When Bentley J. Tolk '87-'90, a member of the Harvard Krokodiloes, stepped forward to sing a line from "Johnny O'Connor" during the group's Valentine's Day concert, neither the audience nor his fellow songsters were expecting anything unusual.

But just before the Adams House resident belted out the lines "Marry Me," he lept off the stage and presented his fiance with flowers and a ring. The Sanders audience burst into applause. His fiance, Currier House resident Jennifer W. Durham '90 accepted his offer.

Such is the tradition of a capella singing at Harvard--a vaudevillian combination of song, dance, burlesque humor, and occasionally, something a little more serious.

Until 13 years ago the Kroks were the only formal a capella singing group on campus. Today there are more than six formally established singing groups, with new clubs being founded almost every year. Together, the groups give hundreds of annual concerts everywhere from Cambridge to Moscow.

Why such explosive growth? "For starters, you don't have to carry an instrument around," says Katherine A. Kennedy '88, a member of the Radcliffe Pitches, the only all-female a capella singing group at Harvard. "But basically people like it because its just plain fun-fun to listen to, and fun to perform, especially in front of the larger audiences."

"I attribute the popularity of a capella to its interesting sound. There's no accompaniment. We do with our voices what instruments would do," says Craig V. Hickman '90, founder of Harvard's newest co-ed a capella group, the Callbacks.

A capella also "allows a singer to use a lot of different performing qualities," says Maureen N. McLane '89, a member of the co-ed Opportunes and director of an informal singing troupe known as the Currier House Singing Rats. "It takes a lot of different talents. There are opportunities for backup singing, soloing, dramatics and acting, and choreographed moves. It's an entirely different dynamic."

At War With the 'Poofs

At Harvard these a capella traditions date back only as far as the late 1940s, when Harvard became the second University to have its own singing group. The first was Yale whose Whiffenpoofs date back to the turn of the century.

During World War II a Harvard student and member of the Hasty Pudding Club named David Binger served in the army with several members of the Whiffenpoofs. When he returned home in 1946, says Krokodilo Daniel J. Cloherty '88, Binger carried with him one of their songbooks and a great new idea.

"Informal singing was a nineteenth century tradition already very popular among members of male social clubs at Harvard, like the Pudding Club. Binger simply had to formalize what already existed," Cloherty says.

As a result, the first all-male a capella group was formed in the spring of 1946, named after the reptillian mascot of the Pudding Club-The Harvard Krokodiloes.

The Kroks started off quietly, but "eventually, once the group got going in the late '40s and early '50s, our present style began to develop," Cloherty says.

One of the more unique and entertaining aspects of the a capella style adapted by the Kroks involves the comedic introductions that precede each musical routine. "The Kroks would often formally present each song with a spoken introduction. These naturally developed into little jokes," Cloherty says. The comedic introduction soon became an entertainment standard for the Kroks and for every a capella group that was to follow, he says.

"The intros are important because they let the audience get to know the different personalities of the group," says the Pitches' Kennedy. "Anyone who likes to be a ham will love a capella. The intros have become almost a necessary part of every show, and the audiences sometimes expect us to be funny."