(March 5th 1898 - July 15th 1980)

Benjamin Bernard Selvin was born in New York City in 1898 and at age fifteen began his career in music as a violinist playing in local night clubs. At twenty-one he began leading his own "Novelty Orchestra" and started making records in 1919. That year Selvin's band produced one of the biggest recorded hits of the first quarter of the 20th century with the single "Dardanella". Eventually selling over six million copies according to The Guinness Book of World Records, Ben Selvin was responsible for cutting more 78-rpm discs than anyone else in history.