He was born in San Joaquin Valley, California.
This bass singer made records of operatic arias, oratorio solos, sentimental ballads, upbeat popular songs, and parlor tunes.
He made records as a solo artist but also sang in duets, trios, quartets, and more.
He possessed a rich bass-baritone voice. He was skillful at interpretation, and his enunciation was superb.
He began recording in choral groups for Columbia around 1909.
As a solo artist he made his Victor debut in 1913 with Spross's "Song of Steel" (17182), and Victor catalogs soon afterwards declared that he was exclusive to the company.
His best-selling disc as a solo artist was Victor 17309, which featured the standards "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" and "Asleep in the Deep."
They were remade electrically in 1926 and issued on Victor 20244.
Edison issued only one record of Glenn as a solo artist: Jude's "Mighty Deep," released as Blue Amberol 3959 in April 1920.
His one Columbia recording as a solo artist is "Gypsy Love Song" from Victor Herbert's The Fortune Teller (A3598).
He sang far more often in groups than as a solo artist. He occasionally substituted for William F. Hooley during Victor sessions of the Haydn Quartet, and he joined the Orpheus Quartet as a regular member soon after Hooley died in 1918.
He attended sessions for the Orpheus Quartet, Victor Light Opera Company, Lyric Quartet, and Trinity Choir.
On December 8, 1915, he sang as a member of the Victor Opera Sextette during a recording of the Lucia di Lammermoor sextet (55066), the others being Harry Macdonough, Marguerite Dunlap, Reinald Werrenrath, Lambert Murphy, and Olive Kline. The Donizetti number had been recorded years earlier by a Victor Opera Sextette for Victor 70036, with Hooley providing bass.
If any singer may be called a successor to Hooley (whose bass voice was rich), it was Glenn.
Victor issued only one authentic cowboy song in the acoustic era: soloist Glenn, assisted by the Shannon Quartet, sings "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo" on Victor 19059. It was issued in July 1923, and Victor's supplement for that month calls the number "educational" and "a genuine cowboy song, such as few Americans ever have heard of, much less heard."
He did much concert work and in the late 1920s sang on radio as part of the Eveready Mixed Quartet, which also featured contralto Rose Bryant, soprano Beulah Gaylord Young, and tenor Charles Harrison.
His greatest success was as bass and manager of the Shannon Four, which evolved into the more famous Revelers, the personnel of which changed over the years.
The Revelers disbanded in 1939 but Glenn later formed another quartet and again used the name.
He dissolved the Revelers in 1954 and retired to a Virginia farm. Perhaps life on a farm was what he always intended for himself. Victor's July 1923 supplement includes a photograph of Glenn taken "on a Chicken Range"--a chick is on the singer's head.
He died in Charlottesville, Virginia.
