Nine songs this fall, in roughly the order we sing them at the Parents' Weekend concert. For each: who sang it first and when, who arranged it for us, who sings the solo, and a little about how the arrangement works. If you came here looking for the words, you won't find them. Buy the record. Then come hear us sing it.

Our opener. The whole song rides on that strummed acoustic guitar, so the altos and tenors do the strum on a choppy "jang-a, jang-a" while the basses hold down the low end. It starts with just Jerry and the strum and builds until all fourteen of us are in, which is a good way to start a show, because it hides the fact that half of us are still finding our spot in the arc.

It was on their album in 1997 and then it was everywhere this spring, in every dorm room on campus. Angel's chart has the sopranos doing the bright little plucked guitar part on "dee-dle-dee," which is harder than it sounds, and the basses very soft underneath. Natasha sings it sweet and straight. It's her first solo with us and she's nervous. You'd never know.

A bouncy one. The basses walk the bass line on "dm dm dm," Michael does the drums, and the upper voices do the guitar chords in short punches. Lance does a slightly over-the-top impression of the singer's voice. We have asked him to tone it down. He has toned it up.

Wanda slowed it down a little and made it sadder, with long, close chords in the background instead of the guitar. The second chorus drops to just Jennifer and the basses, and then everybody comes back in at once. It's the song that gets the quietest room. It's also on the CD.

Pure doo-wop, and for the parents. The basses go "bm, bm-bm" on the bass line, the upper voices do the "oohs," and Daniel gets to be the smooth one out front. Stephanie arranged it in 1995 and it's been in the set every year since. When we drop it, the alumni complain.

The guitar riff that everybody knows is done by four voices passing it back and forth, one note at a time, which took us a month to get right and still keeps Wanda up at night. Lorena sings it low and plain, which is the only way to sing it.

New this fall: the song of the summer, arranged by Ben in August on a legal pad on his parents' porch. Sharon and Michael trade off the verses, and Michael somehow does the drum loop at the same time. Ben swears it's not finished yet. It's the most fun thing in the set.

It starts with a rainstorm. Everybody rubs their palms together, then snaps, then slaps their thighs, then stomps, louder and louder, and then back down again, and then we go into that famous little keyboard riff, which the altos sing on "doo." Audiences love the rainstorm. The chapel's floorboards do not.

Six minutes long, eleven pages, two years in the arranging, and it has every section of the original: the slow opening in tight harmony, the ballad (Jerry), the opera section, where the whole group splits into little groups shouting back and forth at each other and Lance hits that falsetto, then the rock section, where Michael goes completely crazy on drums, and the quiet ending, with Wanda alone at the very end. We premiered it at the spring concert and got a standing ovation in the middle, which was nice but confusing. It's our closer this year. If we get through it clean on October 16, I'll put it on the next CD.

Recorded in the chapel in March 1999. $10 at concerts, $12 by mail. E-mail me to order.

Five of the voices on the CD graduated in May. We miss them. They still owe me for their copies.