# A Great A Capella Choir Performance **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274 "2009-06-19T05:32:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/21 "2009-06-19T21:36:49Z")
Vocal Sampling is a Cuban a capella group - they’re fantastic. Last weekend, I used one of their songs at my youth group, to produce [this](http://www.atomicshrimp.com/st/content/also_sock_zarathustra). ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/22 "2009-06-19T22:37:02Z")
No mention of **The Persuasions** yet? They’re the best do-wop accapella group ever. It’s hard to believe the only instrument on this album is the human voice. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7xcXL1MUT0&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7xcXL1MUT0&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/23 "2009-06-19T22:42:39Z")
I’ve always loved the BoCA (Best of College A’capella) albums from 2008 and 2009. A wide variety of the colleges, some fantastic renditions, and some very entrancing music. I never knew about the Beelzebubba’s until these albums. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/24 "2009-06-19T23:14:09Z")
Well for a fun one, try Rockapella’s [Zombie Jamborie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2c8zUwELPk) ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/25 "2009-06-19T23:40:27Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I made beer money in college doing lighting work for a stage equipment store. Guy contracted to provide lights/sound/makeup etc to travelling acts around the state. One of the hottest shows I worked was a group called “Sweet Honey of the Rock Gospel Choir”. Four ladies, barefoot, on stage. No band, no instruments, nothing. They sang. They clapped. They stomped. And they rocked the house more than any other music show I ever worked. > > Not really my style of music…but still an epic performance. Is this them? [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HdQdFytLOrQ/hqdefault.jpg "Concert des Sweet Honey in the Rock!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdQdFytLOrQ) ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/26 "2009-06-19T23:46:25Z")
This is one of the greatest threads ever! While following one of the links, I saw this breathtaking [_Pater Noster_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZtyfsW_9LI&feature=related). ---
**Author:** ![CheapBastid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8baadc/32.png) [@CheapBastid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheapBastid)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/27 "2009-06-20T01:30:03Z")
There was a wonderful live performance by Zap Mama that sadly seems to have been taken down, so here’s [Brrrlak](http://youtube.com/watch?v=VxkbipVwZv4). Also, if you’ve not seen it, watch Spike Lee’s “Do It A Cappella”. Chock full of great performances, including the my favorite version of [The Lion Sleeps Tonight](http://youtube.com/watch?v=r4XC9PcIMkE). ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/28 "2009-06-20T03:57:17Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > [Danny Boy?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU&feature=PlayList&p=384E5161BE913E89&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=31) They clearly had a piano accompanist. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/29 "2009-06-20T04:20:29Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > Naturally Seven on the [Paris subway](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF-KagTq7qY). Frakking awesome! ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/30 "2009-06-20T04:42:33Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Well for a fun one, try Rockapella’s [Zombie Jamborie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2c8zUwELPk) Yeah, the whole “Spike Lee & Co. Do it A Capella” is terrific. I’ll add [The Lion Sleeps Tonight](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlUbgbaBZJk&feature=PlayList&p=EFDB5C5C981D846E&index=13). Still looking for the SL&CoDiAC Ladysmith version of “N’kosi Sikeleli Africa”. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/31 "2009-06-20T04:54:53Z")
> [@CheapBastid](#): > > Also, if you’ve not seen it, watch Spike Lee’s “Do It A Cappella”. Chock full of great performances, including the my favorite version of [The Lion Sleeps Tonight](http://youtube.com/watch?v=r4XC9PcIMkE). Dammit, beat me to it. The Mint Juleps leads have such sweet, sweet voices. I don’t suppose anyone has links to more great African a capella? ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/32 "2009-06-20T05:16:09Z")
I weep with joy at the responses here. Very nicely done, Dopers. This thread is sooooo bookmarked. Is there by any chance a Firefox plugin that would allow me to collect all the links in one convenient place? I’ll add another one that was my first exposure to ancient a capella: Steeleye Span’s [Gaudete](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBZ8v9L8444). This was only 35 or so years ago - is the female’s name Maddy Prior? Regardless, I love her voice. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/33 "2009-06-20T05:51:52Z")
[QUOTE=Peanuthead] No mention of **The Persuasions** yet? They’re the best do-wop accapella group ever. [/quote] Not to be picky, but you’ve mispelled [The Nutmegs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iTdHGpT1KM). But I do like this **The Persuasions** you accidentally typed. The thread title specifies the Choir sound, but since I’m not the first to stray from that theme, I’d like to make the point that although I am a big fan of A Capella of many genres, I think that too many singers tend to ruin Doo-Wop. With the advent of YouTube, I have subjected myself to many examples. Let me give you just one: [Trickle, Trickle by the Videos](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ8DKZqBKJo) Now, observe that [this frat boy quartet](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YchCh9zof8&feature=related) does a respectable job with their rendering. The fact is that a lot of the premium doo-wop from back in the day was performed by the ancient equivalent of our backward baseball capped frat boys – the Excellents, The Four Jays, The Mystics, ect. The list goes on and on. But note how the song gets diluted the more voices you get involved: [Nine](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcInQjmVIfI) [Twenty?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LdhAdVKCCc&feature=related) Maybe it’s not the numbers, but the kinds of things a choir director has to do to arrange for a song to be sung by scads of people, but should they really be left to abuse otherwise rocking songs? One technique they seem to use is to seek opportunities to let individual vocalists dominate: [Java Jive - The Tollerable Version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_9aYeQC5o4) And that seems to break up the damage the big choir style does to songs written for small-group harmony. As much as groups like Rockapella often do to make songs never meant for A Capella into excellent examples of the genre, there are countless high school and college choirs determined to turn the highlights of group harmony into crap people are glad they never have to hear again once they graduate. And yet, strangely, I find that high school and college groups are not fucking up Duke of Earl nearly so badly, possibly because it’s almost unavoidable to make the song about the performance of individual singers with a backup: [The Musical Hats Choir](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtDvu4YGvKg) [The Dorm Bros](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0W3k_7nToo&feature=related) [The Asians are Beating us at Doo-Wop](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkBXDSmts6c) I also suspect that Duke of Earl gets a young man’s full attention, because it’s a song one can invest one’s ego in. But even taking into account my R&B/Doo-Wop bias on the subject of vocal harmony, I think America is just losing out. Yes, we have a lot of old guys, some of whom were actually involved in the street corner scene back in the day, buttoning on their white sport coats and exercising their considerably less flexible voices, but generally what have we really got as the future of vocal harmony in America? A bunch of kids pushed into doing crappy versions of songs they don’t see as relevant to them by their choir directors? What have we really got for fresh blood? Just the [Alley Cats](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suaYcr0Dw_I), right? [Kid Kyle.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sD17DAaY-M) whose testicles have only recently descended? Europe is whipping the pants off of us. In Spain they’ve got [The Velvet Candles](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGpcGc5b40c) / [Street Candles](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi5RGgasxF4) / [Earth Angels](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8LI7xgssWE) (whatever they’re calling themselves now), [The Sparkles](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8c-VANyFAw), and [Del Prince](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWKAlzCh5fg&feature=related). Germany has [The Crystalairs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBke5qO1gyw). Hell, Italy is kicking our asses with just one group, the Acapella Swingers: [Book of Love](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he7pgIBPQUk&feature=PlayList&p=C606877AFA448A4A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=102) [Come Go with Me](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHw0ZDHX1pQ&feature=PlayList&p=16E5A0E4127C5FB3&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=27) [One Summer Night](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbM_HkLQWwA) [Who Put the Bomp](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX8S3WtJkV4) [You Baby You / The Wanderer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPGy_vqlgMM) [My Juanita](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebwy0lONOIo) … And these people I’m pretty sure don’t even speak English. Here’s one big clue: Their album is titled “Let’s on Doo-wop.” Huh? Their rendition of Lee Andrews’ _Teardrops_ has the line “Oh, if we could only stars over again.” The album, by the way, is not available in America. I found a Norwegian distributor who only charged me $32 to get it to me. But their rendition of [Hushabye My Love](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skNUmDMghnY) is precious, and not available on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/34 "2009-06-20T06:25:28Z")
[HALLELUJAH!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5v24Q7i0EE) My chorus did this a number of years ago, except the entire chorus had signs, which each person made in any style they wanted. Some of them lit up. Of course it got a standing O. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/35 "2009-06-20T16:32:49Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > [HALLELUJAH!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5v24Q7i0EE) > > My chorus did this a number of years ago, except the entire chorus had signs, which each person made in any style they wanted. Some of them lit up. Of course it got a standing O. That is extremely funny! I’ve come to the conclusion that while tenors get all the headlines, it’s the basses who are truly essential, and more rare and precious than diamonds, especially in _a capella_. One Bowzer is worth a dozen Paverottis in my book. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/36 "2009-06-20T16:41:42Z")
> [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](#): > > Toto’s 1982 hit _ **Africa** _, as performed by the Slovenian choir [Perpetuum Jazzile](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbpwlqp5Qw). > > Anybody got anything comparable? Awesome! How did they get Hugh Laurie to beatbox for them? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/37 "2009-06-21T02:10:23Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > [Straight No Chaser](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28GUU1YbP_E) I love that video so much. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/38 "2009-06-21T05:55:21Z")
These are so cool! **Oslo** , wanna try something a little [harder?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9LaB9dq4Rw) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/39 "2009-06-21T13:48:08Z")
[The Vocal People!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfjXd3nIedE) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274/40 "2009-06-21T18:41:56Z")
Is it OK to submit [a high school choir](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_9Sf8SgmkI) as an entry? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-a-capella-choir-performance/500274.md?page=3)