as well.

Those who visit this site and are interested in McCormack and his recordings and can provide corrections or additions to the information presented are urged to do so. A complete and accurate John McCormack Discography is only possible as a group effort. The files of the various recording companies provide only the starting point. Such files can be incomplete, inaccurate, cryptic, deceptive, or missing entirely. The recordings that are extant, however, are certainly real and tangible, and out there in the hands of people who still love McCormack's singing over a century after he first stood before a recording horn.

The Editors of this project, welcome any and all input from interested persons on the following topics:

• Discographic Data:

  • Errors, typographical or otherwise, in matrix-take and 78 rpm issue numbers
  • Extant test pressings of variant takes not hitherto documented
  • 78 rpm Re-Issues: shellac or vinyl, old or new, from original stampers or re-recorded
  • Extant single-face (sf) 78's, esp. the later HMV items, where an assigned # is known.
  • Extant radio broadcast material not documented
  • Microgroove Re-Issues not yet documented: long-play, extended play, 45 rpm.
  • Compact Disc Re-Issues: all McCormack, or as part of anthologies, or on CD's of other singers.

• Research on Continuing Issues:

  • G & T Recordings: extant matrices & issued discs, extant John O'Reilly discs, etc.
  • Odeon Recordings: dating, speeds, extant couplings, re-issues, etc.
  • Opera Disc & Musica re-issues by DGG
  • Playback speed and performance pitch of original 78 rpm discs and cylinders
  • Newspaper accounts of concerts and other events which document his whereabouts on certain dates. This is especially valuable data for the years 1906-1909 in the British Isles.
  • McCormack's repertoire as documented in recital and concert brochures, reviews, and other accounts.
  • McCormack's life and career: opera, recitals, tours,
  • Contents, dates, and Location of documented recitals and concerts.
  • Sheetmusic relevant to McCormack's repertoire
  • Contemporary journalism regarding McCormack's life, career, and recordings.

Email the editors if you have McCormack research in the form of an article or essay that you would like posted on this website under your name and copyright notice.