Inducted 1997

As a boy, John Daniel absorbed the rich singing tradition of the Sand Mountain region of north-central Alabama. 

By the early 1920s, he and his brothers and sisters had formed a family group, performing locally as the Daniel Family Quartet. In the mid-1930s, John and his brother, Troy, reorganized the quartet into an all-male group and determined to make a living singing gospel music.

Over the next decade, the John Daniel Quartet represented all three of the major shape-note publishing companies in the South-A. J. Showalter, James D. Vaughan, and Stamps-Baxter. John's leadership ability, however, led the group away from a formal connection with the powerful publishing companies, securing a spot on the prestigious Grand Ole Opry where the group's music was beamed to a massive audience over WSM's powerful 50,000-watt clear channel station. As a result, the quartet became one of the most popular Southern Gospel groups of the 1940s and 1950s.