Elwood Edwards, voice of AOL's 'you've got mail' alert, has died

For a while it was possible to pay Elwood Edwards to record a short message (https://web.archive.org/web/20080613203307/http://www.makinw...). In 2002, I had him record "Mail classified by POPFile" for my POPFile machine learning email classifier (https://getpopfile.org).

You can listen to it here: https://soundcloud.com/john-graham-cumming/mail-classified-b...

I paid $30 for that. And him saying "Use the source, Luke!"

NetOpWibby · 10 months ago

This is beautiful. I wish I knew this eons ago!

sixothree · 10 months ago

Ok. I’m glad I clicked those. I know it’s his voice. But still worth hearing.

dionian · 10 months ago

hes got a great voice! thanks for sharing

jgrahamc · 10 months ago

Ooh. I found the original email from him.

    From: VoicePro@aol.com
    Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 22:16:04 -0500
    Subject: Your files :)

    Hi, John.

    Thanks for your order.  Here are your files... and I included a 
    "You've got mail, John" file, too.  Enjoy!!

    El Edwards

So, now I can upload "Use the source, Luke!" (https://soundcloud.com/john-graham-cumming/use-the-source-lu...) and "You've got mail, John!" (https://soundcloud.com/john-graham-cumming/youve-got-mail-jo...).

asveikau · 10 months ago

His voice sounds a bit higher pitched than the famous 90s recordings. I wonder if that's a product of the original recording equipment or format used to store it, or something like that.

alexjplant · 10 months ago

The fundamental pitch sounds similar but the tonal quality is different. The infamous "You've Got Mail" is probably lower bit depth and sample rate which lead to crunchier and darker sound qualities respectively. It also sounds like the AOL soundbite was recorded with him very close to a dynamic mic with a healthy dose of proximity effect which would explain the omnipresent low frequency.

LorenDB · 10 months ago

https://archive.ph/bxiFP

kristopolous · 10 months ago

He was paid piecemeal for the recordings.

He drove for Uber later in life. Here's a video on it from Inside Edition:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sN67w6y1uig

bsimpson · 10 months ago

> Just to clarify, I initially received $200 for doing the AOL phrases. Perhaps in my attempts to preserve confidentially, I have given the impression that AOL is cheap..but that is not the case! will only state that my relationship with AOL through the years has been satisfying and rewarding. File's done...Goodbye:)

Deleted Comment

eth0up · 10 months ago

When I was a kid, using AOL with all my friends, I spent a few hours in Soundforge editing a clip of me saying "worms" as close to the AOL tone as possible. I did it pretty convincingly and began distributing the "You've got worms!" notification everywhere I could.

Anyone under 100 will probably think this was really stupid, but it was amusing to me - and all the other silly hacks on windows and such.

ChrisArchitect · 10 months ago

love that The Simpsons actually tracked him down to do the "You've Got Leprosy" line. Dedication to the authenticity.

ChrisMarshallNY · 10 months ago

We used the same voice in GE's BusinessTalk system. I think BT and AOL shared a codebase. Not sure which was first.

classichasclass · 10 months ago

Pretty sure it was BT and AppleLink (disclosure: my article): https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2024/03/an-apple-district-manage...

Yes. We actually ran AppleLink.

I just remember that we had exactly the same “You’ve got mail!”thing.

Our UI was also almost identical.

joecool1029 · 10 months ago

In case you just want to hear it: https://www.myinstants.com/en/instant/youve-got-mail/

EvanAnderson · 10 months ago

The Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast had a episode featuring Mr. Edwards: https://www.20k.org/episodes/youvegotmail