McDonald Quartette

The McDonald Brothers from Missouri became a professional quartet in the late 1920s. The quartet included brothers Harold (tenor,) Alvin (lead,) and Ralph McDonald (baritone). Another brother named Lovelle sometimes sang the lead part during their early years. The bass part was sung by men other than the brothers until younger brother Carl joined the quartet in the mid-1930s. Harold served as manager and emcee. The McDonald Brothers recorded dozens of songs in the late 1920s through the early 1930s. Many of their recordings from 1927-1930, released as the McDonald Quartette and the McDonald Quartet, were sold under multiple record labels including Gennett, Champion, and Okeh. During 1927-1928 they also recorded as the Goodman Sacred Singers, the Harris Quartet, the Woodlawn Quartette, the Eva Quartette, the Ellington Sacred Quartette, the Emerson Sacred Quartet, and the Challenge Quartet. Complicating an accounting of their recordings, during the early 1930s there there was another "McDonald Quartette" and a "McDonald's Male Quartet," both of which recorded many of the same songs that were recorded by the McDonald Brothers, also on multiple labels. At their peak they were heard over a network of approximately 160 radio stations. They also had a television program in Jackson, Tennessee. The quartet disbanded in 1955 as one of the oldest and longest-running quartets in gospel music. The McDonald Brothers Quartet got back together in 1968 for several concert dates, and they recorded their first and only LP titled Back Again by Request.