Earliest Recording of the Human Voice

FirstSounds.org has gathered some of the earliest sound recordings. This clip, dating back to 1860, features someone singing the French folksong “Au Clair de la Lune” on April 9, 1860, and it “is the earliest audibly recognizable record of the human voice yet recovered.”


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  1. Mark O'Neill says . . . | May 18, 2008 / 6:35 am

    That isn’t audible! That is just crackling and other noise!

  2. Dan Colman says . . . | May 18, 2008 / 11:26 am

    You can’t hear a voice at all? Admittedly, it is fairly faint.

  3. Darrin says . . . | June 2, 2009 / 9:59 am

    This song went straight to #1 in Billboard charts 1860.

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