Roseyland

A couple years ago I was playing with iTunes and I stumbled across a best of college a cappella album. I downloaded one song and I liked it so much I downloaded the whole album. Since then I have collected 112 college a cappella songs in my iTunes library. I’m not sure what it is I like so much, but I keep looking for more a cappella music in iTunes. There are no instruments, so the performance is more raw and the emotions come through better. The voices aren’t perfect, but somehow that imperfection makes it more real. It’s also cool to hear unique versions of popular songs.

After much deliberation, I have come up with my top 15 college a cappella songs. It was amazingly hard to narrow this list down to 15, and even harder to put the final 15 in order. I have provided links to these songs in iTunes and on Amazon.com. I tried to get links directly to the song, but sometimes I could only link to the album. For the record, I do not get any money if you buy these songs. I just wanted to provide a way to hear a preview of these songs, because just reading about songs is dumb. Here they are:

15. “My Happy Ending” by the University Of North Carolina Loreleis - This version sounds so much like the original I think Avril Lavigne must be a member of the group. (Amazon|iTunes)

14. “Write Me A Song” by The Pitchforks Of Duke University - This song is a little sappy, but I still like it. (Amazon|iTunes)

13. “Best I Ever Had” by Stanford Mixed Company - I’m not sure why I like this song, but I find myself listening to it a lot. (Amazon|iTunes)

12. “Rainbow Connection” by Utah State That One - “Rainbow Connection” is my spiritual theme song, and I love this version. (Amazon|iTunes)

11. “Breathe (2 AM)” by Stanford University Counterpoint - The song has a subtle intensity to it that I really like. (Amazon|iTunes)

10. “Good Enough” by Stanford University Counterpoint - Wow, two in a row from Stanford Counterpoint, I didn’t even realize that until just now. They must be good. (Amazon|iTunes)

9. “Tonight And The Rest Of My Life” by the University of Michigan Dicks & Janes - This song has mystical quality to it that keeps drawing me in. (Amazon|iTunes)

8. “Cry” by the USC Sirens - This is a pretty girly song, but if you have read this post, you know that I might be marrying the original artist, so I figured I better include one of her songs. (Amazon|iTunes)

7. “Something Like That” by the University Of Oregon On The Rocks - This is one of the few country songs that doesn’t suck. (Amazon|iTunes)

6. “Breathe” by the Bostonians Of Boston College I think the Bostonians are my favorite college a cappella group. Partly this is because it is fun to say “Bostonians”. (Amazon|iTunes)

5. “Girl From The Gutter” by the USC Sirens - I’m neither a girl or from a gutter, but that won’t stop me from liking this song. (Amazon|iTunes)

4. “She Will Be Loved” by Duke Out Of The Blue - This is a good example of how the emotion comes through better in an a cappella song. (Amazon|iTunes)

3. “Yeah” by the University of Oregon Divisi - A bunch of college girls singing an Usher song is just cool. (Amazon|iTunes)

2. “Hallelujah” by Clemson University’s TakeNote - I had never heard this song before, but now I love it. It’s like a gospel song written by somebody who has become disillusioned with religion. Interesting. (Amazon|iTunes)

1. “Over My Head” by Brandeis VoiceMale - I’m not sure why I picked this song as #1. I really like the original version, so I guess it’s only natural that I like this version too. (Amazon|iTunes)

In the process of witting this blog post, I came across even more college a cappella songs I like. If I made this list again, it would probably be completely different. For example, I really wish I could buy this song, but it is only available by snail mail as a physical CD. What is this, the dark ages? Here is a YouTube video of the Bostonians of Boston college, enjoy.

The image in this post is “A Cappella Sampler” by indoloony and is licensed under creative commons.