| Variations of Name | The Premier Quartet; Premiere Quartette; The Premier American Quartet |
| Relationships | Original Members:
John Bieling,
Jere Mahoney,
S. H. Dudley,
William F. Hooley
Past Members:
Billy Murray, Steve Porter, Everett M. Clark, Harry Donaghy, Harry Macdonough, Albert C. Campbell, W. T. Leahy, Walter B. Rogers, Robert D. Armour, John Young, Donald Chalmers, John H. Meyer, Frank Croxton, Will Oakland, Rosario Bourdon |
| Biography | The American Quartet was a four-member vocal group that recorded for various companies in the United States between 1899 and 1925. The membership varied over the years, but the most famous line-up comprising John Bieling (first tenor), Billy Murray (second tenor), Steve Porter (baritone), and William F. Hooley (bass) recorded for the Victor Talking Machine Company from 1909 to 1913. The same group of singers recorded for Edison Records as the Premier Quartet (or Quartette), and for that and other labels as the Premier American Quartet. From 1912 to 1914 the quartet also recorded with countertenor Will Oakland as the Heidelberg Quintet.
The name 'American Quartet' was first used on some recordings around 1899 by the group that became more widely known as the Haydn Quartet - that is, John Bieling, Jere Mahoney, S. H. Dudley, and William F. Hooley. That line-up recorded for Edison Records as the Edison Male Quartet, for Berliner as the Haydn Quartet, and for other companies as the American Quartet. After Harry Macdonough replaced Mahoney, the name was used by Edison on some of the group's recordings. Another line-up credited with the same name comprised Albert C. Campbell, W. T. Leahy, Dudley, and Hooley, on recordings for Victor from 1901.
The best known line-up of the quartet was formed in 1909, when Victor Records needed a vehicle for their new singing star, Billy Murray. They formed a group around Murray, with Bieling and Hooley brought in from the Haydn Quartet (in which they continued to sing), and Steve Porter from the Peerless Quartet. Their debut release, "Denver Town", in the then-popular "cowboy song" genre, was released in February 1909 and was arranged and in co-written by George L. Botsford.
Bieling left the group in mid-1913 because of the strain on his voice, which worsened when he was required to make "cowboy whoops" on some records. He was replaced by Robert D. Armour, a young tenor from Mobile, Alabama. Armour then left in mid-1915, and was replaced by John Young, who had previously recorded under the name Harry Anthony.
William Hooley died in 1918, a victim of the flu pandemic. The group continued, with Hooley replaced by bass singer Donald Chalmers, a member of the Criterion Quartet. After Murray's exclusive contract with Victor expired, the group of Murray, Porter, Young and Chalmers recorded for many companies, including Edison, Columbia, and Okeh, before retiring as a recording entity in 1920.
Singer and entrepreneur Henry Burr proposed that Murray should replace him in the Peerless Quartet, and that the new group - Murray, Albert Campbell, John H. Meyer, and Frank Croxton - should record for Victor, as the American Quartet. This was agreed; the group signed exclusively to Victor, with Murray and Burr receiving $35,000 each per year, and Campbell, Meyer, and Croxton $10,000 each. The new group had some success with songs such as "In The Little Red School House" (1922), but at a much lower level than previously. The group's final recording, "Alabamy Bound", was recorded in 1925, just before Victor switched from acoustic to electrical recording; the Quartet did not record with the new technology. |