Stanford Fleet Street Singers

The Stanford Fleet Street Singers on tour to New York City, c. 1990

Fleet Street was formed in 1981, after a few years as a loosely-defined barbershop quartet. As freshmen, students Timothy Biglow, Kyle Kashima, and Chris Tucci had been turned down after auditioning for the Stanford Mendicants, Stanford's only a cappella group at the time. As juniors, they formed the Fleet Street Singers with an emphasis on barbershop harmony, theatricality, and humor.[1][2]

The group's earliest performances were free and took place on the Stanford campus, in dormitories, and at social events.[1][2] The group's early repertoire included barbershop arrangements of Stanford standards and fight songs, such as "Hail, Stanford, Hail!" and "Come Join the Band".[1][3] A dozen of these arrangements were written and ultimately recorded for the A side of Fleet Street's first record, Songs of the Stanford Red (1984). The B side comprised ten songs from Fleet Street's other repertoire: jazz standards and more comedic arrangements.[4][5]

The two sides of the group's repertoire were not always kept separate; the group often subverted traditional songs for humorous effect. They performed a parody of UC Berkeley's official fight song, with alternative lyrics lampooning the rival school's mascot ("The Dirty Golden Bear").[6][7] In 1987, Fleet Street reinterpreted the university's century-old alma mater ("Hail, Stanford, Hail!") as a rap, which earned them renown within the community.[1][8] The Stanford Daily called it "a performance that characterizes the group's combination of music and comedy" and reported by 1990 its use at official university events including freshman orientation, fundraisers, and Big Game.[1] From 1990 to 1992, Fleet Street also performed the hymn at the university's commencement ceremonies in Stanford Stadium. Each time, after the audience chanted "Rap! Rap! Rap!", Fleet Street also performed their rap version of the hymn.[9][10][11][12] In 1991, Fleet Street was selected to be part of Stanford's National Centennial Celebration (celebrating 100 years since the university's founding); the group was flown to cities around the United States to sing the university's fight songs for alumni.[1]

At the turn of the 1990s, Fleet Street broadened their repertoire, becoming well known on Stanford campus for their medleys, like that of songs from the TV show Schoolhouse Rock!, or that of songs by Duran Duran.[13][14][15] By 1992, their annual spring show filled Stanford's 1700-seat Memorial Auditorium.[16] Having become well-established at school, Fleet Street began pursuing projects beyond Stanford's campus.

In early 1992, Fleet Street released 50-Minute Fun Break, their fourth studio album and their second collaboration with audio engineer Bill Hare.[17] It featured the first synthesis of Hare's innovative studio recording techniques, which would go on to define the sound of recorded a cappella.[17][18][19] The album was generally well-received; a critic for the Recorded A Cappella Review Board (RARB) wrote, "Of all of the collegiate albums I have heard, this is the one that I would recommend most readily. If I could have only one collegiate album, this would be it."[20] At the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards, the album won awards in five categories, a new record at the Awards.[21] At the time of the album's release, however, its studio engineering polarized a cappella critics. On the one hand, critics praised the album, saying "[Fleet Street's] studio engineering work is incredible", and, "This is technically one of the best albums I've heard from the collegiate scene." On the other hand, some critics criticized the studio work, calling it "intrusive", "unnatural", and "strange".[20] For its part, the Contemporary A Cappella Society praised the album's engineering, awarding it Best Mixing and Engineering and calling it "the best engineering we've ever heard on any collegiate album. Ever."[17][21]

Over the summer break in 1992, Fleet Street performed in a weeklong appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, their first show outside North America. The festival's program notes called Fleet Street "one of the U.S.'s premiere a cappella groups", and praised them for their theatrical style, musicianship, and "outlandish humour".[22] In February 1996, Fleet Street participated in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella and won Best Overall Group Performance on the West Coast, advancing to the championship's finals. That April, the group performed in the finals at David Geffen Hall (called Avery Fisher Hall at the time) in New York City's Lincoln Center, and performed on national television with The Today Show.[15][23][24]

In March 1996, World Champion figure skater Rudy Galindo skated to Fleet Street's recording of "Ave Maria" for his exhibition program at the World Figure Skating Championships.[25][26][27] Galindo later wrote that he found the recording "so spiritual and moving" that "the voices of the choir lift me to another state of mind, and it feels as if I'm floating."[25] Following that performance, Galindo skated to Fleet Street's cover of Bette Midler's "The Rose" in late 1999 at both Ice Wars and at the World Professional Figure Skating Championship.[28][29][30]

Fleet Street appeared on national radio for the first time in 1999, when their parody song "Web Surfin'" appeared in The Dr. Demento Radio Show's "Funny Five" list (best known for popularizing "Weird Al" Yankovic).[31] As of 2020, Fleet Street has been featured on the radio show 13 times.[32]

Their 2001 album Fearless received mixed-to-positive reviews from the RARB. The track "Greatest Hits of the 1590s" was described by a cappella critic Rebecca Christie as a "parody medley that [is] the best of its kind" with modern pop hooks "sung in madrigal fashion".[33]

The Stanford Fleet Street Singers during a 2019 performance

In 2004, Fleet Street released their eleventh studio album, Fleet Street, the first album in collegiate a cappella to be composed entirely of original songs.[upper-alpha 1][35][36][37][38] The album was well-received, drawing praise for its lyrics and for the broad scope of its 15 original songs.[37] Contemporary A Cappella Society president Deke Sharon called it "the most important collegiate a cappella album to be released in a decade".[39] Noting that Sharon had urged collegiate groups to pursue original material, Broadway producer and a cappella critic Elie Landau said that Fleet Street had "answered Deke's call with probably the most gutsy and original collegiate album I've listened to in almost 20 years of active collegiate a cappella listening."[37]

In 2010, Fleet Street participated in America's Got Talent, reaching the second round in New York City.[39] In 2018, Fleet Street performed twice on National Public Radio.[40][41] In 2019, Fleet Street began producing music videos. One video, a diss track on Harvard University, went viral with 2.8 million views; another, an original song about pulling an all-nighter, earned the group its first A Cappella Video Award.[42]

As of 2020, Fleet Street is best known for their original, often humorous songs, such as "Prayer to the God of Partial Credit", "Everyone Pees in the Shower", and "Greatest Hits of the 1590s".[36][43][44][45] In interviews, musical directors have emphasized the group's originality, calling it "one of the most important things we focus on".[43][45] They describe Fleet Street's creative songwriting process as organic and highly collaborative.[39][46] Apart from music, Fleet Street is known for incorporating videos, sketch comedy, computer-animated films, and elaborate sets into their live performances.[7][39][47][48]

Before 1992, there were no awards organizations related to a cappella. The Contemporary A Cappella Society announced Recording Awards for the first time in 1992. As of 2020, Fleet Street has won ten such awards.

The International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) judged live a cappella performance competitions for the first time in 1996. That year, Fleet Street won the West Region semifinal and competed in the championships at Lincoln Center in New York City.[15][24]