Haydn (Hayden) Quartet, The
Haydn (Hayden) Quartet, The
Haydn (Hayden) Quartet, The, one of the most successful vocal quartets of the early 20th century. Original members were John Bieling, Harry Macdon-ough, S. H. Dudley, and William E Hooley. The top American recording group of the 1900s, the Haydn Quartet was formed as the Edison Male Quartet and scored a major hit under that name with Stephen Foster’s “My Old Kentucky Home” (1898). As the Haydn Quartet, their hits included “Because” (1900), “In the Good OldSummer Time” (1903), “Bedalia” (1904), “Blue Bell”(1904), “Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart)” (1904), “Sunbonnet Sue” (1908), and “Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet”(1909).
On the hits “Toyland” (1904), “Dearie” (1905), and “How’d You Like to Spoon with Me?” (1906), they were accompanied by Connie Morgan; Billy Murray joined them on the hits “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908) and “By the Light of the Silv’ry Moon” (1910).
Reginald Werrenrath frequently replaced Dudley in later years, when they were known as the Hayden Quartet. The group disbanded in 1914, with Macdon-ough, Hooley, and Werrenrath going on to form the Orpheus Quartet with Lambert Murphy. This group scored a major hit with “Turn Back the Universe and Give Me Yester Day”(1916) but did not match the original quartet’s success.
—William Ruhlmann