Some Ramblings about the Whiffenpoof Song and the Whiffenpoofs

The Whiffenpoof Song was one of my parents’ favorites and they introduced me to it when I was quite young. It’s always been there in long-term memory, resurrected every 20 years or so, usually when I hear an a capella group. For those of you who may not know, the tune is always sung as the last number of any concert by the Whiffenpoofs, a fourteen person a capella chorus that was established at Yale University in 1909 (and which, until 2018, was a fourteen-person male chorus). 

I’m currently reading a collection of columns that were penned by George F. Will over his storied career and in a February 29, 2008, Washington Post op-ed paean to William F. Buckley, Will had this to say about Buckley: 

He began his 60-year voyage on the turbulent waters of American controversy by tacking into the wind with a polemical book, "God and Man at Yale" (1951), that was a lovers’ quarrel with his alma mater. And so at [his wife] Pat”s [funeral] service the achingly beautiful voices of Yale’s Whiffenpoofs were raised in their signature song about the tables down at Mory’s, “the place where Louis dwells”: 

“We will serenade our Louis 

While life and voice shall last 

Then we’ll pass and be forgotten with the rest” 

Bill’s distinctive voice permeated, and improved, his era. It will be forgotten by no one who had the delight of hearing it. 

The quotation of those lyrics once again brought the song to mind and, with it, some questions that had previously arisen but had never been properly addressed: What and where is Mory’s? Who the hell is Louis? What’s a whiffenpoof? And how about those other lyrics, not quoted by Will that I never understood?  

I decided to do some research. 

The Whiffenpoof Song, it turns out, is a parody of a Rudyard Kipling poem, “Gentlemen Rankers,” first published in “Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses” (1892) and set to song circa 1898 by Tod B. Galloway, an Amherst student. Using that music, the current lyrics were written by a two Yale students, Meade Minnigerode and George S. Pomeroy, circa 1909. As used in the song, “whiffenpoof” is a nonsense word from a 1909 Victor Herbert operetta, “Little Nemo”. I intended to write a good deal more about the origin of the word "whiffenpoof" but my research uncovered a piece by David Hinkley for medium.com. He has unearthed the entire story and tells it much better than I could. So, if you want to delve further, click here. 

Okay, but what and where is Mory’s? 

Mory’s is a bar—Mory’s Temple Bar to be exact—founded in 1849. It was originally a restaurant located adjacent to the Yale campus at corner of Temple and Center Streets. In 1909, when The Whiffenpoof Song was first performed at Mory’s, the bar was owned by Louis Linder who, encouraged the school’s chorale groups to meet and perform at the establishment. Hence “to the tables down at Mory’s[,]” the “place where Louis dwells,” and “To the dear old Temple bar we love so well.” 

Now to some strange lyrics not quoted by Mr. Will, consider these four lines:  

Sing the Whiffenpoofs assembled with their glasses raised on high 

And the magic of their singing casts it's spell 

Yes, the magic of their singing of the songs we love so well 

“Shall I Wasting” and “Mavourneen” and the rest[.] 

The first three lines are pretty straightforward (though I always thought the opening phrase was “See the Whiffenpoofs;” but how about the fourth line? Well, the quotation marks are sort of a giveaway and, with a little thought, one could surmise that “Shall I Wasting” and “Mavourneen” are the titles of two songs well loved by the Whiffenpoofs’ audiences.  

That surmise would be only partially correct. “Shall I Wasting” is the shorthand title of the song—" Shall I Wasting In Despair”—written by George Wither in the early 1600s. Mavourneen” (which means “Sweetheart”), is not, contrary to prevalent opinion, the 1837 song, "Kathleen Mavourneen," a popular song during the Civil War. In fact, it is not the title of a song at all but refers to the lyrics of a Victor Herbert song, "Barney O'Flynn," from "Babes in Toyland:"  

Mavourneen! Mavourneen [Sweetheart,Sweetheart] 

Sure one kiss would be no sin, 

For I love you, Alanna, 

Your slave is poor Barney O’Flynn! 

In any event, you can hear both Shall I Wasting” and “Mavourneen” here.  

Lastly, we turn to the following lines: 

We're poor little lambs who have lost our way 

Baa, baa, baa 

We're little black sheep who have gone astray 

Baa, baa, baa 

Gentleman songsters off on a spree 

Doomed from here to eternity 

Lord have mercy on such as we 

Baa, baa, baa 

Why this change in tone and connotation? Its rooted in blatant plagiarism. Here are the corresponding lines from Kipling’s poem: 

We’re poor little lambs who’ve lost our way, 

Baa! Baa! Baa! 

We’re little black sheep who’ve gone astray, 

Baa—aa—aa! 

 Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree, 

 Damned from here to Eternity, 

God ha’ mercy on such as we, 

Baa! Yah! Bah! 

     A “ranker,” by the way, is 19th century English slang for an enlisted soldier who, by education or family could have served as an officer. Kipling’s poem, available here, laments the low state to which the rankers have fallen, victims of the senseless ravages of war. 

Finally, for those of you whose interest I have piqued, you can listen to the Whiffenpoofs Song, as performed by the 2019 Whiffenpoofs (the first to include a woman), here, and as performed by Rudy Vallee in 1927, here.