Columbia Kingsmen

The Columbia College King's Men were founded in 1948 by request of Dwight Eisenhower, then University President, for that year's Homecoming ceremony. Three years later, at a football game in 1951, Eisenhower told the group, "If you men can get 2,000 others singing with that spirit, I’ll personally pin a medal on each one of you." Since then, the Kingsmen have taken that same spirit to the national stage to become one of the most famous a cappella groups in the United States. The Kingsmen have appeared in such venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and on television in The Ed Sullivan Show, The Steve Allen Program, Two for the Money, and most recently, Good Morning America. Almost inevitably, celebrated musicians have grown out of time with the 'Smen, such as Art Garfunkel (CC '65), of Simon and Garfunkel; doo-wop group Sha Na Na, composers of Grease and stars of the eponymous '70s television show; and Tom Kitt (CC' 96), composer of Tony Award-winning musical Next to Normal. Our sound is deeply rooted in doo-wop and the like, but the full scope of our repertoire includes barbershop, contemporary arrangements, school songs, and witty songs of our own composition.