Effective period / Period of releases: 1916

British music hall performer, dance band leader, and singer (b. December 31, 1898 — d. July 27, 1969).

Hudson began his career in 1911 at the age of 13 in London in music hall. He met Stanley Kirkby in 1915 and formed a duo act, cutting his first records on the Winner record label. Hudson's career started to wane in the mid-1920s as music hall began to lose popularity as a style. In late 1927, Hudson turned his career around by becoming director of music at Edison Bell, creating a new label, Edison Bell Radio, for which he recorded prolifically as the director of several studio bands. These records were issued under a variety of pseudonyms (see "Harry Hudson's Melody Men" for more details) and featured vocalists such as Sam Browne, Al Bowlly, Phil Arnold, Harry Hudson himself, John Throne (under the pseudonym Chris Hall), and Hudson's old friend Stanley Kirkby (under pseudonyms like Walter Miller). He also directed studio bands in provision of instrumental accompaniment for various other popular singers recording with Edison Bell and its other associated labels, too. Once the Depression hit England, Edison Bell began to flounder financially, and Hudson was forced to sell all of his company's assets to Decca Records. He stopped recording, but remained in the public eye through movie and TV show appearances as well as a gig on the BBC following WWII. He was the pianist on a radio quiz show called "Have A Go!" from 1953 until 1966.

Hudson's time at Edison Bell was unique in that he was not bound by any restrictions but his own on what music he was allowed to make; in other words, he did not suffer from the issue faced by many other recording artists of "higher-ups" taking offense to "hot" dance music, and he took advantage of this independence especially on his recordings on the Edison Bell Radio label. These recordings are regarded as some of the "hottest" dance band music during the British Dance Band era, and despite their relative obscurity, are recognised for the quality they are.