If the Internet is any guide, “Sh-Boom” is required harmonizing on many college campuses. This bodes well for the song’s future, notwithstanding the fact that far too many sophomoric (ahem) arrangements make “Sh-Boom” into a vehicle for barbershop quartets or, worse yet, a hymn.
A peek online yielded these contestants for what an exemplary representative example might be: (in no particular order) the Pittsburgh Panther Rhythms, the University of Rochester Midnight Ramblers, Tufts’s S Factor, Western Washington University’s Major Treble, Western Connecticut State University’s The Parallel Fifths, the Stanford Mendicants, the Washington University Stereotypes, the Texas A&M Men of Moores, UC-Berkeley’s Men’s Octet, the Ft. Lewis College Men’s Choir, and McMaster University’s (Canada) Absolute Pitch. The Harvard Din & Tonics consider “Sh-Boom” to be their signature song.
To choose a champion among all these worthy candidates would be harder than picking the perfect bracket for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. So, I have taken the easy way out and selected–envelope please–the Men’s Choir of Poor Knights (loosely translated) at the University of Bergen.
Just thank me for not belaboring the point with high schools, summer camps, and family reunions.