A Cappella Trivia
- The Men of Note from Cherry Hill High School in New Jersey were ICHSA grand champions in 2006, 2007, and 2008.
- Legendary music producer Brian Eno sings a cappella every week, and considers it essential to good health and happiness
- Many American Idol finalists have a cappella backgrounds, including Blake Lewis and Justin Guarini
- Actor James Van Der Beek sang in Drew 36 Madison Avenue
- Actress Lauren Graham sang in the Barnard Metrotones
- Pop songstress Sara Bareilles can be heard singing her song "Gravity" with UCLA Awaken on BOCA 2004
- Doowop revivalists Sha Na Na was founded by members of the Columbia Kingsmen
- Sierra Club President Adam Werbach sang in the Brown Derbies
- Actress Mira Sorvino sang in the Harvard Veritones. One of her solos was "Only You"
- Newswoman Dianne Sawyer sang in the Wellesley Blue Notes
- The Office's Ed Helms sang in the Oberlin Obertones
- Actress Anne Hathaway sang a cappella in Vassar's Measure for Measure.
- Herman Munster (actor Fred Gwynne) sang in the Harvard Krokodiloes
- Art Garfunkel (of Simon and Garfunkel) sang in the Columbia Kingsmen.
- Actor and Broadway start Peter Gallagher was a member of the Tufts Beelzebubs
- Singer-songwriter Jim Croce and Manhattan Transfer Bass Tim Hauser both sang a cappella in the Villanova Spires
- Singer-songwriter and philanthropist Harry Chapin sang a cappella at Cornell University
- CASA spent almost a year securing visas to allow Cuba's Vocal Sampling to enter the US for the first time.
- SoVoSo was initially formed by members of Bobby McFerrin's Voicestra
- The Real Group took their name from that venerable tome of jazz standards: The Real Book
- The South African Mbube tradition (Ladysmith Black Mambazo et al) was born from a single song: "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."
- Just 4 Kicks features a quartet of powerhouse vocal jazz educators, including Kirby Shaw and Vijay Singh
- Perhaps the most widely seen barbershop quartet of all time are the Buffalo Bills, featured in the movie "The Music Man"
- California, Orlando, Tokyo or Hong Kong: the barbershop quartet on Disneyland's Main Street is always called "The Dapper Dans"
- The soaring Celtic harmonies of Anuna provided a sonic break between frenetic dance numbers in Riverdance.
- Although there are many variations, the proper spelling is "two p's, two l's, two words": a cappella
- Madrigals, barbershop and doo wop were all the contemporary a cappella of their day.
- Many classic doo wop groups and songs were originally a cappella, but the record companies always added instruments for radio.
- Yale University does not have any fraternities or sororities; instead they have as many as 20 a cappella groups each year.
- Rocker Petra Haden recorded a solo a cappella remake of the Who's "Sell Out" album on a dare from her bass player.
- Pop iconoclast Bjork recorded an all a cappella album "Medulla" in 2004.
- Several of the members of Vox One are faculty members at the Berkelee College of Music in Boston.
- "Dark Side of the Moon A Cappella" is an all-vocal replica of the Pink Floyd classic that's "Wizard of Oz compatible"
- The House Dust is a Japanese tribute band that performs the original music of The House Jacks.
- Naturally 7 had a big radio hit in Germany with solo artist Sarah Connor: "Music Is The Key"
- John Legend lead his college a cappella group the Penn Counterparts to the ICCA finals as well as a track on BOCA ("One of Us").
- Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy" (1988) was the first a cappella track to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- All 4 One's first pop hit was an a cappella remake of "So In Love".
- Boyz II Men had two top 40 a cappella hits: "Thank You" and "In The Still of the Night" (remade for "The Jacksons" miniseries)
- Huey Lewis and the News had a big radio hit with their a cappella version of Curtis Mayfield's "It's Alright".
- A cappella empresario Don Gooding, former Yale Whiffenpoof, left the VC world to form a-cappella.com, Hot Lips Records, and more
- Roo Ahuja, formerly in the ICCA finalist Binghamton Crosbys and Hyannis Sound, now performs in both the House Jacks and Duwende
- Richard Greene (the Bobs) recorded voiceovers for many years, best known for singing the classic "Fall into the Gap"
- The Bobs is an acronym for "Best of Breed," a term taken from dog shows.
- "Acappella's" was a famous restaurant/club in Denver that was home to the 17th Avenue All-Stars and many other regional groups.
- Tonic Sol-Fa can be seen on many PBS stations each December starring in their own holiday special.
- Take 6 creates all of their complex harmonic arrangements by ear, never using sheet music.
- The first (and perhaps most prescient) solo contemporary a cappella album was Todd Rundgren's "A Cappella" (1985).
- Toxic Audio first performed at the Orlando Fringe festival, then spent many years at DisneyWorld before making it to Broadway
- Return 2 Zero performs year-round at DisneyWorld's MGM Studios as "Four For a Dollar"
- The Singers Unlimited got their first big break from jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.
- The Persuasions got their first big break from progressive rocker Frank Zappa
- Straight No Chaser inked a record deal with Atlantic after a song from their decade-old performance became an internet sensation
- Moosebutter's John Williams Medley became one of the most viewed videos of 2008
- Comedy a cappella group Minimum Wage starred in their own Off-Off-Broadway production in 2008
- m-pact was formed near Denver, moved to Seattle for a decade, and recently relocated to Los Angeles.
- Beatboxer/live looper Kid Beyond (Andrew Chaikin) originally performed in the House Jacks, and before that the Brown Jabberwocks
- Austin Willacy (House Jacks) has directed Til Dawn, an award winning teen a cappella group, for over a decade
- Vocal Percussionist Jake Moulton (House Jacks, M-pact) was a founding member of Kickshaw
- InPulse spends each summer educating teens at the Heartland A Cappella/Vocal Camp.
- Hookslide's Jon Pilat is a one-man rhythm section, singing the bass line and vocal percussion parts simultaneously.
- The Flying Pickets had a huge international radio hit in the 1980's with an a cappella remake of the Yaz song "Only You"
- The EDLOS are an acronym for "Excessive Decibel Levels from Outer Space."
- The biggest radio hit by the Blenders? Novelty song "McDonald's Girl"
- Ball In The House is named after a line in a Brady Bunch episode
- The only group to drive members of the audience out of a Summit concert? Punk a cappella group Double Dong.
- Rockapella's first big break came from movie director Spike Lee's decision to include them in the "Do It A Cappella" PBS special
- Famous vocal percussionist Wes Carroll does not use his voice at all when doing percussion.
- The House Jacks, based in San Francisco, was the first a cappella group with a full-time dedicated vocal percussionist.
- Chapter 6, from Illinois, is the only group ever to win the ICCA (2001) and the Harmony Sweepstakes (2004).
- In Oct 2008, a cappella group Mosaic won MTV's Top Pop Group, beating out 8 singing/dancing groups with accompaniment tracks.
- The first A Cappella Summit was held in Marin, CA, in 1993. Today there are many such events around the globe.
- The Italian spelling "a cappella" is more popular than the Latin "a capella" in part because many musical terms are Italian.
- Primarily A Cappella Records, the first record label dedicated purely to a cappella, was formed in 1996.
- In 1999, Don Gooding founded Hot Lips Records, the first record label dedicated to vocal bands.
- In 2003, the Idea of North (from Australia) became the first international group to win the Harmony Sweepstakes.
- Millikin University (Decatur, IL) and Brigham Young University (Provo, UT) each boast two ICCA Finals Championship groups.
- The University of California-Berkeley Men's Octet is the only group ever to win the ICCA twice.
- The International Championship of Collegiate A cappella (then the NCCA) was created in 1996.
- Deke Sharon created CASA in his college dorm room at Tufts University.
- The Nylons were formed by four actors in the back room of a Toronto deli. Thirty years later, they are still touring the world.
- The Yale Whiffenpoofs, the first collegiate a cappella group, were formed in 1909. Modern a cappella is 100 years old!
