I’ve sung this song countless times in choirs. I kinda grew to hate the song because it was such a standard part of choral repertoire when I was a teen. But we never made it as beautifully melancholic and full of yearning as this fantastic choir have, and they’ve completely reinvigorated the song in choral version in my estimation:
They’re a really sensational choir – it’s so rare that you see an all female choir comfortable singing down out of the rafters and really going for a beautiful texture. The two brothers who run the choir (conductor and pianist) create these absolutely gorgeous arrangements of songs as diverse as Air’s “Sexy Boy” and Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”.
They’re a choir doing versions of songs from popular music in absolutely wonderful arrangements, but not in a glee-style show choir manner. I first heard their cover of “Sexy Boy” and completely loved it. Since then I’ve come across a fair bit of their music via youtube, and sourced two of their albums. Their covers don’t always work for me, but when they do, they’re absolutely thrilling:
Smells Like Teen Spirit (live)
Years ago I actually did a choral arrangement of Kylie’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”, so I was intrigued to hear how they’d interpret it, but unfortunately I’m not a huge fan of their arrangement. But interestingly, there are some of the same harmony lines in their arrangement as I have in some bars of mine.
However, my arrangement was for a musical inspired by “Sister Act”, so the song was re-appropriated to be sung to Jesus instead, and included a “Allelujah” too for good measure.
However, some other songs are far more successful. This is one of my favourites, and is featured as the soundtrack for the trailer for “The Social Network“:
