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Creole Cutie is a song written for barbershop quartet, originally performed in 1950. It was co-written by Glenn Sudduth and Bill 'Bus' Busby (Sudduth wrote the chorus, Busby later wrote the verses). Its copyright is held by SPEBSQSA (now the Barbershop Harmony Society), as the authors donated the song.
Both Sudduth and Busby were members of an a cappella group called the Miamians. The group was having difficulty mastering diction, especially during slow, melodic songs. According to Sudduth, he got so fed up with the director's chiding that he decided to write a song that would require near-perfect diction. One week later, Sudduth returned to the Miamians with the chorus of Creole Cutie. The Miamians adopted Sudduth's song as a warm-up exercise.
Busby later asked Sudduth if there were verses to the song he'd written. Sudduth allegedly said "There's no verses, but you're welcome to write them." Sudduth and Busby later donated the entire song to the SPEBSQSA collection.
The song rose to fame thanks to a barbershop group called The Confederates, in which Busby sang baritone. The group shot to fame and success, winning the 1956 International Quartet Championship in Minneapolis, MN just three years after they formed. As Busby was a co-writer of Creole Cutie, the song became a regular feature in their set until they stopped performing in 1969.
Creole Cutie is most known as a challenging song that is well known but rarely performed. It is instead used as a warm-up. Because of this usage, it remains one of the most widely known songs within the barbershop community.
The chorus is as follows:
Creole cutie won't you cuddle up closer
Down by the babbling brook on the bayou
Ding dong dolly with a dimple on her knee
The devil's her eye now don't be shy now
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 the melody; a bass, the part which provides the bass line to the melody; a tenor, the part which harmonizes above the lead; and a baritone, the part that frequently completes the chord. The baritone normally sings just below the lead singer, sometimes just above as the harmony requires. Barbershop music is typified by close harmony— the upper three voices generally remain within one octave of each other.
The Barbershop Harmony Society, legally and historically named the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), is the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbershop music as an art form. Founded by Owen C. Cash and Rupert I. Hall in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1938, the organization quickly grew, promoting barbershop harmony among men of all ages. As of 2014, just under 23,000 men in the United States and Canada were members of this organization whose focus is on a cappella music. The international headquarters was in Kenosha, Wisconsin for fifty years before moving to Nashville, Tennessee in 2007. In June 2018, the society announced it would allow women to join as full members.
Barbershop vocal harmony is a style of a cappella close harmony, or unaccompanied vocal music, characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a primarily homorhythmic texture. Each of the four parts has its own role: generally, the lead sings the melody, the tenor harmonizes above the melody, the bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone completes the chord, usually below the lead. The melody is not usually sung by the tenor or baritone, except for an infrequent note or two to avoid awkward voice leading, in tags or codas, or when some appropriate embellishment can be created. One characteristic feature of barbershop harmony is the use of what is known as "snakes" and "swipes". This is when a chord is altered by a change in one or more non-melodic voices. Occasional passages may be sung by fewer than four voice parts.
Sweet Adelines International is a worldwide organization of women singers, established in 1945, committed to advancing the musical art form of barbershop harmony through education and performances. This independent, nonprofit music education association is one of the world's largest singing organizations for women. "Harmonize the World" is the organization's motto. It has a current membership of 23,000 and holds an annual international singing competition.
Vocal Majority (VM) is a Dallas, Texas-based men's chorus of over 150 singers, who bill themselves with the tagline "Pure Harmony." The VM got its start when founder and first Marketing Director, Bob Arnold, gathered together 12 singers in December of 1971; it has since grown to over 150 members. VM is the performing chorus of the Dallas Metro chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS). Vocal Majority has won thirteen International Chorus Championships, a Barbershop Harmony Society record. The first eleven gold medals were earned under the direction of Jim Clancy, who retired from International competition after 2010. The most recent championships, in 2014 and 2018, came under the direction of Jim's son Greg Clancy, the current Musical Director of VM.
Founded in 1985 with just a few dozen men, the Masters of Harmony is a 110-member men's chorus, based in Greater Los Angeles, California. Winner of eight consecutive gold medals (1990–2011) in international barbershop chorus competitions, the group possesses a diverse repertoire encompassing not only barbershop music but also classical, jazz, patriotic, sacred, standards and Broadway pops, and sings for various groups and organizations throughout the greater Los Angeles, California metropolitan area. The chorus won another barbershop international competition in 2017, bringing their total gold medal count to nine.
Gas House Gang was a barbershop quartet that won the 1993 SPEBSQSA International Quartet Competition. They started singing as a group in 1987 in St. Louis Missouri. After winning the 1988 Central States District Competition in their first attempt, they began a steady climb up the International Competition ladder which culminated in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where they were awarded the 1993 International Quartet Championship.
FRED is a comic barbershop quartet formed in 1990 by members of the Marietta Big Chicken Chorus.
The Suntones were a barbershop quartet from Miami, Florida, USA, and the 1961 SPEBSQSA international champions. At the time it won gold, the quartet featured Gene Cokeroft as tenor, Bob Franklin as lead, Harlan Wilson as baritone, and Bill Cain as bass.
The Confederates were a barbershop quartet that performed in the 1950s and 1960s.
Vocal Spectrum is a barbershop quartet from St. Charles, Missouri. In 2004, Vocal Spectrum won the Barbershop Harmony Society's International Collegiate Quartet Contest, and on July 8, 2006, they became International Champions, winning the society's International Quartet Contest. A distinctive feature of the quartet is tenor Tim Waurick's ability to sustain notes for upwards of 30 seconds, and the tenor's and lead's incredibly high vocal range, featured in many of the group's recordings and live shows.
Bluegrass Student Union is the Louisville, Kentucky barbershop quartet that won the 1978 SPEBSQSA International competition. They distinguished themselves by performing at a high level of proficiency on stage and in the recording studio throughout their 33-year career, and were the second youngest quartet to have won the SPEBSQSA championship, as of that time. The quartet became known for continually improving their art, even after their win. They credited much of their success to their coaches, Mary Jo Hatton Thompson, Don Clause, Ron Riegler, Gene Stickler and Ed Weber, to their chorus Director, Jim Miller, and to their long-time arrangers, Ed Waesche and Walter Latzko.
The Four Harmonizers was a Barbershop quartet that won the 1943 SPEBSQSA international competition.
Grandma's Boys is the barbershop quartet that won the 1979 SPEBSQSA International Contest.
Second Edition is the Barbershop quartet that won the 1989 SPEBSQSA international competition.
Music Central was a barbershop chorus formed in 1995 and based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The chorus ranked at the top of its division for most of its first dozen years, and competed internationally in 1999.
The Virginians is a barbershop chorus located in Richmond, Virginia. Mike Wallen is currently its musical director, and has been serving in this capacity since 1998. It recently celebrated its 70th anniversary and is one of the oldest continuous singing groups in the Greater Richmond Area. Originally chartered in 1952 as the Tobaccoland Chorus, the chapter was renamed to the Virginians in 1990.
Tim Waurick is a barbershop tenor singer and coach for various barbershop choruses and quartets. Waurick creates learning tracks – recordings in which one part is dominant and the others are sung softly in the background – for the Barbershop Harmony Society, Sweet Adelines International, and various other quartets and choruses around the world. His learning track company is named TimTracks. Waurick is one of the few barbershop enthusiasts who has managed to turn his hobby into a profession. He is known for his unusually wide vocal range and his ability to hold notes for long periods of time.
The Sweet Adelines International Competitions are the annual global championships for women's barbershop harmony a cappella singing – in quartets and choruses – for members of Sweet Adelines International (SAI) and have been held annually between September and November since 1947. They are now the largest women's singing competition in the world with over 8000 participants at the 2014 convention. There are two competitions for choruses, and two competitions for quartets. Currently, the first three of these competitions are held together and form the Sweet Adelines International Convention. Over the course of competition history, the most successful chorus has been Melodeers Chorus from Chicago with seven championship titles, and the most successful quartet singer was Connie Noble who won with four separate quartets. Lustre Quartet from Baltimore holds the record for highest quartet score, and Rönninge Show Chorus from Stockholm for highest ever chorus score.
"When This Cruel War Is Over", also known under the title "Weeping, Sad and Lonely", is a song written by Charles Carroll Sawyer with music by Henry Tucker. Published in 1863, it was a popular war song during the American Civil War, sung by both Union and Confederate troops.