HOW DID BARBERSHOP BEGIN?

'Barber Music' is mentioned in Samuel Pepys Diaries, which encouraged we British to believe that the style may have originated in the UK.

However, the new world should get the credit as immigrants brought their music with them, such as hymns, psalms, and folk songs, that were often sung in four parts with the melody set in the second-lowest voice.

In the USA barbershop style is first associated with black southern quartets of the 1870s, and every shaving parlour seemed to have its own. During the early 1900s barbershop quartets were singing for fun and professionally on both sides of the Atlantic.

Radio prompted a shift in American popular music as writers turned out sophisticated melodies for professional singers. These songs did not adapt well to impromptu harmonization. However, radio quartets kept close harmony singing popular with amateurs, and it was this group who were ready for the revival.

While traveling to Kansas on business, Owen Cash met fellow Tulsan, Rupert Hall. They shared a love of vocal harmony, bemoaned the decline of the barbershop quartet, and decided to do something about it. The Society for the Preservation and Propagation of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in the United States, (SPEBSQSA), was born and the two invited their friends to a sing on the roof of the Tulsa Club, on 11 April 1938.

Twenty-six men turned up, and then returned with more friends. About 150 made a grand sound at the third meeting, and created a traffic jam outside the hotel. While police tried to sort out the problem, a reporter heard the singing, sensed a great story, and joined the meeting.

Cash said his organization was national, with branches in St. Louis , Kansas City and elsewhere. He neglected to mention that these 'branches' were just a few friends who knew nothing of his new club. Nevertheless, it made an irresistible story for the news wire services, which spread it coast-to-coast. Cash's 'branches' started receiving calls from men interested in joining. Soon, groups were meeting throughout North America and creating the foundations of modern barbershop.