North Shore Acapella

Way back when Hubby and I were dating (and even before, honestly), when we were both going to college back in Quincy, MA, we were also broke.

We needed cheap dates.

For less than $2 apiece back then, you could get in and out of downtown Boston on the T.

We would take the Red Line downtown to Faneuil Hall on Friday or Saturday nights, just to go hear these guys.

We'd feel the bass singer through the cobblestones before we could hear them.  That's a good bass...who's well amped.

During the spring, summer and fall, there was a pub in Faneuil Hall that would open up its glass enclosure, and these guys would rock the joint.  They sang mostly hits from the 50s and 60s, with the occasional hits from the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, all served up in classic acapella doo-wop.  People would congregate outside just to listen...and dance.

Given that Hubby and I met because we both sang in our college's semi-professional A Cappella Choir (the Latin isn't picky about spelling, believe it or not), we loved this kind of stuff.  (Okay, so I also loved it because my dad had gotten me hooked on it years before.)

Especially since these guys would do something they called acapell-eoke.

Poor unsuspecting patrons of the restaurant would find the tenor in front of them, shoving his mike in their faces, and commanding them to sing the opening trill of The Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," which he'd just sung for them.  He'd do this several times, and then the tenor would mosey back to the rest of the group, and they'd sing the whole song.  (On a totally unrelated note, our choir would occasionally travel to concerts by the T, and a bunch of us would often break out into that song, only to have our director groan and command that if we were going to do it, we should "do it right.")

I loved it.  It was great.

I'm so glad they're still singing.