In the Key of Green

High notes and clinkers among the College's greatest hits.

1769 Three Indian students (according to legend) plant a sapling which will grow into the Old Pine. After the planting, they sing three verses which begin, "When shall we three meet again?"

1869 In the Dartmouth chapter of Carmina Collegensia, a collection of college songs, are the words to "The Young Oysterman." Besides the fact that songwriter Oliver Wendell Holmes taught at the medical school years before, the song has nothing whatsoever to do with Dartmouth.

1898 An aspiring songwriter contends that his new Dartmouth song, based on "Auld Lang Syne," deserves to win a songwriting contest because "antique and toothless alumni with no voices could pretend to sing it at an alumni reunion."

1910 Weld Rollins, class of 1897, offers a $100 prize to the undergrad who writes the best new College song. Two songs are entered. Both are rejected.

1912 A letter printed in this magazine contends that "Dartmouth songs of late have been pretty feeble productions, football yawps for the most part, with 'green' and 'team' forced into unwilling matrimony..."

1913 Still no winner in the Rollins song-writing contest. The rules are changed to allow almost anyone to enter. No one does.

1918 C.B. Little, class of 1881, offers another $100 prize for the creation of the best new College song. There are no entries.

1922 "Flail Dartmouth," written by C.G. Newcomb '12, is the first new College song in more than a decade. Critics are harsh. They complain that the 56 wordless bars before the chorus and the six shouted yells "trip up the extemporaneous barbershopper."

1926 President Hopkins proposes that "Men of Dartmouth" replace "Song of Dartmouth" as the alma mater.

1931 Franklin McDuffee '21 pens the words to "Dartmouth Undying."

1934 The anonymous lyrics of the "Dartmouth Challenge Song" are set to music by Edward Plumb '29 (who later becomes musical director for Walt Disney). The new song is sung on Dartmouth Night, and it is revealed that the lyricist is President Hopkins. The Alumni

Magazine gushes, "What other college president ever wrote a good football song?"

1966 'The Jacko prints an irreverent version of "Men of Dartmouth" that includes the line, "For the rich grads who love her; for the dollar sign above her."

1993 Anyone with campus e-mail can make a request for the Baker Tower bells. With a computer at the controls, the bell tower is not unlike a giant juke box with more than 300 selections. Available titles range from traditional Dartmouth songs and Anglican church hymns to Madonna's "Like a Virgin."