Бенджамин Селвин: Декан записанной музыки и пионер индустрии звукозаписи.

Benjamin Bernard Selvin (March 5, 1898 – July 15, 1980) was an American musician, bandleader, and record producer. He was known as the Dean of Recorded Music. According to The Guinness Book of World Records, Selvin recorded more musical sides (on 78 rpm discs) than any other person. One reason for this prolific output is that he recorded for dozens of different record labels during this productive time in the industry, using a different name for each label. His output has been estimated at 13,000 to 20,000 song titles.

Selvin was born in New York City, United States, the son of Jewish Russian immigrants. He started his professional life at age 15 as a fiddle player in New York City night clubs. Six years later, as leader of his own dance band, the Novelty Orchestra, he released what was later alleged to be the biggest selling popular song in the first quarter century of recorded music. "Dardanella" allegedly sold more than six million copies and an additional million pieces of sheet music—although in a joint interview with Gustave Haenschen, founding director of popular music releases at Brunswick Records, Selvin described the alleged record sales total as “nonsensical” and said the actual sales of “Dardanella” and other purported “million sellers” in the 1920s was 150,000 discs. He was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) that was presented to Selvin on his retirement on March 14, 1963.

Under his own name, Selvin had accepted an exclusive contract to Brunswick Records when the company’s management decided to venture into radio with “The Brunswick Hour”, under the direction of Gus Haenschen. When it became clear to Brunswick’s management that an urgent need existed for pre recorded music programming for smaller radio stations unable to afford their own orchestras, Brunswick’s general manager William A. Brophy agreed with the recommendations of his assistant secretary Percy L. Deutsch, popular music director Haenschen, and arranger conductor Frank Black to develop a library of high quality recorded music for leasing to smaller radio stations. The new venture was called the World Broadcasting System, with newly constructed recording facilities in Manhattan called Sound Studios, Inc. Haenschen persuaded Selvin to leave Brunswick to accept an offer from Columbia Records to become the company’s Artists and Repertoire director while also serving as a silent partner in the World Broadcasting venture. Selvin, who was known for his ability to write orchestral arrangements rapidly and to oversee multiple recording sessions, became a central figure in the success of World Broadcasting. His experience there led him to play a founding role in Muzak in the 1930s. In 1934 he was named Vice President of programming at Muzak in New York City. Subsequently, he served as the musical director for a recording in 1954 with John Serry Sr. for RCA Thesaurus. In 1954 Selvin also recruited another artist from the realm of easy listening music for the RCA Thesaurus library George Melachrino. In 1956 he served once again as musical director with Serry for another swing jazz album at Dot Records (See Squeeze Play). As the decade came to a close, Selvin continued to expand the content of the RCA Thesaurus musical library by recruiting several orchestra leaders from the Big Band era including: Sammy Kaye, Freddie Martin and Lawrence Welk. An agreement with the JATP impresario Norman Granz was also signed at this time which enabled Selvin to showcase performances by leading soloists from the realm of Jazz including: Count Basie, Roy Eldridge, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Gene Krupa, Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. After retirement, he became a consultant to 3M, helping them make the transition from vinyl records to audio cassettes. He also served as a musical consultant to Top of the Fair venue at the New York World's Fair in 1964.

The Discography of American Historical Recordings at the University of California Santa Barbara includes an extensive collection of Ben Selvin's audio recordings on the Brunswick, Columbia, Victor and Vocalion labels which are accessible for online listening.