February 25, 2010

Whiffenpoofs - Century

CT, Yale campus, five of the Yale Glee Club's finest singers retreated to Mory's Temple Bar, where proprietor Lewis Linder, also a music lover, welcomed them in, and the Whiffenpoofs' legend began. Four of the men were in the Glee Club's Varsity Quartet, which sang at alumni functions. The fifth allowed them to improvise more complex harmonies for the old songs they loved, and this attracted appreciative customers. The group set a weekly date to meet, Mory's at six. The name came from a line in an obscure musical comedy, "Little Nemo," based on cartoonist Winsor McKay's sublime Sunday comic, "Little Nemo in Slumberland." The Whiffenpoof was a fabulous creature who lived in a frozen lake, who would rise through a hole cut in the ice lined with cheese, which he would sniff, squawk a loud "poof," and thus be caught. The group's anthem, "The Whiffenpoof Song," was composed by Glee Club member Todd Galloway, and given lyrics by Whiffenpoofs Meade Minnigerode and George Pomeroy, and the exclamations of all present led to the deathless lyric "We are poor little lambs who have lost our way, Baa, baa, baa…" being reverently sung, standing, at every subsequent Whiffenpoofs gathering. The "best of" songlist contains romantic classics from the 1909 version of the Whiffenpoofs' "Aj, Lucka Siroka" to the 2009 group's "Soon It's Gonna Rain." Other favorites are "September Song" (1950), "Minnie the Mermaid" (1940), "Little Pony" (1975), "The Girl From Ipanema" (1994), "I'll Be Seeing You" (1991), "Something Like The Blues" (1987), "Bye Bye Blackbird" (1994), "Have You Met Miss Jones?" (1962), "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" (1989) and "Saving Ourselves" (1949). In fact, every cut here is a nostalgic, harmonic gem. Treat yourself to this sumptuous musical banquet, one of our all-time favorite Collegiate groups, well, since 1907! 1780 CD 14.95
Listen to "I'll Be Seeing You

Posted by acapnews at February 25, 2010 1:02 AM