Ed McCurdy (born Edward Potts McCurdy; January 11, 1919 – March 23, 2000) was an American and Canadian singer of both contemporary and English folk music, a songwriter, and character actor. He was perhaps best known for his anti-war song "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream", written in 1950 and since performed by dozens of artists across multiple genres. Born in the United States, McCurdy became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1986.
Music career
McCurdy first found success in 1937 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, as a gospel singer on WKY radio. The following year he became one of the station's disc jockeys. Restless, the baritone next traveled between clubs and radio programs covering tunes from The Great American Songbook. Soon after, burlesque dancer Sally Rand hired him to don a tuxedo and croon while pushing her on a swing. Rand and McCurdy, performed together globally for several years, along with comedian Jack E. Leonard, for whom McCurdy played the straight man. In 1954, McCurdy moved his family to Greenwich Village. The labels under which he recorded include Riverside, Tradition, and Elektra Records. He performed at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1962 and, after moving to Nova Scotia in 1982, he played Mariposa, Home County and Winnipeg Folk Festivals until 1994. Other covers have been performed by rock star Bruce Springsteen, country singer Garth Brooks, jazz musician Charles Lloyd, and pianist and showman Liberace. In 1989, during the fall of the Berlin Wall, NBC-TV recorded children singing the song while the wall came down.
In 2005, "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.