🔎

American vaudeville singer.
Born November 23, 1888 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Died March 6, 1949 (aged 60) in Manhattan, New York.

Bernard was known as The Boy From Dixie and most popular from the 1910s through the early 1930s. He became a blackface singer in minstrel shows before starting his recording career around 1916. He was one of the first white singers to record blues songs. His July 1918 version of Saint Louis Blues represents the first vocal audio recording of the W. C. Handy standard recorded in America. Sometimes billed as The Singing Comedian, Bernard recorded other songs of note, including Shake, Rattle and Roll, a song about a dice game that has nothing to do with the later Rock & Roll hit. Bernard also was one of the first American singers to release the song Frankie and Johnny (Johnnie on label) in America.

He charted three times as a singer, twice in duets. In 1919, he sang solo on The St. Louis Blues (#9). He charted with Ernest Hare with song I Want to Hold You in My Arms (#4) in 1919. He charted with Vernon Dalhart with song I Want My Mammy (#10) in 1922.

He charted twice as a songwriter, first with Spread Yo' Stuff by Ethel Waters in 1922, which landed at #7 (co-written by Jules Levy & Paul Crane); and Blue Eyed Sally by Ted Weems and His Orchestra, which rose to #3 in 1925 (co-written by J. Russell Robinson).

He continued to record into the 1940s.