Introduction to the Annotated Ninety and Nine

It is a time-honored tradition that classic, wildly popular albums are re-released years after their original debut, to celebrate the anniversary of their original splash onto the musical scene. It is with this tradition in mind that we proudly present: THE ANNOTATED NINETY AND NINE: THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL. Five years ago, four young men in Provo, Utah, banded together to create a memorable Valentine's Day experience--the rest is history. Re-live the adventure, the camaraderie, the smarminess, and the musicality of Jacob, Jacob, Peter, and Eric as you listen to their debut album: THE NINETY AND NINE. Included in this FIFTH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL is special annotations, commentaries, and notes by the original artists. Read along as you listen to more fully understand the meaning of their multitudinous names, the stories behind the songs, the subliminal messages, and much more!! In stores now!!

Track One: Also Sprach Zarathustra/Lamb

This track was created basically as the introduction to our CD. It was originally a song of sounds, with no lyrics; however, as we personalized it, lyrics crept in. The tune, Also Sprach Zarathustra, by Richard Strauss, was a powerful, triumphant entry for us onto the musical scene, and also for the listener onto the CD. This track really personified who we were as a quartet. We had musical talent, and an appreciation for classical music. However, at the same time, while creating the music we had the inner desire to twist things a little bit--personalize the music, be a little goofy (ok, a LOT goofy) and even ad-lib a little bit. This interaction of musicality and goofiness can be seen throughout this tune, and throughout our CD.

The track begins innocuously, with the now-famous three bell-tones. Even here, we can see our commitment to goofiness. Instead of creating pure, clear tones, we decided that the sound of a didgeridoo would be most enjoyable. This effect was created by, while holding the tones, mouthing the three syllables of the word "Oreo" over and over.

If you listen very carefully to the second group of bell-tones (now in normal tones), you can hear a prelude of what is to come. Very faintly, in the background almost, you can hear the minor chord being resolved; a second later, it actually becomes resolved.

The second timpani solo was performed by Jacob Stewart, in obvious homage to Cinderella and the classic hit Bibbety Bobbity Boo. The third group of bell-tones was linked to this timpani solo, as we followed Jacob's "Boo" with "Boos" of our own.

The tune finishes with a climactic crescendo. This crescendo has some ad-libbed parts to it. This recording is the only performance we gave with Jacob Broderick's La La La at the end before the grandioso Wopple.

And with the ecstatic Wopple, we see an introduction into the new-found vocabulary of the Ninety and Nine. Not only were they proficient musicians, but they were regular contributors to Webster's Online Dictionary. A Wopple is *to the best of my knowledge, Jacob and Peter are more well-versed on the subject* a tin can with both sides taken out, to be struck with golf clubs in the game Woppolo. This is just one of the new words and objects the Ninety and Nine have added into today's everyday lexicon--more will be drawn out in this annotated anniversary album.

The reader of this annotated version of the Ninety and Nine debut album will surely notice that this song actually has two names: Also Sprach Zarathustra, and Lamb. The first name was plagiarized from Richard Strauss--he gave the song such a good name that we decided to keep it. The second name, Lamb, was a code name used by members of the Ninety and Nine amongst themselves when referring to this tune. It may be a previously unknown fact that all 30 tracks on the CD have secret code names, each with their individual story and (often stretched) connection to the song in question. This song was originally entitled "Also Sprach Zarathustra." The German philosopher Friedrich Neitzche (who has become the butt of many jokes, based on his baseless claim that God is dead) wrote a book entitled "Also Sprach Zarathustra." Strauss liked the book so much that he used the title of the book as the name for his song. So in realality, we were actually plagiarizing Nietzche. In another of Nietzche's works, he explains the strife between the lower and upper classes with an analogy of lambs and birds of prey. The lambs feel a lot of anger and hatred towards the birds of prey, because they eat the lambs, carry them away, and basically make life miserable for the lambs. However, the birds of prey do not feel a similar animosity towards the lambs. To quote Nietzche, the birds say, "We don't despise these little lambs at all; we even love them: nothing is more tasty than a tender lamb." This connection between the tune and the Lamb from Nietzche was the basis behind our calling this track Lamb.

And so concludes the annotation of our introductory track. We hope you feel the joy and power that we felt as we sang this inspiring hit, along with the triumph of the final sforzando and exclamatory Wopple.

Track 2 - Names 'n Such

This track is a list of the 99 names that we came up with for our quartet. The majority of these names were decided upon one late night in Wells hall with the members of the quartet and Mary, who contributed some of the best names here. We'll (gradually) add some details about the inside jokes behind some of these names.

But the question remains, why come up with 99 names??? Basically, we were thinking and had a fair amount of ideas for a name. But we weren't able to decide on one, so we decided to come up with as many as we could. Eventually we thought of making 99 names, and then we could be the Ninety and Nine (referring to the story in the New Testament, because for the most part, excluding the occasional goofiness, we were good kids). And so the list began, and here it is, in its entirety, with commentaries:

1. The Chronological Scholastics--Not really sure where the Chronological part came from, but we were all fairly strong students, and we were at college, so the scholastic part came in there.

2. NISP-4 - This satnds for "Number of Identified Specimens: 4" which is an archaeological term, I believe. Peter came up with this one.

3. The Silly Goofballs - Well, I think this name is just an accurate description of the group. Listen to the CD your self and you'll see.

4. Slap Happy - We liked to hit each other while we sang...

5. The Gratcheteers - Well, for this one to make sense, we'll have to have an explanation of what a gratchet is. I think that deserves its own post.

6. 6 Foot 2, Eyes of Glass - A reference to the song "Five foot two, eyes of blue, but oh what those five feet can do..." which is a classic a cappella barbershop quartet song. All of us had glasses and were around 6'2" to 6'3".

7. 6 Foot Four Eyes - A nice pun based on the fact that we all wore glasses and were tall.

8. The Quartet - This is what we were called most often, so we had to put it in the list.

9. Cow Wars - I believe Peter saw this in a newspaper headline somewhere. I don't know why it made it on to the list.

10. E = Turkey J^2 - This is a math reference (Eric's major) where E=Eric, Turkey=Peter, and J=Jacob (there were two of us).

11. The Simpletons--Sometimes we were pretty simple and relied on the basics. Like the time when I bought 200 mini-tortillas from Wal-Mart for 4 dollars and lived of them for at least a month.

12. Those Four Guys -- We were four guys, and if people saw us, they would flippantly respond, "Oh, it's those four guys."

13. The Proppers-- As everybody knows, one cannot be inherently funny without a prop. In fact, there is a website that teaches us how to be funny in 5 steps. We read this website together (Eric introduced the website to the group, after himself being introduced to the site in 2001 while at Ricks College) and thought it was hilarious. So, quite often during performances, Eric would have his prop and be holding it while we sang. It was a water bottle.

14. Be Flat--This is a lame pun (which, unfortunately, the aforementioned website believes are not funny...we heartily disagree) in which the phrase "Be Flat" sounds the same as the musical note "B Flat." It also reminds me of a lame joke that I'm sure Eric told on more than one occasion: "Why is crossing the road like music? Because if you don't C#, you'll Bb!!" Lame, I know. But Eric was the master of lame jokes. This name is also a subtle reference to an episode from the Simpsons in which Homer was part of a barbershop quartet. Their name was the Be Flats.

15. Dissonance--According to dictionary.com, dissonance is "A harsh, disagreeable combination of sounds." You draw your own conclusions from this.

16. Consonance--According to dictionary.com, consonance is "A simultaneous combination of sounds conventionally regarded as harmonious or pleasing." Emphasis on the "conventionally."

17. Three Men and a Peter--Mostly to make fun of Peter, though we're not really sure why, we wanted to not so subtly infer that Peter was not a man, while the rest of us supposedly were. It also has a reference to the movie "Three Men and a Baby."

18. The Babeless Wonders and Jacob--While we were singing, the only guy to be in anything resembling a healthy relationship (Eric's adventure with Jessie notwithstanding) was Jacob Broderick. Hence, Eric, Jacob Stewart and Peter were the Babeless Wonders, and Jacob stood alone.

19. The Chemics--Jacob Stewart was a chemistry major. We also had a friend, Brigitte Wilson, who was from Midland, MI. Midland also happens to be the headquarters for Dow Chemical and the mascot for the local high school was the Chemics.

20. We're Not as Fat as You're Drunk We Think--I don't remember where this came from, except it was VERY late at night and it remains one of my top-five favorite names.

21. The Four Pillars--We were all very tall, as previously noted, making us four pillars. Of course, there is the additional reference to the Five Pillars of Islam. Not that we were putting ourselves on the pedestal of the basis of a religion, but we were (as we often did) trying to connect two things that have completely nothing to do with each other.

22. The Green Knights--Not sure as for a reason for this. Perhaps it is an outside reference to the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I'm not sure on this one.

23. The Back of the Boxcar--This neither

24. B-rah and the Paperclips--Jacob Broderick, due to his last name, was referred to on rare occasion as B-rah (pronounced Bee Raw). Jacob Stewart, Peter, and Eric were the Paperclips due to a song, penned by Peter, entitled "Ode to a Paperclip." This tune will be addressed in further detail in the Addendum: Hits that didn't make the Debut Album.

25. The Official Dueling Club--While never actually participating in real, Aaron Burr-esque duels, Jacob and Peter created an "Official Dueling Club." There were rules, especially involving what could and could not be used as weapons during Official Dueling Club Sanctioned Duels. For more information, see the track entitled "ODC Notice."

26. Old Men in Embryo--When we first made this CD, were were all fairly young--18 or 19. However, we knew that we would not stay young forever, and that we were merely preparing ourselves for life as old men. So, we were Old Men in Embryo in that we were in the preparatory state.

27. Peter Steele and the Kleptos--A pun on Peter's last name (Steele/Steal, get it?). Also, although it is debated if the name caused the tendency or vice-versa, Eric was known to occasionally steal salt and pepper shakers from 168 F. Smith Hall. Jacob Stewart would also help in the stealing of small objects.

28. The Fantastic Four--Let's face it, we were in our prime. We were fantastic, and there were four of us. So, a comparison to the Fantastic Four of the comic books was apropos.

29. Amazing Grace--Not sure how this came about.

30. Charm, Wit, Talent, and Quack--Four characteristics of each of the singers. Jacob Broderick was charm, for at the time, he had the only relationship (he was dating Mary Miles, who is now Mary Steele *see name # 27, and fill in the blanks*). Peter was Wit, because he had a way with words and no matter what he said, it was funny. Jacob Stewart was Talent, because, well, he was talented. Eric was Quack, for reasons that even today remain unknown.

31. The Chemistry Rangers--Jacob Stewart was initially given this nickname by Brigitte when they were in the same Chem 111H class their first semester at college (Jacob still has the textbook where she wrote it as evidence. The book is a very good text on Chemical Thermodynamics. But I digress.). Jacob and Peter began to use this term and The Lone Gratcheteer (see below) to refer to a couple of made-up characters named Pinto and Jac, loosely based on Peter and Jacob, respectively. A full explanation of all that deserves its own post.

32. The Lone Gratcheteers--See above and #5.

33. Evidence of Life on Mars - This name implies that we are alien creatures, an easy mistake to make when seeing our antics.

34. Doo-Razer Assault Gratchets (DRAG)--See #5.

35. Ring By Spring or Your Quartet Back--It is a well-known fact that LDS college students come to BYU to get married. They're not here for the education, or for the sports, they're here to help qualify themselves to serve in bishoprics around the world. In other words, they're here to find their other half. And we were willing to help. With us at your side, singing romantic ditties for your loved one that you met last week in the Cougareat, we guarantee that you will buy a ring (or receive a ring, depending on your gender) by the end of winter semester or we will fully refund your lost time, money, and pride. Nobody ever took us up on the offer.

36. Fear of Commitment--This tended to be an issue among the group. Maybe it was more of an apathy towards commitment than a fear of commitment. However, after five years we can happily report that this fear has been overcome, and we now have 8 people with rings of commitment on their fingers.

37. The Funny Farmers--Not really sure where this came from. I think it's a reference to that one song that begins: "They're coming to take me away, hah hah, to the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time."

38. The He-man Woman Haters--a quote from the movie Little Rascals

39. Heck of a Fetching Load of Shizzy--In Utah, people swear. They just don't do it the same way everyone else in the country does. Here in Utah, people use, among other things, Heck, Fetch, Shizzy (or Shiz) as slang. So, we decided to mock the Utards, er, Utahns.

40. What?--My sentiments exactly

41. Sonata Quartet--A pun, because a sonata is a musical composition of sorts, and yet when you say it out loud, you hear "(It)'s not a quartet." Which we obviously were, since there were four of us.

42. Who are these Guys?!?--A question many people asked.

43. The Harem Daters--The answer to the previous question. :) Seriously though, I don't know why we were the Harem Daters. Maybe because we always hung out with all of 168? Plus a couple other girls who would frequently join, like Sarah or Ashley? From what I recollect, though, most of it was hanging out and not dating...Elder Oaks would be ashamed. (Side note from Jacob: Peter and I initially talked about the terms harem dating and polygadating, the difference being in the number of girls, though I can't remember the exact cutoffs anymore. Anyways, that's how the name got put on this list, originating from our inside joke.)

44. Apotheosis--Defined by dictionary.com to mean "The elevation of a person to the rank of a god. " Also, it means the ideal example, epitome, or quintessence. I think we just thought it was a cool word. Or that we were tongue-in-cheekly implying that we were the epitome of barber-shop-quartet-ness.

45. Deification --A synonym of apotheosis, it was mentioned on the list for the same reasons.

46. Ancient Monkey Rating Mituals --The only thing interesting about this is that there was an (intentional?) spoonerism going on. A spoonerism, of course, is when you mix up the first syllable of two words in a phrase, like "Boy Toat" or "Starrot Cicks." This was named after the Reverend William Spooner, who was notorious in his creation of spoonerisms.

47. Fully Clothed Men--We took the name of the band "Bare-Naked Ladies," and since we wanted to be 100% different from them, but still make a subtly veiled reference to them, we took the exact opposite of their name and made our own.

48. Semantic Nonsense--Semantics are the usage of words to mean different things than what they originally intended. Semantic nonsense, then, is the usage of words to mean absolutely nothing. Which is what happened quite frequently when we tried to speak. Especially to cute girls. A synonym might be "random babbling."

49. Gone Fishing--We left and went fishing, like the sign says.

50. The "Oh My Hecks"--Another reference to Utah-isms.

51. Backstabbing Mozart--Eric used to listen to a song made popular in the 1970s called Backstabbers, by the O'Jays. Why we wanted to backstab Mozart, I'm not sure.

52. Bachstabbers--Yet again combining puns with music. A musician (Bach) being combined with the tune Backstabbers, by the O'Jays.

53. Crossfire--This was a pretty sweet game that had commercials a plenty for it in the early to mid-90s. You shot silver balls across the board with the gun and tried to shoot as many as you could into the other guy's bin.

54. The Oneders--A blatant rip-off from the movie "That Thing You Do," in which the hit band was entitled "The Oneders." We made sure to pronounce ours the "Oh-Need-Ers."

55. Roasted Starbursts --Peter and I participated on our ward's intramural volleyball team (Jacob guest-starred as the line judge, and we had many of our 168 friends be our cheering squad). The name of the team was "Roasted Starbursts," because you can roast starbursts over a fire like you can with marshmallows. Our team did really well, we made it to the semifinals of the tournament. Our highlight of the year was, after being down 14-8 and facing match point, we rallied 8 straight points to come back to win 16-14 and win the match the next set.

56. Hats without Tights--A play on the musical creators of Safety Dance and Pop Goes the World, Men without Hats.

57. Hastily Looted Blood Banks--Not sure where this came from.

58. Adam's Bane--I remember talking once about the mythological/apocryphal creature Lilith, who was supposedly Adam's first wife, before Eve. How this relates to Adam's Bane, I'm not sure. Maybe she was Adam's Bane, maybe it related to the Adamic language, I can't remember.

59. The Fedoras--Felt hats are cool. :) Fedora is also a Linux-based operating system, though sources are unclear as to whether or not this had any bearing on the name choice.

60. The Low-Grade Nuclear Weapons--This was a weapon that was approved for Official Dueling Club sanctioned duels.

61. The Mother of All Bombs--Kind of the opposite of the previous name, but we thought it would be neat to have that much power.

62. Four Hits, a Bounce, and a Carry--This name refers to our aforementioned volleyball team. We would be a lot better if we were allowed four hits, a bounce, and a carry. There is also a lame pun involved, as Kari Busath was our team captain.

63. Extremely Violent Slapstick--Similar to Slap-Happy, we liked to prod each other during our songs, mostly for kicks.

64. Zombie Vaudeville--Not sure why we were zombies, but we enjoyed the vaudeville style of combining singing and comedy.

65. The Smash Crew--Oh, this is a good one. One of our pastimes while not singing together was hanging out in apartment 159, because they had a Nintendo Gamecube. Our game of choice (pretty much the only game we played) was Super Smash Brothers: Melee. Quite regularly we would hold either regular tournaments (playoff-style) or what we denoted as "Roy-Marth battles," in which we would give ourselves one life only, play at Hyrule Castle, and set the death bar really low, so that we wouldn't die until we had almost 300% or more damage. Eric had this quirk about his game-playing that he would virtually always be Jiggly-Puff, the cute little pink girl fuzzball, walk up next to someone, fall asleep, and throw them off the board, often stealing other people's kills.

66. The Buddy System --We were buddies, and we were big fans of safety for children at play. And we were pretty much always together, leading us to refer to the Buddy System.

67. Three Guys, a Pitch Pipe, and another Guy--This name is great because, while it mentions the four guys (that's us) it also mentions a pitch pipe. The thing is, we didn't have a pitch pipe! We had one of those tuning forks that only played an A, and then Eric used his sense of relative pitches to get the correct note from there. So, this name is a blatant lie.

68. Free Lunch--You know the phrase "There's no such thing as a free lunch" ? Well, just to be contrary, we decided to be called Free Lunch so that there would be such a thing. Plus on occasional occasions, we would be fed for our efforts (hooray for 168, as well as Ashley's Macaroni and Cheese boxes) so we received free lunches in exchange for singing/being goofy.

69. Communists Schommunists --I don't remember who first came up with this phrase, but it was used commonly to show our disdain and lack of fear of the Communist Party. Also, according to rinkworks.com, nonsensical rhyming is an irrefutable method of being persuasive, and this "rhyme" was used to prove their point.

70. Four Reasons to Go Deaf--One of Mary's creations; apparently she didn't think we were very good. Of all the names that are on this list, with the exception of the Ninety and Nine, this one has to be in the top 3.

71. Half-Full Glasses--We were optimists, and we all wore glasses. So, it's yet another pun, bringing in two characteristics through a common phrase.

72. Carpet Riders--Oh wow, this has a story behind it. Do you remember back in name #18 where it was mentioned as an aside that Eric had a brief adventure with a girl named Jessie? Well, first off, her name wasn't really Jessie. Second off, one evening, Jacob Stewart and Eric decided to make an impromptu song telling the story of these events (in allegorical form, of course). Jacob sang a bunch of different bass lines, and Eric sang the melody, making up lyrics as he went along. It ended up being about 8 minutes long. But in short, Eric and Jessie were at the carpet ride, sitting next to each other on the traditional Aladdin-sized carpet, and then Jessie started flirting with Eric. After some persuasion, Eric started flirting back. End of story. So we became the carpet riders. Luckily for all parties involved, this tune was too long to fit on the CD and has since disappeared into oblivion.

73. Dynamic Equilibrium--A Chemical term, meaning balance between opposite reactions.

74. Fluid Mechanics--A Chemical term, meaning the study of the movement and forces of fluids.

75. Born-Häber Cycle--A Chemical term, meaning the formation of an ionic compound by the reaction of a metal with a non-metal.

76. Square of Death--This is another nae for a gratchet. Again, see #5.

77. Galloping Gratchets--See #5.

78. A Pleasing Sound--Like I said before, we were optimists; we hoped people liked our singing. It is also similar to the Biblical phrase "A Joyful Noise." But we didn't want our songs to be called noise.

79. Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass --A direct quote from the New Testament (1 Corinthians 13:1). Note that in the song when this name is mentioned, Jacob Stewart stops his percussion and does a trumpet fanfare in honor of the sounding brass.

80. Four-Way Stop--Basically, we were four people, and this phrase has the number four in it.

81. Wells Enough--There is the old adage, Leave well enough alone. We, however, lived in Wells Hall, named after Emmeline B. Wells, former president of the Relief Society. So we combined the two to get Wells Enough.

82. The Face-Centered Cubics--A Chemical term, describing a cube that has lattice points on the faces of the cube of which each unit cube gets exactly one half contribution, in addition to the corner lattice points, giving a total of 4 atoms per unit cell.

83. Hypercubes--A Geometric term, describing a closed compact convex figure whose 1-skeleton consists of groups of opposite parallel line segments aligned in each of the cube's dimensions, at right angles of each other.

84. Fridge Raiders--We liked other people to share their food with us. And if they didn't like it, we helped them gain food-sharing experience.

85. Twitterpated Tornadoes--Not sure where this came from, but we liked 2 word titles, and we liked alliteration, and some of our group members occasionally seemed twitterpated.

86. Southern Devils--One time for the ward talent show, we got a group together and played "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." Eric was on piano, Jacob Stewart and Peter were on vocals, Ashley Kunz was on fiddle, and we had a drummer and two guitars who I don't remember. It was quite fun! But since the Devil was in the South (Georgia is part of the Deep South, for those geographically limited) we decided to be the Southern Devils.

87. Ta Mère --A classic french insult introduced by Eric. Literally translated, it means "Your mom."

88. Dancing Cucumbers --A reference to Veggie Tales. One of their Silly Songs with Larry is the tale of the Dancing Cucumber, in which Larry sings in Spanish and Bob the Tomato translates. We learned the Veggie Tales theme song, so that is our connection with them.

89. Buenos Nachos--Eric's attempt at Spanish, which continually failed horribly. But it is always cooler to talk about chips and cheese than night-time anyways.

90. Intrinsically Funny Vacuums--According to rinkworks.com, some words are just intrisically funny. Their consonant and vowel combinations make them funny, no matter the context. Vacuum is one of these words due to their double-u (not w).

91. Canned Beef--Not sure where this came from.

92. Inter-Hole Sponge Material--Or this.

93. The Lines O' Bass--Despite the fact that traditional barber-shop quartets have 1 bass, two at the most, we had 3. So we were full of base-ness. Also, we sang some cool bass lines to accompany this song, as well as the Carpet Riders song, and Pioneer Children.

94. The Trouble Clefs--Well, it was sort of like The Treble Clefs, but we were known for being trouble-makers in our own weird way. So, Trouble-Clefs.

95. The Wacky Wopples--See #5

96. Three Guys and a Scandalous Flirt--Eric was the scandalous flirt. What else is there to say?

97. Wopple Beaters--See #5

98. The RDCM's--This stands for Remote Duck Capture Mechanisms. This is an inside joke between Jacob Stewart and Peter. There used to be an irrigation ditch next to Wells Hall where a bunch of ducks lived. They have now migrated to the botany pond because the ditch has been filled in. Peter and I thought about different ways that we could capture the ducks. The RDCM was our best idea. The basic idea was to have a cattle prod and a net attached to a wheeled robot of some sort.

98.5 The Chris Wilson Fan Club (uh, no)--As we were making this recording in Apartment 159, our friend Chris Wilson walked in (since he lived in that apartment). He heard us making a list, and decided to add his own name to the list. Sadly, though, he was outvoted.

99. The Ninety and Nine--A compilation of the ninety-nine names, as well as a reference to the New Testament.

Track 2--Background Music

Now that we know (sort of) where the names came from, we must address the fact that the names are not the only part of this track. Jacob Stewart performed a wonderful line of percussion, and Eric performed a plethora of bass lines during the recitation.

The bass lines begin with a song that Eric learned in high school. It was a song performed by a Japanese a capella trio, although he can no longer remember the name of the song or the group. For the first while, Eric sang the bass line from that song. After he went through the bass line, he sang the melody (trumpet) line from the same song. When that was over, he went into our introduction and performance of Pioneer Children. After one verse of Pioneer Children, he adlibbed for a while, until he went to a song he sang in Concert Choir that year. It was a compilation of American folk tunes, starting with "I'm gonna catch a baby bumblebee," continued by the song about a sailor that the Dodo sings on Alice in Wonderland, and completed with "Polly-Wolly-Doodle."

Other interesting facts about this track:

• When the name "Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass" comes up, Jacob drops his percussion line to insert a trumpet fanfare.
• This was one of a couple tracks to be performed, not with the full quartet, but with only Eric, Peter, and Jacob Stewart.
• Chris Wilson, who was one of Jacob Broderick's roommates in 159, walked in as we were recording and suggested the Chris Wilson Fan Club. However, he was shot down, and seeing as we only had one name left on the list, we decided to not re-record the entire thing.
• At the very beginning of the track, before Peter introduces us as "some sort of a quartet" you can hear Jacob Stewart saying something. Exactly what, however, will not be released, as it probably had something to do with tae kwan do.
  

Track Three: Dream/Dog

The third track, entitled Dream, was originally a hit by the Everly Brothers sung in 1959. We based our arrangement of the tune off of a cover performed by Track One, an a cappella group based in Provo, UT, whose self-titled album premiered in 2000. We had four basic parts: Peter sang lead, Jacob Stewart was percussion, Eric was bass, and Jacob Broderick was the tenor. A fairly simple arrangement, for the most part Peter was the only one who actually sang the lyrics.

This track was also significant in that it was the first of many tracks where we had an introductory conversation before the song actually begins. One of the reasons for this was that we wanted our audience to get a feel of what went on behind the scenes--the banter, chatting, jokes, and all-around semantic nonsense that we loved to indulge in, whether or not we were performing. Second, it would help us remember the inside jokes that we had come to treasure during our freshman year. Third, we thought it was funny. And who can argue with that?

Some comments about the introductory pre-song conversation:

• The initial indecision on what to sing was a common thread throughout our performing career. We loved to sing; we loved to sing for people; but sometimes we just didn't know which song to pull out of our repertoire.
• The song suggested by Jacob Broderick, "My Shoe," will be discussed later. The fact that it was refuted because "the Bishop's coming" was in reference to the fact that altering the lyrics to Pioneer Children may have been a sacrilege not approved by our religious leader. For more on what lyrics were changed, and how our performance of Pioneer Children was not nearly as sacrilegious as what it originally was, see the comments on that song.
• Eventually, we decided to sing what we deemed "Dog." This name comes from the following story. There once was a joke told that went something like this: "Did you hear what happened to the dyslexic insomniac agnostic? He stayed up all night wondering if there really was a dog." And so, since that was remotely related to staying up all night, and at night what do people do? They dream! So we decided to title this song Dog, in honor of this sketchy-at-best connection.
• When we performed this song, as a little inside joke, we would always tell a joke about a dog to introduce this song. We would not perform the song without telling the joke first. It would always be the same joke. Thus, it became the "Obligatory Joke." Eric would always be the one to tell the joke. So, we decided to include the obligatory joke in with the tune. However, in the recording studio (aka Jacob Broderick's dorm room) we recorded the joke and the song at different times, and then spliced them together.

The actual song itself is pretty "straight". When we say straight, we mean without random goofiness, like there is in many of our tracks. In other words, we actually want this song to sound good, instead of trying to be funny. Since it's straight, there's not too much to say that hasn't been said already. We hope you enjoy the straightness and musicality of Dream!

Track Four: Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport/Billabong

This track was part of our international initiative. According to Wikipedia, this tune was originally written in 1957 by Rolf Harris. In it, the Australian stockman is on his deathbed, and is giving orders to those around him so that when he passes on, his mates around him will take care of everything, the animals, and such.

The tune itself fairly repetitive. Again, Peter is the only with lyrics during the verse; Jacob Broderick is on the upper tenor, Eric is on bass, and Jacob Stewart is on percussion and animal and didgeridoo.

One interesting tidbit about the song is that the lyrics of one verse (the emus going loose) was not in the original version that Harris performed. He had abo's going loose, an epithet for aborigines, who were treated as little better than slaves. So, we decided to set large flightless birds free instead of people.

One reason we liked this song was that there are some lame puns in the lyrics. For example, "Watch me platypus duck, Bill" (pun on duck-billed platypus).

Also, Jacob Stewart was the one who decided to play the didgeridoo when they are mentioned in the song. Note that this is the second time on the CD that a didgeridoo has been imitated (the other being in the introductory track)

Another tidbit about the song is that Harris's version ends the chorus after the verse about tanning the hide. However, we decided to lengthen and speed up our version. We thought that these Australian phrases that we found on a website similar to this one were really cool, and that we should add them into the
song. So, we just repeated the chorus over and over, and in between each chorus, we would say an authentic Aussie phrase. We also switched from "sport" to "mate". Here is a list of our phrases and their translations:

• To the billabong! --to the watering hole
  
• Crickey! --Oh my!
  
• Eat a bikkie! --eat a biscuit
  
• What a drongo! --what a lazy bum!
  
• Till late arvo! --See you later this afternoon
  
• Shrimp on the Barbie! --Shrimp on the barbeque
  
• Better Catch some Zeds! --Better take a nap!
• What a Bludger! --What a lazy bum!
  
• Time to Kark it! --Time to quit!

The astute listener will realize that many animals randomly show up during this song, including a monkey at least 8 times, a Wookie once, and a Yoda once. We decided that since we were in the Australian Outback, we should have animals! So midway through each chorus, Jacob Stewart made an animal noise.

Now at the end of the song, Peter asked a question: "What are we going to tie the kangaroo down with?" Obviously, this was a puzzling question, for it took us at least 10 seconds to come up with an answer. Jacob Broderick finally came through with the classic line: "Rope." We all found this quite funny, and laughed (Jacob Stewart gave the percussion version of a laugh: Ish ish)

After this question-and-answer session, the track should have been over. However, we decided to add what we called not-so-subliminal messages to random tracks. These were random quotes or comments that we whispered into the microphone, just to be silly. This "subliminal" message was a quote from the oft-watched, even more oft-quoted John Cusack film, Better Off Dead. "I Want My Two Dollars!" was a classic quote from the little boy who rode his bike asking for his paper delivery money.

Track Five: In the Still of the Night/Classic

Ah, the one that started it all. The day before Valentine's Day, Jacob Stewart got the four of us together with a sheet of paper in his hand. It was sheet music to an arrangement of "In The Still of the Night," a doo-wop style song that he sang in high school. We decided to learn this song and sing it for pretty much all the girls in the ward. So we did. Then, we realized that it was fun singing doo-wop/barber shop together, and the Ninety and Nine was born.

We learned the song in the basement of Wells Hall. Eric was in charge of plunking out the notes on the out-of-tune piano. One difficult aspect of the tune was that, while Jacob knew the tune from high school, he sang a SATB arrangement. We couldn't simplify it to an all-male arrangement due to the bell-tones, so we ended up just singing everything in the octaves as originally written. Jacob Stewart sang bass (which was the melody line), Eric sang tenor, Peter sang alto, and Jacob Broderick sang the soprano line. This was the only tune where Jacob Stewart sang the melody.

Once we learned the song, February 14th came along and we decided to sing for all the girls, using a door-to-door approach. We went through all the apartments in Snow Hall, knocking on the door, asking all the girls in the apartment to come to the door, and then sang the song for them. Then, as we were going from Snow to F. Smith, we saw a couple girls holding some baked goods--we stopped them and sang for them, and they offered us some baked goods. :) Then we went to F. Smith, and sang for all the girls in that hall in the same door-to-door fashion. If the math adds up, that means that that afternoon/evening, we performed that song at least 21 times. What a way to start our performing careers!

Since the song was the first that we learned and performed as an ensemble, it was our "classic" piece, and hence our code name for this song became Classic.

Track Six--Pioneer Children/My Shoe

The first of two patently LDS tunes that we performed, the other being Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. This one differs from the other in that we decided to embellish the story a little bit. The children must have gotten tired and grumpy on the long trek from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City, and we wanted to reflect that in our piece. Therefore, we decided to add two more verses to the song. Each verse shows the progressively worse attitude that the children had, as they migrated from "sang" to "slouched" to "scowled." Eventually, this led to their rebellion, or "coup d'etat" as we called it, and they ran away.

Some thoughts about this tune.

• Why was it called "My Shoe?" Well, this has a funny story. So, we were in apartment 168, as we often were, and it was late, around 11:45pm. For those of you who don't know, that is close to curfew. We were about to head out, when we realized that Jacob Stewart's shoe was missing. As it turns out, Brigitte had stolen it and placed it under the couch. But we didn't know that. We tried to convince her to give it back, or at least tell us where it was. But she wouldn't. So, we decided to sing it out of her. We all stood in front of her, and began singing, "Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked," creating a loop of "and walked"'s that lasted for at least 5 minutes before she gave in and gave us the shoe. Hence, we decided to spice up the song, perform it, and it was called "My Shoe" in remembrance of its initial performance. This is also why, in the recording, we repeat the "and walked" for a little bit in the beginning of the song.
• Here is a copy of the lyrics that we added in:
• Pioneer children slouched as they walked and walked and walked and walked,
• Thursday they griped and fought always,
• Sundays, repented for Thursdays.
• Pioneer children scowled as they walked and walked and walked and walked,
• So they all planned a coup d'etat,
• And they tied up their ma and pa,
• Pioneer children sang as they ran and ran and ran and ran away.
• The third and final verse was not the original final verse that we had planned. However, we decided that, sacrilegious as the whole idea is, rewriting a Primary song, our final verse took it a little too far. So we changed it to what is now our final verse. The only difference between the original final verse and the one we performed was the 3rd line. Instead of tying up their parents, the line went as such: "And they worshiped the sun god Ra." It's probably a good thing that line was re-written.
• This song is actually cross-referenced in another track. In track 3, when we are discussing which song to sing, Jacob Broderick suggests "My Shoe?" We decide not to, and the reason that we give is that the Bishop is coming. Clearly, we did not want him to hear of our sacrilegiosity.
• The song ends with a minor, dissonant chord, and an evil laugh. This was to represent the takeover of the situation by the children and the inherent chaos it would create. It was quite fun making the evil laughs and editing them using Jacob Broderick's sound-editing software. We could make echoes, reverberations so that it sounded like we were in different kinds of performance halls, etc etc.
• There is another subliminal message placed in this track. Seeing as we were talking about children and their parental relations, we decided to go for the classic Star Wars quote, "Luke, I am your father."
  

Track Seven--Book of Mormon Stories/BOM Stories

OK, so here's the story. In Elder's Quorum one day, we got bored and decided to write lyrics depicting the entire Book of Mormon. We wrote pretty much this whole thing in one day. Peter and Jacob Stewart were the main architects; Eric wrote one verse. This was another track that was recorded with three people only--Jacob and Peter alternated verses, while Eric provided the bass. You will note that Eric sings one verse, the verse about Jarom. That was the one verse that he wrote, and he wanted to sing it. So he did. Note the lack of bass accompaniment in that verse.

Another note: Book of Mormon scholars will clearly notice that from verse 27 to verse 28 of our song we skip over some 20 chapters of essential story, namely, Christ's visit to the Americas. However, we felt that due to the sanctity of the event, and the sacrilegiosity of our writing, we shouldn't mix the two. So, no, that was not an oversight on our part.

The last verse explains why we chose the tune "Ten Little Indians" for the song. Not only was it the tune that the Primary books has (First and Second Books of Nephi, etc etc) but it also had a relationship between the Lamanites and what we now know as Indians. So it's a cool little connection that could give you a couple paragraphs if you were critically analyzing our work. Which you should.

In case anyone teaches seminary, or Gospel Doctrine, or anything remotely related to the Book of Mormon, and want to teach the entire year in one short ten minute lesson and take the rest of the year off, here are the lyrics to the tune!

Words to Book of Mormon Stories (my teachers didn't really tell me

these versions)

1. In First Nephi we meet Lehi, he has got a son named Nephi

Sees a vision, leaves, sons say, "Why?" Looking for the promised land.

2. God tells Nephi to build a ship, Laman and Lemuel give him lip

Shocking gets them to take the trip, but they still aren't happy.

3. Second Nephi, more of Nephi, leads his people, he's a great guy.

Lehi, Nephi, prophesy, die, Jacob leads the people now.

4. Jacob has an allegory, olive trees can tell a story

Defies Sherem with God's glory, God smites Sherem really good.

5. Book of Enos, he goes praying, night and day without delaying

Repenting and then forgiving, passing the plates to Jarom.

6. Book of Jarom, he supposes people keep the Law of Moses,

Everyone's happy as roses. Pass the plates down to his son.

7. Omni, many people writing, constant inter tribal fighting.

Mulekites are found benighted, O'er in Zarahemla.

8. There was a king named Benjamin, looks like he was spread pretty thin

Wasn't much of a mean kingpin, so his people loved him.

9. In Mosiah Noah's the King, and Abinadi starts preaching

Noah loses and gets burning, and then Alma runs away.

10. Alma prophesies and preaches, for his son Alma beseeches

Alma's life an angel leaches, for two days of punishment.

11. Korihor was an atheist, Alma's words he tried to twist,

He did not get slapped on the wrist, he was struck dumb and he died.

12. Alma teaches Zoramite poor, works hard, gets a foot in the door,

Tells them they don't need an altar, but should worship every day.

13. Alma goes to Ammonihah, Zeezrom there is trained in the Law,

Amulek can hear his mind's thought, Mormon explains Nephite weights.

14. Alma teaches one by one, his sons such as Corianton,

"Don't mess up boys, you're my son." Then they went to preach the word.

15. Ammon was a Missionary, big dark men came who were scary,

Ammon said, "Let us not tarry, we will go to disarm them."

16. Moroni lifts up a title, Nephites say that they will fight till

Am'lickiah's threat of might'll never scare the Church again.

17. In the war years Moroni fights. Wields a big sword for the Nephites.

Beats the King-Men and Lamanites, while he threatens the Chief Judge.

18. Helaman had his two thousand, Mama's boys, they formed one buff band.

Drove the Lamanites from their land, all were wounded but none died.

19. Three brothers want to be Chief Judge, Pahoran wins, Paanchi won't

budge,

All three murdered, boy did they fudge, Lamanites kill left and right.

20. There's Kishkumen he feels clever, uses murder as a lever, Gadianton

steals his thunder, becomes leader of the band.

21. In Helaman things go downhill, people sin but can't get their fill,

Gadiantons rob and kill, they control the government.

22. Nephites spread out over the ear, Hagoth builds a ship and sails North

Disappears and thus there spring forth, all sorts of strange theories.

23. Nephi uses sealing power, makes the fruit trees never flower,

They repent but still are sour, leave the church within four years.

24. Samuel climbs a wall of earth, prophesies the Savior's birth,

Nephite weapons of no worth, whent they try to kill him.

25. Then we get another Nephi, in the time of Giddianhi,

Lachoneus says, "Leave no pie for those dirty robbers."

26. Darkness descends upon the land, Nephites ruled by robber bands,

Jacob breaks the government and, people try to kill him.

27. Suddenly the earth was shook up, shattered like a broken cup,

Darkness fell and wailings rose up from the mouths of Nephites.

28. Mormon is a young commander, fights the Gadianton robbers,

Gets the plates from Ammmoron, "Sir! We see the Lamanites."

29. Nephites fight at Hill Cumorah, lose commanders Gidgidonnah,

Lamah, Gilgal, Cumenihah, they and eighteen more.

30. Nephite nation now has fallen, Moroni is now alone in,

Lamanite lands, he's a callin' on the Lord to save the plates.

31. Book of Ether we get king-lists, Com and Hearthom, Moron and Shiz,

Sixteen Hundred years, Wow! Gee Whiz! All in thirty pages.

32. Jared wants to be the King, has his daughter dance and sing,

Akish sees her do her thing, so he kills the king for her.

33. Akish kills his father-in-law, angers his own son (named Nimrah)

Nimrah leaves to join his Grandpa, Akish' people die real soon.

34. Ether writes a book of hist'ry, hides in a cave from the army,

Everyone dies that he can see, except Coriantumr.

35. Moroni writes a little note, golden plates around he must tote,

Ten good chapters are what he wrote, all about the doctrine.

36. One little, two little, three little Indians, four little, five

little, six little Indians,

Seven little, eight little, nine little Indians, ten little Lamanite

boys. *Lamanite, yeah, that's how it makes sense*

Track Eight--My Wild Irish Rose/Notre Dame

One of our classic "straight" tracks, this tune has no humor, no silliness, and no slapstick. It is pure barbershop at its finest. We found sheet music to this tune on what quickly became our favorite barbershop website, SPEBSQSA. That is, the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America. Of course, today that name has been shortened to BHS (Barbershop Harmony Society) but that's besides the point. Who doesn't love to say Spebsqsa, or try to put that down on a Scrabble game?!? According to Wikipedia, they named the society SPEBSQSA to poke fun at the New Deal-era work agencies full of acronyms, but I digress. "My Wild Irish Rose" is a classic barbershop romance, singing about a girl who is our wild Irish rose. Jacob Broderick sang tenor, Peter sang lead, Eric sang baritone, and Jacob Stewart sang bass.

Some thoughts about this tune:

• The four tones to start the tune are, coincidentally, the exact same that we used to sing Coney Island Baby, another SPEBSQSA classic.
  
• We named this song Notre Dame because their mascot is the Fighting Irish, and so we made the connection with the Irish rose.
• I think we did a really good job with the repeated "My Rose" chord near the end of the song. It's a great barbershop chord, and in unofficial conversations between members of the group, it has been rumored that the "Rose" chord was our finest chord in any of our numbers.
  

Interruption

We interruption this regularly scheduled blog-cast to bring you pictures of the Ninety and Nine when they were freshmen! Enjoy!

Track Nine: Why Does the Sun Shine/Sun Baby

This is a song that was quite fun to sing. "Why Does the Sun Shine" is a cover of the same song by They Might Be Giants. Rumor has it, however, that They Might Be Giants stole the tune from a science museum. Eric sang lead, as it was his idea to sing the song, and he was the only one who knew all the lyrics. Jacob Stewart sang bass, Peter sang baritone, and Jacob Broderick sang tenor.

There are lots of inside jokes on this track. The track begins with Eric asking if we could sing a "totally straight one." This means, of course, a song with no goofiness, but with mostly musical qualities. However, this was quickly shot down. Jacob says, "What's with all the straight ones?" Peter then came in with the word play saying that we don't want to be gay. This was followed by an awkward silence. Then, for some reason, the drawer below our recording studio (Jacob's computer) slammed shut. Jacob Broderick played it off by saying that we would leave that awkward concept in the drawer (the "gay" concept). It would have been more ironic if we would have left that concept in the closet, instead of the drawer.

Eric then relented and agreed to do a "not-straight" one (since we didn't really have a word for that). He then asks if we should ask the obligatory question. Note that this obligatory question is different from the obligatory joke. The obligatory question is the title of the song, "Why does the sun shine?" Eric was always asked this before we would sing the song (because the song is really the answer to this question). Jacob Broderick asked Eric the question, but before he could Jacob and Peter went off on curiosity killing cats. "Curiosity killed the cat, but it fed the dog." That was representative of our goofy character, saying random jokes and phrases in the middle of conversations. When Jacob gets Eric's attention finally, Eric raises his hand and says "Ooh, ooh, pick me!" This was representative of Eric's occasional tendency to raise his hand if he had something to say, even in regular conversations. For some reason, he became "Eric #1." Jacob then asked the obligatory question, and Eric responds by saying that he'll answer it in song. Jacob and Peter offer to help, and Eric gives his permission. He then gives a note and asks if it was ok. This was because, as earlier mentioned, we didn't have a pitch pipe and so had to make up notes for our songs. Eric picked this note, thinking that was in the right range for us. It was, and we began singing.

Other random thoughts from this song:

• In the original version of the song, performed by They Might be Giants, one of the singers speaks the intermittent trivia. Eric decided to speak the same trivia, except he would add random bits to each one. The first, he added "xanthan gum" as a gas found on the sun. The second, he added 2 of James Haskill's vans that would fit inside. James Haskill lived in Wells Hall the second semester, was from Alaska, and had a huge 12-passenger van that he brought down from Alaska. So, the fact that it was his van, and that there were two of them, really impressed us. Especially Jacob Stewart. The third, he didn't really get a chance to change anything, because Jacob Stewart decided to interrupt and go on a tangent about how 93,000,000 miles is "nothing." But then he realizes what he is saying, and Jacob Broderick helps convince him to stop saying it now.
• Later in the song, Eric returns to the narrative trivia by explaining that the heat and light of the sun come from nuclear reactions of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and helium. Jacob Stewart, trying to be attentive and absorb this information, repeats each element, except for some reason said "Peter" instead of helium. Jacob Broderick responds by going off, clearly explaining that Peter is a human being and not an atom. Very amusing.
• To finish the song, Jacob Stewart starts dancing like a horse. Which, as you all know, is achieved by sticking one arm straight in front of you and bouncing up and down as though you were riding a horse. After another outburst from Jacob Broderick, Eric tries to rally the troops by saying "All together now," to keep the song going so we wouldn't have to run another take.
• Peter's final line just about sums it up. "Frankly, it doesn't matter if we sound bad on that one." And it didn't. It was a humorous song, meant to be funny. Any musicality we may or may not have achieved on this song was just a bonus.

Track Ten: Goodbye My Coney Island Baby/Kazoo

The song Coney Island Baby is one of the most well-known and oft-performed tunes in all the repertoire of barber-shop music. The piece that we performed, which is the one commonly performed, is actually a medley of two barber-shop tunes: Coney Island Baby and We All Fall. In our arrangement, Eric sang bass, Jacob Stewart sang baritone, Peter Steele sang lead, and Jacob Broderick sang tenor.

Some interesting points about our arrangement:

• I like bullet points!
• In the "We All Fall" segment of the medley, we sing about how we fall for girls and follow them to the altar. The exact lyrics are "Then we join the army of married boobs to the altar, Just like leading lambs to slaughter." An interesting commentary on the holy state of matrimony. Of course, in the olden days, "boobs" was colloquial for "guys," not what it refers to today. And, since this wasn't funny enough, we decided to add in a lamb sound effect. Like most animal noises on our CD, Jacob Stewart provided the bleating of the lamb.
• The tag before the refrain, "We all are bound for," did not originally have the lead embellishments that we performed. As it turns out, Eric performed this song in high school with 7 other guys, and we had a visitor from a professional barber shop singer who taught us that tag, and Eric proceeded to teach it to Peter. Eric also does a tag at the same time bottoming out the bass line, but it's hard to hear because it's so low.
• The second time we had the solo lines, "So goodbye, fare thee well, So long, forever," we decided to have a little fun. So Peter and Jacob decided to go really slowly and sadly on their solos. Jacob Broderick held his note out for as long as he could. While he was doing this, the other three pretended to ignore him and just let him sing and hold that note forever. Then, the other three decided to start singing an entirely different song amongst them and pretend to forget about Jacob's fermata. So they sang the introduction to Stand by Me. Only after they got through the whole introduction (which they usually sped up, for Jacob's sake) would they "realize" that he was still holding out his note and grasping for breath dramatically and finish the song.
• The last note of the song is completed by another tag by Eric, this one audible. In some versions the song ends on "Babe" while in other versions, the singers add an audible ending to make the last word "Baby." We decided to sing "Baby."
• We performed this song once at the ward talent show in the Tanner Building. It was a smashing success, and one of our largest audiences. If possible, I'll add a file of the live performance onto this site as an online special!
• I have no clue why we named this song Kazoo. Any ideas?

Track 11: Flip Over Read Directions / F.O.R.D.

One of our favorite songs to perform was Blue Moon. Blue Moon was a popular doo-wop song, hitting the top of the charts in 1961 by the Marcels. It is a little known fact that before their up-beat version with the "bomp-bomp-bomps" there it was a love ballad, penned by the famous Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

We liked to perform it so much that we decided to try different variations of the song. On the CD, there are actually four separate versions of Blue Moon. Ironically enough, the first one that you come to is not the original, but a spinoff penned by us. The tune is called "Flip Over Read Directions" for the simple reason that the acronym for that phrase is "FORD" which is the topic of the tune (Blue Ford). There was no real purpose to creating this version of the song, other than that we wanted to be goofy, and writing a love song about a car definitely qualified as goofy.

Some interesting tidbits you may not have known about F.O.R.D.:

• The introduction, usually sung with Bomps and Dips, were replaced by Cars and Honks in order to better reflect the fact that we were singing about a car.
• We debated between the actual title and a couple other options before we finally decided on "Flip Over Read Directions." Some other favorites included "Found On Roadside, Dead" and "Free Our Random Doohickies." Just kidding.
• Unfortunately, at the end of the song, the Ford gets run over by a semi truck, brilliantly voiced by Jacob Stewart.

Track 12: We are Friends/Passover

This song is a classic from the movie "The Jungle Book." (Quick recap for those who haven't seen the movie recently--4 vultures who look eerily like either the Monkees or the Beatles sing about how they are friends with everybody, including the human Mowgli. Unfortunately at the end, Sher Khan shows up and sings the final line in his basso ultimo obligatto confundio) One interesting fact about this song is that we didn't have a 4-part arrangement; we only had a piano and solo version that we checked out from the Harold B. Lee Library. The music department in there is awesome, just on a side note. So, Eric spearheaded the opportunity to turn this version into a barber-shop version.

Another interesting fact--intermittently throughout the song you will hear a thick British accent in an attempt to imitate the vultures who were imitating the Beatles or Monkees, I'm not quite sure.

Some tidbits about the creation of the piece--we took advantage of Jacob's computer recording/mixing software to create a more pleasing sound. First, near the end of the song when we hold "Didn't Like" followed by Jacob's entrance into "So you can see," we overlapped two separate recordings so you can hear Jacob holding the Like and singing the next line. Second, at the end of the song, it was hard for us to imitate Sher Khan and his low C. So one morning Peter came up and recorded just the phrase "are for" where he goes down to the low C. Then we spliced it into the end of the song.

Why is the song called Passover? I don't remember exactly, but I think that the fact that the song has the lyrics "bitter end" reminded us of "bitter herbs" which are a staple of the Passover meal. Random, I know, but what else would you expect from the Ninety and Nine?!?

Track 13: Rehearsal/Blue Chipmunks

Like we stated a couple tracks ago, one of our favorite songs to perform was Blue Moon.  This variation was different in that we performed it at double speed.  Mostly because the bass line is fast enough as it is, it would be funny to speed it up even further.  And of course, if you speed up the bass line, you have to speed up the melody, making them sound like chipmunks.

Some notes:

• The random babble before the song was a staple before our presentation of this song.  It's different every time, but the basic gist was that we would perform the song like we did "in rehearsal," whatever that means.  Eric, realizing that this would require much extra effort on his part (because he sang the sped-up bass) would put up a fight, not wanting to perform like rehearsal, but he would always lose the fight.  Then we would start singing doubletime.
• Quite possibly our best one-liner of the entire CD:  "Wait a minute.  We rehearse things?"
• Eric picked a note in the beginning of the song because we didn't have a pitch pipe, and he usually was the one to give us a starting note (sometimes pulling it out of thin air, sometimes using someone's tuning fork--was it Kristin's??)
• At the end of the piece, Eric loses control with his fast doo-wops and just keeps going on and on with his skat.  The other three try to get his attention, to no avail.  Jacob even says his name, but he just keeps on going.  So he slaps him in the face.  And then he stops very abruptly with a "Blue Moon."