Help me track down a funny barbershop quartet song!

August 5, 2014 2:10 PM

The old story: some years ago I saw a video of a funny live performance and can't find it again. A barbershop quartet starts singing a song and its members promptly get into an argument about the correct key. Different keys are proposed, in song, and as they argue they slide up and down between them while continuing to harmonize. Can you help me find it again?
posted by Monster_Zero to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

Not a barbershop quartet, but does feature a lot of funny arguing and sliding up and down: Straight No Chaser's "12 Days."
posted by correcaminos at 2:35 PM on August 5, 2014

Is it Hi-Fidelity doing Blackbird (there's a few other versions of them singing it on YouTube)
posted by brainmouse at 4:50 PM on August 5, 2014

This organization's historian will know:
http://barbershop.org/
posted by egk at 5:21 PM on August 5, 2014

Could it be "No One's Perfect?" That's what immediately sprung to my mind.

Far above the lowly basses,
In the treble clef,
All the tenors sing in E-flat,
but the song's in F.

The basic melody is borrowed from "Far Above Cayuga's Waters."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:59 PM on August 5, 2014

Yay! Brainmouse nailed it! That's exactly the one. Thanks all!
posted by Monster_Zero at 8:09 AM on August 6, 2014

Woot! For google-fu posterity, after a few misses, the winning google search was "barbershop quartet key change funny" (no quotes), and one of the links on the page had the short text "There are all sorts of goofy key changes and lyrics in this light-hearted spoof...", which brought me to this page, and then I searched YouTube for "Hi-Fidelity Blackbird" based on that and it seemed to fit what you were looking for.

Though now that I've listened to it, I wish I'd posted this version, which has worse recording quality, but I think they were funnier that day.
posted by brainmouse at 10:10 AM on August 6, 2014