Беспревзойшённый квартет: История американской вокальной группы.

American vocal group

The Peerless Quartet was an American vocal group that recorded in the early years of the twentieth century. They formed to record for Columbia Records, where they were credited as the Columbia Quartet or Columbia Male Quartet. From about 1907, when they began to record for record labels other than Columbia, they were more widely known as the Peerless Quartet. The Peerless Quartet was one of the most commercially successful groups of the acoustic era and made hundreds of recordings, including popular versions of songs such as "Sweet Adeline", "By the Light of the Silvery Moon", "Let Me Call You Sweetheart", and "I Want A Girl (Just Like The Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)". The group continued to record until 1928, with many changes of personnel. They were led until 1910 by Frank C. Stanley, and thereafter by tenor Henry Burr.

The first cylinder recordings by the Columbia Male Quartet (or Quartette) were made in the late 1890s. The earliest version of the group included first tenor Albert Campbell, second tenor James Kent "Jim" Reynard, baritone Joe Belmont and bass Joe Majors. The same line up also recorded in 1901–02 as the Climax Quartette for Climax discs, a predecessor of Columbia's own discs, although later recordings under that name were by a different group. By 1904, the group's membership had stabilized as tenors Albert Campbell and Henry Burr, baritone Steve Porter, and bass Frank C. Stanley. Frank Stanley (born William Stanley Grinsted) became the group's lead singer and manager, and, as freelance musicians, the group began recording for other labels as well as Columbia. They recorded as the Peerless Quartet for Zonophone from 1907; for the Victor Talking Machine Company from 1908; and for Edison's National Phonograph Company from 1909. The group's most successful early recordings included "You're The Flower of My Heart, Sweet Adeline" for Columbia in 1904, and "Honey Boy" for Columbia and Zonophone in 1907. In 1909, Arthur Collins replaced Steve Porter, who continued to record as a solo performer and in duos.

Frank C. Stanley died of pleurisy in 1910. He was replaced in the group by John H. Meyer, and Henry Burr took over as their lead singer and manager, a position he retained until the group dissolved in 1928. They also recorded and released the Irving Berlin penned tune "At the Devil's Ball" (Columbia) with singer Maurice Burkhart in 1913. In his book Pop Memories 1890–1954, music archivist and statistician Joel Whitburn assessed a variety of sources such as Talking Machine Worlds lists of top selling recordings, and Billboards sheet music and vaudeville charts, to estimate the most successful recordings of the period. He concluded that the Peerless Quartet had 102 "top ten" hits in all between 1904 and 1926, and in the decade 1910–1919 had more successful recordings than any other musician or group. this broadly confirms statements that the group were the most popular of their era. In addition, Henry Burr, Albert Campbell and Arthur Collins also recorded very successfully as solo singers: Burr and Collins, in particular, were two of the most popular singers of the first two decades of the century. The group also accompanied other singers including Ada Jones, Byron G. Harlan, George O'Connor, and Irving Kaufman. Burr, Campbell and Meyer also recorded together as the Sterling Trio. They were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003.