Doesn’t every new quartet wish to emulate a great quartet? To sing great arrangements…to pick up a new song a make it just as wonderful as the original artist? Well, as a brand new quartet in 2005 we were (and still are) very ambitious. We had heard “the Buzz” – SAI 2005 Quartet Champions – sing “You Turned the Tables on Me”. Not only was it a great song, but also one I knew. Being relatively new to barbershop at that time it was good to know that songs I knew outside of the barbershop world would translate to the harmonies we all know and love.
“You Turned the Tables on Me” is a popular song with music by Louis Alter and lyrics by Sidney D. Mitchell, published in 1936. It was introduced in the musical film Sing, Baby, Sing. The most popular recording was by Helen Ward with the Benny Goodman orchestra.
So, we picked up a copy of this fun and challenging Nancy Bergman arrangement and began learning. In Spring of 2006 we competed in our first Regional competition. On Saturday night, after the contest is over, you find yourself singing in the hospitality rooms at the hotel for many appreciative audiences. As a newer quartet we didn’t have a lot in our repertoire so what did we sing? You guessed it, “Tables” as we call it. By the end of the night, after singing in a dozen or more rooms, I think, we had finally ‘learned’ it. We still work on this piece today and are making it better every year and will continue to “perfect” it as we forge ahead on our journey.