The Hangovers

The Hangovers are a subset of the Cornell University Glee Club, the oldest student organization at Cornell University, and were themselves founded in 1968. The Hangovers' repertoire consists mainly of popular songs arranged for a cappella by members and alumni of the group, but they also perform traditional Cornell songs, as well as selections from the Glee Club repertoire on occasion. The Hangovers are the most recent subset in the history of the Glee Club, after the Cayuga's Waiters, Sherwoods, and the Octaves. They are the second-oldest a cappella group at Cornell University.
The group's name is taken from the name that was given to fifth-year students in Cornell's five-year architecture and engineering programs of the '60s. After their fourth (senior) year, students in these programs had to hang over an additional year to complete their degrees. Several of the group's original members were "hangovers" in this sense at the time of the group's formation, hence the name. The double entendre of the more widely accepted meaning of the word is intentional, and is a theme carried on in the titles of the ensemble's concerts and albums.
The Hangovers competed in international competitions such as the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, advancing to the semifinals in 2001. The Hangovers can be heard on the PBS American Experience documentary "Rescue at Sea." The Hangovers have performed for Helmut Schmidt, the widow of Anwar Sadat, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger, Cornell alumna Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ladysmith Black Mambazo,and other notables.
Concerts
The Hangovers have two major on-campus concerts every year, one in the Fall and one in the late Spring. The Fall concert is named Fall Tonic, a title resurrected in and used since 1980 in homage to the Sherwoods, who preceded the Hangovers as a Glee Club subset and had an annual autumn concert of the same title. The first guest groups at the 1980 Fall Tonic were Yale's Proof in the Pudding, University of Rochester's Yellowjackets, and Cornell's Nothing But Treble.
The Hangovers' Spring concert, in keeping with their penchant with alcoholic double entendres, is called Happy Hour. "Ignition (Remix)" was also featured on the 2009 Best of College A Cappella compilation album.
Other performances and tours
Independent from the Cornell University Glee Club, the Hangovers have performed extensively with other collegiate a cappella groups, primarily in the Eastern United States. The ensemble has gone on numerous domestic and international tours, on a subsequent tour to Japan and Korea in the spring of 1998, they performed on Inter-FM, a Western-music radio station, in addition to other performances at such venues as the Tokyo-American Club, the United States naval base in Atsugi, Seoul National University, Ewha University and concluded the tour at the Seoul National Arts Center as a guest group for the Seoul National Orchestra.
The Hangovers have also toured Antigua, Jamaica, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Holland, and France; the 2003 tour through Europe had corporate sponsorship.
Alumni
The Hangovers have an active network of alumni, who return to Cornell in large numbers for Fall Tonic and also join the current members to sing at the Treman Concert every year during Cornell's Reunions Weekend. Alumni include such notables as Alan Keyes. Numerous alumni are also involved in post-collegiate a cappella projects. Notable among these are members of the Tone Rangers, a Washington, D.C.-based a cappella group composed almost entirely of Hangovers and Yale University Whiffenpoofs alumni, and The Breakers, a group of former Hangovers who recently toured Malaysia.

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