The Girls Medley

My Friend The Piano; Dave McKenna, piano

I loved the Blugrass Student Union barbershop quartet. They won the international barbershop quartet competition in 1978. My Uncle D. introduced me to their recordings sometime in 1982. He also gave me a Harmonizer magazine, the official periodical for the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America. Yup. SPEBSQSA. Dad used to call it the Society for the Prevention and Elimination of yeah, yeah, yeah… In the magazine, I saw the BSU’s advertisements for more of their recordings. I sent them a letter and a request for autographed copies of their LP’s “After Class” and “The Music Man”. I was thrilled. On “After Class”, they included a live performance of their prize-winning rendition of “The Auctioneer”. And on “The Music Man”, as you can imagine, they put all of the music from Meredith Wilson’s “The Music Man” through the barbershop arranging machine. They absolutely cut the rug with "Ya' Got Trouble". It all sounded so fine.

I grew close to all of the arrangements on their “After Class” album and transcribed many of them for my barbershop quartet. They had one arrangement called “The Girls Medley”. It included “Margie”, “No No Nora” and “My Blushin’ Rose”. They put a cute original introduction to it:

I never thought that I would fall in love with you

I never thought that you would fall for me

Of all the boys you could have chosen, you chose me

Of all the girls I could have chosen, why did I choose … three?

In the summer of 1988, I served as the music director for Prairie Repertory Theatre’s production of “The Drunkard”, an old-fashioned temperance play from 1844. The director of the play had me include music wherever I could, during the play and between acts. Cast members volunteered to sing and I suited ‘em up with period pieces like “Cuddle Up A Little Closer, Baby Mine” and “I’m Looking At The World Through Rose Colored Glasses”. But I needed something else. So I put together a barbershop quartet to sing two numbers between the acts: “Darkness On The Delta” and “The Girls Medley”.

The real fun came when Russ and Marge B., neighbors from our farm, came to one of the performances. I knew where they were sitting in the house and I got the whole quartet to look right at her when we sang:

Margie. I’m always thinking of you, Margie.

I’ll tell the world I love you.

Don’t forget your promise to me.

I have bought a home, a ring, and every little thing for

Margie. You’ve been my inspiration.

Days are never blue.

After all is said and done

There is really only one.

Oh, Margie, Margie, it’s you.

Over the course of the song, the whole audience turned their heads to look at Marge and smile. Marge smiled, too. And blushed.

Through the years, I have come to play the song “Margie” as a standard with all sorts of musical artists. I particularly like the way that Dave McKenna plays “Margie”. He has her as the opening act of his album called “My Friend The Piano” and she sets the standard by which all of the treasures behind her are compared. All measure up just fine, but she didn’t make it easy for them. Mr. McKenna makes it sound so easy. I appreciate, most of all, his full-bodied sound. Though his music nowhere suffers from busy-ness, his hands seem to reside in all registers of the keyboard; he doesn’t leave anybody out. He treats us to a full orchestral palette.

The Bluegrass Student Union retired three years ago after thirty-two years of performing together as a barbershop quartet. They came from Louisville, Kentucky. When I worked on the Delta Queen steamboat, we annually steamboat raced with the Belle of Louisville as part of the city’s Kentucky Derby festivities. I always took the opportunity, when we floated through Louisville, to play “The Girls Medley” on the calliope, as close to the way that they sang it as possible, and wondered whether the BSU could hear me playing their songs. Never heard.

Credits: To the Prairie Repertory Theatre at South Dakota State University, on the occasion of their fortieth season. Thank you for your contribution to the level of culture on the plains of South Dakota.