Yale Alley Cats
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The Yale Alley Cats are an all-male a cappella vocal ensemble. The group finds its roots in jazz, though today its repertoire spans Motown, popular, classical, and other genres. Its members are all Yale University undergraduates.
The Yale Alley Cats were founded in 1943 when a quartet of Yale men made a ritual of climbing to the top of Saybrook College tower to sing for passers-by below. The group traditionally opens its performances with "The Muskrat Ramble" and closes with a voicing of Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut.” The Alley Cats have recorded several dozen albums and have entertained ambassadors, royalty, celebrities, business leaders, and United States presidents. Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, Aretha Franklin, Ron Howard, Clive Davis, Nathan Lane, Kristin Chenoweth, Martin Sheen, Dustin Hoffman, and Sylvester Stallone are among the group's past audiences. The Yale Alley Cats have toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The group's recent television appearances include performances on The Early Show (CBS) and the syndicated Martha Stewart Living.
The group has earned numerous accolades both at home and abroad. In 1997, the group was featured entertainment during Hong Kong's historic handover festivities, and the mayor of Nagasaki, Japan honored the Alley Cats as "Friendship Citizens" of his city that same year. In 1999, the group won a "Best Male Album" nomination from the Contemporary A Cappella Society of America, and also was commissioned to appear in and provide the soundtrack for one of K-Mart's nationally televised primetime commercials.[citation needed] In 2000, the Alley Cats' rendition of the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross classic "Cloudburst" appeared on the national "Best of College A Cappella" compilation album. In the spring of 2003, the Alley Cats headlined at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, and in 2005 the group headlined the closing concert of the international Dresden Music Festival for an audience of over fifteen thousand. In 2005, the ensemble opened for the internationally renowned a cappella group Rockapella at a benefit concert in Hartford, Connecticut. New York Times technology columnist David Pogue, class of 1985, was a first tenor in the group during his days at Yale. In one of his weekly videos, he uses an old Alley Cats album to test Teac's GF-350, a gadget that records vinyl records onto CD.
