The Whiffenpoof Song

To the tables down at Morey's
To the place where Louis dwells
To the dear old Temple Bar we love so well...
Sing the Whiffenpoofs assembled
With their glasses raised on high,
And the magic of their singing cast it's spell...

Yes, the magic of their singing,
Of the songs we love so well,
Shall l wasting and Mavourneen and the rest,
We will serenade our Louis! (We will serenade our Louis!)
While life and voice shall last!
Then we'll pass and be forgotten like the rest...

We're poor little lambs
Who have lost our way
Baa Baa Baa!
We're little black sheep
Who have gone astray
Baa Baa Baa!
Gentlemen songsters off on a spree
(Doomed...) Doomed from here to eternity
(Lord...) Lord, have mercy on such as we
Baa Baa Baa!

The Yale Whiffenpoofs was established at Yale University in 1909 as a collegiate a cappella singing group and is the oldest of its kind in the United States. The group is composed of senior students who compete in the spring of their junior year for 14 spots. The best-known member of the group is Cole Porter who sang with the group in 1913. Traditionally, The Whiffenpoofs has been an all-male group, but in 2018 they succumbed to the current culture of political correctness and gender neutrality by accepting their first female member.

The group’s traditional closing number, "The Whiffenpoof Song", became a hit song for Rudy Vallee in 1937 and was also recorded by Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Count Basie, the Ames Brothers, and others. The chorus has also been used in movies such as "12 O’clock High" starring Gregory Peck, "The Road to Bali" starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour, and others. The melody is the opening theme of the 1975 television series "Baa Baa Black Sheep", a fictionalized version of the World War II wartime exploits of the United States Marine Corps Marine Fighter Squadron No. 214.

Hear the song done by The Yale Whiffenpoofs of 2010 below.

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