UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In 1996, members of Indiana University’s Singing Hoosiers collegiate choir decided to form a new group — Straight No Chaser. Starting in 1998, they recorded themselves performing an updated version of “The 12 Days of Christmas,” graduated, moved away, and started careers and families. After the holiday mashup was posted to YouTube a decade later, the video would go viral and the singers would have some decisions to make.
Some members would come and go, but the magic of what the 10-voice a cappella ensemble had in their college years would stay strong. That bond is evident with Straight No Chaser’s “I’ll Have Another … 20th Anniversary Tour.” The Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State will host the concert at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11 in Eisenhower Auditorium.
Some of the singers were music majors, but mostly “We were just college friends forming a group to sing around campus for sororities or to do our own concerts and such,” co-founder and tenor Walter Chase said. “It definitely started off as a family.”
The love of song and the extracurricular experience drew them together and helped them maintain their friendships in spite of major life changes and proximity.
“When we were not together as a professional group, we were still going to each other’s weddings. Guys were having kids, and (we) were there for that,” the Easton, Pennsylvania, native said.
After the video went viral in 2006 (with more than 19 million views) and close to a decade of living separate and busy lives, it was time to get the band back together.
“In the first couple of years (after reforming), a lot of us were still working our jobs,” Chase said. “We were all kind of toeing the line until we could become a professional group.”
Straight No Chaser signed to Atlantic Records and released five full-length studio albums as well as a slew of EPs, special-edition releases and single tracks. “I’ll Take Another … Christmas Album,” scheduled to go on sale Oct. 28, will be the group’s fifth holiday-themed recording.