Template:Did you know nominations/Stanford Fleet Street Singers

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Yoninah (talk) 21:56, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

Stanford Fleet Street Singers

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• ... that the Stanford Fleet Street Singers first became renowned on their campus for rewriting their alma mater as a rap? Source: "According to the Book of Stanford Songs, "Hail, Stanford, Hail!" was written in 1893 ... The newest edition is Fleet Street's Stanford Hymn Rap." (1989 article from The Stanford Daily)
  • ALT2:... that the Stanford Fleet Street Singers wrote the first album of original music in collegiate a cappella? Source: "In 2005, the Stanford University Fleet Street Singers released Fleet Street, the first collegiate a cappella album consisting entirely of original songs." (Powerful Voices: The Musical and Social World of Collegiate A Cappella by Joshua S Duchhan (2005). p. 182.)
  • ALT2b:... that collegiate a cappella was so dominated by cover songs that the Stanford Fleet Street Singers' 2004 Fleet Street was the first album of original music in the genre? Source: The above as well as "Collegiate a cappella takes popular recordings as its raw material" from Durchan's essay "Collegiate a Cappella: Emulation and Originality" (JSTOR).
  • ALT3:... that musical comedy group the Stanford Fleet Street Singers sings a medley of the greatest hits songs from the "1590s"? Source: "More than some groups, Fleet Street sings exclusively original compositions and arrangements. Among these is a song they rewrite every few years—"Greatest Hits of the 1590s"—in which they set modern pop lyrics to medieval Gregorian-style chanting." ("A singing tradition: More than 50 years on, a cappella thrives at Stanford" by Elizabeth Schwyzer)

• Comment: Fewer than 5 DYK's at this point (I think 2–3?)

Improved to Good Article status by Shrinkydinks (talk). Self-nominated at 18:38, 12 May 2020 (UTC).

• Query @Shrinkydinks: Article was nominated within a few days of its GA promotion, is long enough, neutral, well cited (spot-checked sources), no copyvio detected (Earwig for quotes and proper names only). Hooks are short enough, formatted and neutral. QPQ waived as this is the nominator's third DYK. Verified sources for hooks ALT0 (second citation present in article covers "renown"), ALT2, ALT2b (via Docshare), and ALT3. ALT0, 2, 2b facts cited in article. For ALT3, the article doesn't mention that it's a medley and only notes "The Greatest Hits of the 1590s" as a humorous song. So, I feel that you should expand a little from the sources if you want ALT3. For ALT0, I feel that there might be some confusion with alma mater taken to mean the school song rather than the school itself (I think that's an Americanism). So I'd prefer if that hook changed: alma mater → school song, or similar. But before you get into that, I personally feel that ALT2 and 2b are the most interesting hooks. I'd normally recommend 2 as shorter, but 2b gives more context to make the fact stand out. What do you think? If you want, we can strike the others and I'll approve ALT2 and 2b. – Reidgreg (talk) 20:18, 6 June 2020 (UTC)

• Response @Reidgreg: Thank you so much for waiting on my response here. Thank you for your detailed look, as well! I agree about 2 being better for being shorter but 2b being better for providing more context. I think I'd prefer 2b because that context helps it be more "hook-y".

I think the idea of having any "greatest hit" songs from the 1500s is kind of "hook-y", so I did some more digging and found two more sources for 3 just in case it might be rescued. It seems there was one edition released in 2001 titled "Greatest Hits of the 1590s" (reviews here), and a follow-up released in 2010 titled "Greatest Hits of the 1600s" (reviews here). In a review of the latter iteration, a reviewer wrote, "'Greatest Hits of the 1600s' takes popular tunes and gives them, well, an extremely retro treatment. You know, rather secular choral music style. My life wasn't complete until I heard Single Maidens (Put a Ring On It)." (which references Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"). In a review for the earlier iteration, a reviewer mentioned, "Greatest Hits of the 1590s (Did Bach really like big butts? And was this something he could not lie about?)" (which references "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-a-Lot). While neither uses the word "medley" directly, I believe these might help provide suitable context to clarify what the song is?

If 3 is permissible by the above sources--and given your input from above--I might submit a few "final draft" hooks for your consideration, any of which are OK by me for final approval (I appreciate your judgment about what's interesting, and you're welcome to propose/make tweaks):

• ALT2b: ... that collegiate a cappella was so dominated by cover songs that the Stanford Fleet Street Singers' 2004 album Fleet Street was the first album of original music in the genre? (Same as ALT2b above)
• ALT2c: ... that collegiate a cappella was so dominated by cover songs that the first album of original music wasn't published until the Stanford Fleet Street Singers released Fleet Street in 2004?
• ALT3a: ... that the musical comedy group the Stanford Fleet Street Singers sings a medley of "greatest hits" songs from the "1590s"?
• ALT3b: ... that the Stanford Fleet Street Singers sing a medley of songs called the "Greatest Hits of the 1590s"?

• Comment: Sources are good but the material covering the hooks has to be in the article. I've added for the 1590s parody medley to the article at the end of section 1992–2003: Growing prominence, as seems it was first released on Fearless (2001). Feel free to edit or move it elsewhere, but please keep the hook fact in the article.
  • Response: Thank you! —Shrinkydinks (talk) 21:52, 23 June 2020 (UTC)
• Approve ALT2, 2b, 3b. Hooks are short enough, formatted and neutral, and hook facts cited in article. Otherwise good as above. I struck 2c as I felt it is too long without improving on 2, and 3 and 3a which break up the song title. – Reidgreg (talk) 14:46, 23 June 2020 (UTC)
  • Lightning additional question: @Reidgreg: I've sat on these drafts a bit longer and I think I prefer all variants of ALT2 to those of ALT3. If I may, I'd also like to submit a re-wording of ALT2b for your (final) consideration:
    • ALT2d: ... that in 2004, the Stanford Fleet Street Singers released the first album in collegiate a cappella to be composed entirely of original music?
• Approve ALT2d as well. Note that nominator prefers the ALT2 series over ALT3b. – Reidgreg (talk) 12:17, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

• @Shrinkydinks: Hi, I came by to promote this. ALT2d may be interesting to you, but ALT3b is far more quirky for a general audience. Yoninah (talk) 11:09, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

• @Yoninah: Works for me! Makes sense; ALT3b would be fine. Thank you for your perspective! —Shrinkydinks (talk) 18:36, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

• Thanks. Restoring tick for ALT3b per Reidgreg's review. Yoninah (talk) 18:47, 28 June 2020 (UTC)