Eighteen Yalies sing “No Regrets” until one of them boldly approaches a girl in the audience. Getting down on one knee, he serenades her while the other girls in the audience watch and giggle. Andy Berry (’09) distracts the suitor with a pretend phone call-“Hey Jamie,” he says. “Your mom’s on the phone. She wants you to stop trying so hard.”
These men, the Spizzwinks(?), make up Yale University’s oldest, most prestigious a capella group. They performed for 7th and 8th period chorus classes at Whitman on Nov. 6 because Berry, an alumnus who participated in musicals and chorus, joined the group this fall. The group also performed a full concert at the Church of the Redeemer in Bethesda the following night, where Berry used to perform.
The Spizzwinks(?) performed every kind of song from the oldie “Build Me Up Buttercup” to the original “The Future Soon,” a song written by Spizzwink(?) Jonathan Coulton.
Berry, after much anticipation, sang the bass solo in “Ol’ Man River,” with his rich, soulful voice capturing the tone of the song perfectly.
But the Spizzwinks(?) also livened up their performance with jokes, skits and ridiculous accents that earning laughs from the audience.
Berry joined the group much like a pledge would rush a fraternity; he attended social events with the members of the group and attended concerts so that he could learn what the Spizzwinks(?) were like.
At the end of “rush,” Berry lined up with all of the other freshemen vying for a spot in one of the a capella groups. The different a capella groups had to race toward the person they wanted and serenade their new potential group members.
“The groups sing to you and you can say yes or no,” Berry explains. “It’s a really crazy evening.”
Berry says that his favorite part of being a Spizzwink(?) is bonding with the other members of the group.
“You join this group and suddenly you have 17 best friends magically,” Berry says.
The (?) was added after Yale’s newspaper printed an article about the group. Not knowing how to spell the name, the paper added the question mark-and the rest is history.
Click here to watch their performance at the Bethesda Church.
