The Peerless Quartet

The Peerless Quartet
The Peerless Quartet, c. 1923 L-R: John H. Meyer, Henry Burr, Frank Croxton, Albert Campbell
Background information
Also known as	The Columbia (Male) Quartet The Climax Quartette
Origin	New York City, U.S.
Genres	Vocal group
Years active	1890s–1928
Labels	Columbia, Victor, Edison, Zonophone
Past members	Albert Campbell Henry Burr James Stanley Steve Porter Arthur Collins John H. Meyer Frank Croxton Carl Mathieu Stanley Baughman Frank C. Stanley

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 the most commercially successful group 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. Over the next few years, Reynard was first replaced by George J. Gaskin, and then, around 1902, by Henry Burr. Majors was first replaced by Tom Daniels and then, in about 1903, by Frank C. Stanley. On some recordings, Belmont was replaced by Arthur Collins or Bob Roberts.