Whatever happened to …

… Major Hoople’s Boarding House?

This week, I had the opportunity to be interviewed for an episode of Noa Daniel’s “Personal Playlist Podcast” for voicEd Radio. It’s an interesting concept where you pick a song that is personally classified as nostalgic, identity, and inspirational. It was an interesting challenge for me since I don’t do playlists. I enjoy all kinds of music and so I typically let iTunes randomly pick songs or podcasts for me to play when I’m out walking.

So, I did some thinking and narrowed things down to two songs in each category before making my final selection. The runner up for nostalgic was “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and specifically the version played by Major Hoople’s Boarding House. Granted, it was a cover of a song from The Tokens but I remember them doing it so well.

Yes, it’s an oldie. It was an oldie at the time too!

Why is this significant? At our high school, we had a lot of dances in the gym on Friday nights. Major Hoople’s Board House always seemed to make a stop once a year. And they packed the place.

When I was on Student Council one year, I was in charge of organizing dances and of course, we booked them! It was a real fund raiser and I remember one of my contributions was to convince the principal to allow students from other schools to attend. All they had to do was show their student card and pay the fee. So, we’d end up with people coming from Seaforth, Goderich, and Exeter to fill the place.

In doing my research for Noa’s show, I was hoping to find a YouTube video of The Lion Sleeps tonight by Major Hoople but couldn’t. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the band is still together. They have a website here. I’m going to keep an eye on it and, if they’re playing in Southwestern Ontario, I’m going to try my best to be there.

For a Sunday, how about a little music memories from you to share.

• Have you ever seen Major Hoople’s Boarding House?
• Did your high school have dances where you brought in a live band?
• Of course, with that many teenagers in one spot, there may have been issues that broke out. Do you have any that you’d care to share?
• Do you recall any of the bands that played at your high school?
• Are live concerts a current thing at your school or have things changed?
• What major fundraising schemes are in place at your school these days?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Bonus points if you share a song from your high school years!