Georgia Tech Glee Club
| Georgia Tech Glee Club | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Genres | Choral |
| Years active | September 1906 – present |
| Website | www |
The Georgia Tech Glee Club is an all-male a cappella singing group founded in 1906 at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It is a student-run glee club currently directed by Dr. Jerry Ulrich. The Glee Club sings all original arrangements and compositions arranged by Dr. Ulrich and by members of the group.
It is slightly unclear when a group of Tech men first harmonized and called themselves a glee club, but it is accepted that the singers represent the Institute’s oldest student organization still in existence today. "The Glee Club was first started in 1906 and was composed of some eight or 10 men who would gather every afternoon under the Academic Building and practice," Georgia Tech's student newspaper The Technique reported in an October 9, 1917, article introducing new students to campus customs and clubs. An Atlanta Constitution article dated June 20, 1907, records the group’s roots a bit differently. "One of the great social organizations that helps to make the thorny path at Tech tread easier is a musical club organized last February under the suggestive title of the 'Tech Glee Club'." These dates make the Georgia Tech Glee Club the second-oldest collegiate glee club in the Southeast. In the group's first few decades, the Glee Club would perform in Atlanta and in other cities in Georgia, often combining with the Agnes Scott College Women's Chorale.
The Georgia Tech Glee Club has a long history of performing around the world. In the years immediately following World War II, the Glee Club sang with USO tours in locations from the South Pacific to Korea to Europe. It appeared twice on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1953 and 1968, during which Ed Sullivan famously barred the Glee Club from singing the line "helluva engineer" in the fight song, "Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech". They also sang the song "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" during the broadcast rehearsal to huge applause, only to have Sullivan cut it from the final lineup. Despite Ed Sullivan's censorship, the Glee Club was instrumental in spreading the fame of "Ramblin' Wreck" throughout the world, as it was one of the first college choral groups to release a recording of their school songs. The 1970s saw a dropoff in interest and attendance, which never picked back up until after the new millennium. By 2003, the Club was nearly dead.
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