The Stanford Fleet Street Singers (Fleet Street) is a comedy

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

group from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

. The group performs original songs and

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and ...

, and wears a uniform of black vests and red bow ties. Fleet Street is perhaps best known for having published the first collegiate a cappella album composed entirely of original music. In total, Fleet Street has released 13studio albums and has received adozennational awards. Fleet Street was founded in 1981, as a collegiate a cappella group focused on comedy, theatricality, and barbershop harmony. In its early years, the group arranged and performed many Stanford-related songs (which they often subverted for humorous effect), which earned them large audiences among Stanford students and alumni. Alongside a turn to more popular music, the 1990s saw Fleet Street gain national prominence, sweeping the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards, appearing on national television (''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It ...

'') and radio programs ( ''The Dr. Demento Show''), at the

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

in New York City, and overseas (at the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

). In 2004, Fleet Street published their self-titled, entirely original album (the first such album in collegiate a cappella) to critical acclaim; this ushered in a new era for the group, defined by a focus on original music. The name "Fleet Street" is a reference to the musical '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'', itself a nod to the group's musical roots in barbershop music. The group typically comprises a rotating set of 12to16students, with new members selected by audition each September. Alumni of the group include

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scien ...

executives, academics,

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

actors, and comedy writers.

History

1981–1991: Stanford patronage

Fleet Street was formed in 1981, after a few years as a loosely-defined

barbershop quartet A barbershop quartet is a group of four singers who sing music in the barbershop style, characterized by four-part harmony without instrumental accompaniment, or a cappella. The four voices are: the lead, the vocal part which typically carries t ...

. 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. The group's earliest performances were free and took place on the Stanford campus, in dormitories, and at social events. The group's early repertoire included barbershop arrangements of Stanford

standards Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object t ...

and

fight song A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...

s, such as " Hail, Stanford, Hail!" and " Come Join the Band". A dozen of these arrangements were written and ultimately recorded for the Aside of Fleet Street's first record, ''Songs of the Stanford Red'' (1984). The Bside comprised ten songs from Fleet Street's other repertoire:

jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive li ...

s and more comedic arrangements. 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 The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

's official fight song, with alternative lyrics lampooning the rival school's mascot (" The Dirty Golden Bear"). 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. ''

The Stanford Daily ''The Stanford Daily'' is the student-run, independent daily newspaper serving Stanford University. ''The Daily'' is distributed throughout campus and the surrounding community of Palo Alto, California, United States. It has published since the U ...

'' 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. From 1990 to 1992, Fleet Street also performed the hymn at the university's commencement ceremonies in

Stanford Stadium Stanford Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium on the west coast of the United States, located on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California. It is the home of the Stanford Cardinal and hosts the university's commencemen ...

. Each time, after the audience chanted "Rap! Rap! Rap!", Fleet Street also performed their rap version of the hymn. In 1991, Fleet Street was selected to be part of Stanford's National Centennial Celebration (celebrating 100years since the university's founding); the group was flown to cities around the United States to sing the university's fight songs for alumni.

1992–2003: Growing prominence

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! ''Schoolhouse Rock!'' is an American interstitial programming series of animated musical educational short films (and later, videos) that aired during the Saturday morning children's programming block on the U.S. television network ABC. The t ...

'', or that of songs by

Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger Taylor the following year the band we ...

. By 1992, their annual spring show filled Stanford's 1700-seat Memorial Auditorium. 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 ''50-Minute Fun Break'', released in 1992, is the fourth studio album by the collegiate comedy a cappella group the Stanford Fleet Street Singers. It was a landmark album in the a cappella genre for its pioneering recording techniques and use of ...

'', their fourth studio album and their second collaboration with

audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction ...

Bill Hare Bill Hare is an American Grammy Award-winning audio engineer known for pioneering contemporary recording techniques in a cappella. He was the first to record voices individually, and the first to mic singers exactly as one would mic instruments ...

. It featured the first synthesis of Hare's innovative studio recording techniques, which would go on to define the sound of recorded a cappella. 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." At the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards, the album won awards in five categories, a new record at the Awards. 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 " leet Street'sstudio 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". For its part, the

Contemporary A Cappella Society The Contemporary A Cappella Society (of America), or CASA, is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to fostering and promoting a cappella music of all styles around the world. CASA was founded in 1991 by Deke Sharon in San Francisco jus ...

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." Over the summer break in 1992, Fleet Street performed in a weeklong appearance at the

, 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". In February 1996, Fleet Street participated in the

International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella The International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), originally the National Championship of Collegiate A Cappella ("NCCA", a play on NCAA), is an international competition that attracts hundreds of college ''a cappella'' groups each ye ...

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

, and performed on national television with ''The Today Show''. In March 1996, World Champion figure skater

Rudy Galindo Val Joe "Rudy" Galindo (born September 7, 1969) is an American former competitive figure skater who competed in both single skating and pair skating. As a single skater, he is the 1996 U.S. national champion, 1987 World Junior Champion, and 199 ...

skated to Fleet Street's recording of "

Ave Maria The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's ...

" for his exhibition program at the

World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships (''"Worlds"'') is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union. Medals are awarded in the categories of men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. ...

. 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." Following that performance, Galindo skated to Fleet Street's cover of

Bette Midler Bette Midler (;'' Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, comedian and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden ...

's " The Rose" in late 1999 at both Ice Wars and at the World Professional Figure Skating Championship. 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 Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specific ...

). , Fleet Street has been featured on the radio show 13times. 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 sthe best of its kind" with modern pop hooks "sung in madrigal fashion".

2004–present: Original music

In 2004, Fleet Street released their eleventh studio album, ''

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was n ...

'', the first album in collegiate a cappella to be composed entirely of original songs. The album was well-received, drawing praise for its lyrics and for the broad scope of its 15original songs.

president Deke Sharon called it "the most important collegiate a cappella album to be released in a decade". 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 20years of active collegiate a cappella listening." In 2010, Fleet Street participated in ''

America's Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is a televised American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distribu ...

'', reaching the second round in New York City. In 2018, Fleet Street performed twice on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

. In 2019, Fleet Street began producing music videos. One video, a

diss track A diss track, diss record or diss song (diss – abbr. from ''disrespect'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feud between the t ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

, 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. 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". In interviews, musical directors have emphasized the group's originality, calling it "one of the most important things we focus on". They describe Fleet Street's creative songwriting process as organic and highly collaborative. Apart from music, Fleet Street is known for incorporating videos,

computer-animated Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refer ...

films, and elaborate sets into their live performances.

Group identity

In a 2010 interview, music director Julian Kusnadi said, "We're not very concerned about being typical!" That perspective has run in the group for decades: "This is not something that singing groups normally do," said singer Rob Morris when interviewed about a ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

-''themed computer-animated short film the group made in 1997, at a cost of 1,000hours and $2,500. In 2010, ''

'' described Fleet Street as "characterized by its creativity and off-the-wall silliness". In 2011, ''The Daily'' reported on Fleet Street's May show, calling it, "filled with the silly, goofball antics the tuxedoed singers are known for." Fleet Street is a student-led organization; the group's music director, business manager, and singers are always Stanford students. The group consists of a rotating set of 12–16members, with new members selected each September through two rounds of auditions. At auditions, students are asked to bring a joke, and are assessed on how well they blend with the group vocally. Fleet Street wears a uniform of black tuxedo vests and red bowties, a staple of the group since its founding. Penguins also feature heavily in the group's visual identity, appearing on the covers of eight of their eleven albums. The name "Fleet Street" is a reference to the musical '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'', itself a nod to the group's musical roots in barbershop music.

Discography

As of 2020, Fleet Street has released 13full-length albums: *''Songs of the Stanford Red'' (1984) *''Full Moon at the Quad'' (1988) *''curious...'' (1990) *''

'' (1992) *''What You Want'' (1994) *''Greatest Hits & Skits: Volumes 1 and 2'' (1996) *''All The Rage'' (1998) *''Stanford: Up Toward Mountains Higher'' (1999) *''Fearless'' (2001) *''

'' (2004) *''Through The Roof'' (2010) *''Cold Fury'' (2017)

Awards and nominations

Recordings

Before 1992, there were no awards organizations related to a cappella. The

announced Recording Awards for the first time in 1992. As of 2020, Fleet Street has won ten such awards. , - , rowspan="5" , 1993 , rowspan="5" , Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards , Best Male Collegiate Album , ''

'' (1992) , , rowspan="5" , , - , Best Male Collegiate Song , " You Always Hurt the One You Love" , , - , Best Original Collegiate Song , "Prayer to the God of Partial Credit" , , - , Best Collegiate Cover Design , Gray Norton for ''50-Minute Fun Break'' (1992) , , - , Best Mixing and Engineering , Ben Evans and

for ''50-Minute Fun Break'' (1992) , , - , rowspan="4" , 1995 , rowspan="4" , Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards , Male Collegiate Best Album , ''What You Want'' (1994) , , rowspan="4" , , - , Male Collegiate Best Song , "

" , , - , Male Collegiate Best Arrangement , "

What's Opera, Doc? ''What's Opera, Doc?'' is a 1957 American Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The short was released on July 6, 1957, and stars Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. The story features Elmer cha ...

" , style="background: #F4F2B0" , , - , Best Male Collegiate Soloist ,

Kevin Bleyer Kevin Bleyer is an American television writer and producer. He has won multiple Emmy, Peabody, and Writers Guild Awards He was a former writer for ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'', a contributor to President Barack Obama's speeches, the author ...

for " Black Coffee" , , - , rowspan="3" , 1999 , rowspan="3" , Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards , Best Male Collegiate Album , ''All The Rage'' (1998) , , rowspan="2" , , - , Best Male Collegiate Song , "Real Genius" , , - , Best Male Collegiate Arrangement , John Niekrasz , , , - , 2002 , Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards , Best Male Collegiate Arrangement , John Niekrasz for "Strange Meadow Lark" on ''Fearless'' (2001) , , , - , 2005 , Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards , Best Humor Song , "Teen Angst" on ''

'' (2004) , , , - , 2011 , Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards , Best Humor Song , "Greatest Hits of the 1600s" on ''Through The Roof'' (2011) , style="background: #F4F2B0" , , , - , rowspan="2" , 2020 , A Cappella Video Awards , Best Humor Video , Music video: "All-Nighter" , , , - , Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards , Best Humor Song , “All-Nighter” , style="background: #F4F2B0" , ,

Live competition

The

(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

in New York City.

Notable alumni

Fleet Street alumni (who are also, in general, alumni of

) include: * Winter Wright (class of1986), Vice President of Content Strategy,

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various sma ...

. *

(class of1993), comedy writer best known as a writer for ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form fr ...

'' with

Jon Stewart Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He hosted '' The Daily Show'', a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015 and now hosts '' ...

, where he won four

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

, and as a writer for President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

's White House Correspondence Dinner speeches. For his solo on "Black Coffee", the

commented, "Kevin asa future on Broadway with a voice this warm and effortless." * Greg Chun (class of1993), composer best known for his work with The Lonely Island and voice actor known for his work in anime and video games. * Chad Dyer (class of1993), Chief Information Officer,

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. , Sequoia's total ...

. *

Michael K. Lee Michael K. Lee (born June 5, 1973) is an American theater actor and singer who resides in Seoul, Korea. Early life Lee was born in Brooklyn, New York to Susie and Won Yub Lee. He was raised in Salamanca, a small Native American reservation to ...

(class of1994), theater actor and singer with credits on

productions of ''

Miss Saigon ''Miss Saigon'' is a stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera ''Madame Butterfly'', and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed rom ...

'' (Thuy), ''

Jesus Christ Superstar ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the Passion, the work interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with ...

'' (Simon Zealotes), and ''

Rent Rent may refer to: Economics *Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property *Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production *Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...

''. In a 2002 interview, he described Fleet Street as "one of the pivotal points of my life". * Jerry Cain (class of1995), Senior Lecturer of Computer Science at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. S ...

and lead engineer of the original Facebook "Like" button. * Nirav Tolia (class of1995), Co-Founder and CEO of Nextdoor. * Jeremy Henrickson (class of1996), Chief Product Officer,

Coinbase Coinbase Global, Inc., branded Coinbase, is an American publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Coinbase is a distributed company; all employees operate via remote work and the company lacks a physical headqua ...

. * David Wiesen (class of1999), Co-Founder and Director of Engineering, Nextdoor. * Ed Sylvanus Iskandar (class of2004),

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. F ...

-winning theater director. New York Times Critics' Pick and TONY's Critics' Pick winner. In 2000, Fleet Street alumni were among the founding members of The Richter Scales, an a cappella group from

San Francisco, CA San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, that was active from 2000 to 2014. In 2008, Fleet Street alumnus Matt Hempey led that group to win the

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

for Best Viral Video with their a cappella parody, "Here Comes Another Bubble".

Notes

References

External links

Official Fleet Street website

Official Fleet Street YouTube channel
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