'GMA' Clip

True to form, the Hullabahoos uploaded the Good Morning America segment about collegiate a cappella—or rather, just the part of the segment where they appear. That video is here:

Must-Have LP: Part 2

Last week we wrote about "Campus Hootenanny," an awesome collegiate a cappella compilation LP from the 60s. (That post here.)

Well, another must-have bit of a cappella history popped up on eBay. There's been a lot of controversy in a cappella circles about studio effects on albums. Well, it may have started back in 1984 with the Bubs's album "Clue." Bill Allen, a Bub alum, was the engineer on this LP.

The effect in question: The record opens with a song called “Grazin’ in the Grass." Bill recorded the group saying the word “Pow” a few times. “I had them linger on pow,” Bill says, in a story told in Pitch Perfect. “Powwwwwww.” The Bubs were recording on 1/4 inch tape. Bill spliced the tape—literally. He took a pencil and scrubbed the mark, laid it on the splicing block and cut it with a razor. He flipped the tape, and played it back. And so the Powwwwww became a wwwwwwwwoP. “That’s how we got the big crescendo that starts that track,” Bill says.

A cappella fans, "Clue" is up for sale on eBay. Click here to bid!

'Good Morning America' Indeed

Collegiate a cappella is "less Urkel than Usher," according to GMA Weekend. And the Tufts Beelzebubs were in the ABC studio this morning to prove it. That story from earlier today is here.

Video coming shortly...

A Cappella Returns to 'The Office'

If you're a fan of The Office, you know that Andy Bernard likes to talk about his old a cappella group, Cornell's Here Comes Treble. Well, in last night's season premiere, Bernard (played by Ed Helms) was at it again, trying to convince his fiance that the men of Treble should sing at their wedding. Check it out here:

Let's Try This Again...

The Good Morning America Weekend segment on collegiate a cappella (with a plug for Pitch Perfect) has been rescheduled for this Sunday morning in the 8 o'clock hour. Tune in!

Yale A Cappella Smackdown!

Yale's fourteen a cappella groups (fourteen!) tapped new members last night. But some groups had to curtail their celebrations due to sanctions from, get this, the Singing Group Council—a governing body made up of reps from all the Yale a cappella groups.

The Yale Daily News reports:

"The SGC received seven formal complaints and numerous informal complaints pertaining to pre-tapping and illegal meetings between freshmen and a cappella members outside of the rush process," co-chair Sean Pool '09 said... As penalties, the SGC required the Baker’s Dozen to cancel its rush dinner, while the other three groups had to wait at the High Street gate for two extra minutes. During this time, other groups could begin the sprint through Old Campus to tap their picks and therefore get to them first. The SGC also levied an additional penalty on Mixed Company, which will have last pick for the date of its singing dessert next year.

The full-story is here.

A Cappella Karaoke?

At Cornell, my old a cappella group's signature song was a clever-ish take on "We Didn't Start the Fire" rewritten as, yes, "We Didn't Go to Harvard." Every few years my beloved Cayuga's Waiters would update the lyrics. And the song became so popular, the group eventually printed t-shirts, seen here. (Apparently they didn't sell well, because you can still buy one here.)

Anywho... someone went and posted "We Didn't Go To Harvard" and its lyrics on YouTube, in what may be the first case of a cappella karaoke. Enjoy.