These are the pocket-sized books of lyrics used by seniors at the annual Step Sing through much of the 20th century. They form part of the University Archives’ collection of “Campus/Class Songbooks” stretching from 1854 to 1982. Ditto a significant source of Class Songs.
Since the mid-19th century, individual classes had sometimes compiled their own songbooks in various formats — some for graduation, some for reunions. Then around 1907, the University itself began serial printing of standardized booklets, titled Princeton Campus Songs, for use by successive senior classes during Commencement week.
The compact soft-cover format of Princeton Campus Songs will be familiar to many older alumni. Over the decades, the number of songs therein ranged from about 30 to over 90.
Each May the booklet got “Revised for the Senior Class”, adding or deleting a handful of verses or songs. The selections typically led off with more than a dozen classic Princeton songs. The rest of the pages provided lyrics to mainstream sing-along standards (some a bit outdated), plus a few novelty numbers.
The Princeton songs arrayed at the front of the book perennially included these two class-specific classics:
• “Oh we’ll Whoop ‘Er Up for ____”: Each booklet duly inserted that year’s senior class numerals into the song’s title & refrain.
• “The Faculty Song”: This number annually served as the functional equivalent of a non-eponymous Class Song. Fresh verses ribbing profs, administrators, & local merchants would recall specific aspects of student life experienced by the current seniors. Yet “The Faculty Song” lyrics seldom named the class itself. A rare exception was 1967’s final verse bidding farewell to the whole faculty (“It was fun, but far from heaven, In the CLASS OF SIXTY-SEVEN”).
Significantly. more than a few editions also featured a full-blown eponymous Class Song—one flaunting the seniors’ numerals in both title and lyrics. These tended to appear in the back pages, where new material was presumably easier to insert. Unlike the flowery Class Odes sung on the afternoon of Class Day up until the 1930s, the modern Class Songs sung at the evening Step Sing were quite informal.
The lyrics typically reflected campus activities. Some also reflected issues in the wider world. Here’s a sample of three from classes whose time on campus spanned years when the Depression began, Prohibition ended, and Princeton football slumped:
• “1932 Beer Suit Song”: This single-verse ditty referenced the class logo stenciled on the jackets worn by the seniors at that year’s Step Sing. The cartoon depicted a Princeton “smoothie” with top hat and monocle; the design’s cryptic allusion to gridiron misfortune was picked up in the Class Song’s mildly scatological lyric (“On our suits you’ll find, How a football hits that tender spot behind.”) For the full explanation, click here . . . .
• “1933 Class Song”: This one’s three stanzas pledged classmates to come back to Old Nassau in future years, after weathering tough economic times as undergrads. (“Thirty-Three hasn’t hit any zenith. Thirty-Three’s had to count ev’ry dime. Thirty-Three’s followed straight down the middle, But we’ve all had a damn good time.”)
• “Hallelujah ’34”: This one’s seven stanzas are more upbeat: The class will soon have diplomas (“And say, it’s the nuts, How we get Phi Betas by hopping the guts”); some things in the country are looking up (“Prohibition has gone”); FDR’s in the White House (“And for your information, We’ll say he’s an ace”). Above all, a new coach inspires hope on the gridiron (“In football at last, We have seen the team win, And we know Crisler did it, So—hang on to him!”). The final verse looks forward to reunions (“When we gather in the future, Sing to Old ’34.”)
Lots more examples may well emerge from future research in the Archives. Besides the big serial holdings of “Campus/Class Songbooks” and Carmina Princetonia, the main Princeton Music Collection catalog1 includes a miscellany of variously-titled “Princeton Songbooks” published between 1859 and 1939. (All potentially fertile ground for more Class Songs. . . .}
Sources:
College of New Jersey, Class of 1884, Princeton Songs . . . Twentieth Anniversary. [Princeton, 1904?].
College of New Jersey, Class of 1884, Princeton Songs: Class of ’84, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. [n.p., 1909].
College of New Jersey, Class of 1889, Princeton Class Songs 89. Campus/Class Songs, Princeton Music Collection, AC056, Box 4, Folder 7, Princeton University Archives, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
Princeton University, 1907 Campus Songs: Compiled for the Senior Class of Princeton University, by the Leader of the Glee Club. [Princeton, N.J.: The University], 1907.
Princeton University, Campus Songs, Revised for the Senior Class of Princeton University. [Princeton N.J.: The University], 1932, 1934, 1941, 1945, 1967, passim. (Curator’s private collection.)
Footnote:
1Series 1: Songbooks; Princeton Music Collection, AC056, Princeton University Archives, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
