I didn’t like Mad Men much this week, except for Pete and Trudy’s crazy Charleston. But I was thrilled in a sick way by the mention of the Tigertones. Yale, like Princeton, was still overrun with singing groups in the 1990s, and their members had weirdly high campus status and a tendency to harmonize at the drop of a hat. My college roommates managed to date at least 5 Whiffenpoofs (not at one time), so I could not escape. My least favorite a capella song? “Carolina In My Mind” as sung by the Duke’s Men.
The Princeton Tigertones are an all male acapella group at the prestigious Ivy League university. Their history is written in that special Princeton-issued purple crayon:
“When Spring came to war-weary Princeton in 1946, it found thirteen
men who had decided that there was no real outlet for a variety of close
harmony singing on campus.”
The group quickly began performing outside of just Princeton’s campus,
and in 1947 began making their World Tours. The Tigertones have been
featured in magazines from Rolling Stone to LIFE. Notable alumni include
filmmakers Andrew and Eugene Jarecki, actor Wentworth Miller and, of
course, Paul Kinsey.Here’s footage of the Tigertones preforming “Runaround Sue” in 2007.
< footnote - by Natasha Simons
There’s a yacht joke.
