Hayden Quartet

The Haydn Quartet originally formed under the name "Edison Quartet" in 1896, with a membership of John Bieling (tenor), Jere Mahoney (tenor), Samuel Holland Rous (who performed under the name S. H. Dudley, baritone),^[2] and William F. Hooley (bass). Mahoney was soon replaced by John Scantlebury Macdonald, who used the pseudonym Harry Macdonough.^[3] They recorded as the Edison Quartet (or Edison Male Quartet), before taking the name Haydn Quartet around 1898 in order to record for companies other than Edison.^[4]

In 1901 they signed a contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company, and in 1902 also traveled to the UK to record for the Gramophone Company, which was Victor's affiliate.^[5] The group had great success over the next decade as one of the premier recording groups of the time, on a par with the Peerless Quartet. The Haydn Quartet often sang material at a slower tempo and in a statelier fashion than other groups.^[1] The ensemble also performed vaudeville and minstrel show songs, one of which, "The Camp Meeting Jubilee", released in 1904 as Victor no. 4003, includes a very early recorded use of the phrase "rockin' and rollin'", albeit used with a spiritual rather than secular connotation.^[6][7]

Recordings credited to the Haydn Quartet began to be phased out in 1908.^[5] After that time, Billy Murray frequently sang lead with the group, and S. H. Dudley was often replaced by Reinald Werrenrath.^[4] Following the successful collaborations between Murray and the Haydn Quartet, Victor organized a new group, the American Quartet, in 1910, with Murray, Bieling and Hooley from the Haydn Quartet, and baritone Steve Porter. The group's name was spelled Hayden after 1910. The quartet disbanded in 1914.^[4] As well as members participating in the American Quartet, Macdonough and Hooley, together with Reinald Werranrath and tenor Lambert Murphy, also formed the Orpheus Quartet, who recorded successfully until 1919.^[8]

In his book Pop Memories 1890-1954, music archivist and statistician Joel Whitburn assessed a variety of sources such as Talking Machine World's lists of top-selling recordings, and Billboard's sheet music and vaudeville charts, to estimate the most successful recordings of the period. He concluded that the Haydn Quartet had 62 "top ten" hits in all between 1898 and 1914, and in the decade 1900-1909 had more successful recordings than any other group, behind only Macdonough and Murray, who recorded as solo artists in addition to their group performances.^[4] Although Whitburn's methods of assessment have been criticized,^[9] this confirms that the group were one of the most popular of their era.