Editing Barbershop quartet (section)

== History ==
{{Main|Barbershop music#Historical origins}}

While many sources claim that barbershop singing originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States of America, some maintain that the origins of barbershop singing are "obscure".<ref name="auto"/> The style is considered a blend of White and African American musical styles.<ref name="Abbot1992">{{cite journal |last=Abbott |first=Lynn |s2cid=191390367 |year=1992 |title='Play That Barber Shop Chord': A Case for the African-American Origin of Barbershop Harmony |journal=American Music |volume=10 |number=3 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |pages=289–325 |doi=10.2307/3051597 |jstor=3051597 }}</ref> Although the African American influence is sometimes overlooked, these quartets had a formative role in the development of the style.<ref name="Henry2000">{{Cite book |author=Henry, James Earl |title=The Origins of Barbershop Harmony: A Study of Barbershop's Links to Other African American Musics as Evidenced through Recordings and Arrangements of Early Black and White Quartets |publisher=Washington University |year=2000}}</ref>

By the 1920s, the popularity of the style had begun to fade. It was revived in the late 1930s along with the founding of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA), now known as the [[Barbershop Harmony Society]], or BHS.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.barber-schools.org/blog/history-of-the-barber-shop-quartet-a-time-honored-tradition |title=History of the Barbershop Quartet, a Time-Honored Tradition |date=May 8, 2012 |access-date=July 23, 2012}}</ref><ref name="Döhl, Frédéric 2014">{{cite journal |last=Döhl |first=Frédéric |year=2014 |title=From Harmonic Style to Genre: The Early History (1890s–1940s) of the Uniquely American Musical Term 'Barbershop' |journal=[[American Music (journal)|American Music]] |volume=32 |number=2 |pages=123–171 |doi=10.5406/americanmusic.32.2.0123 |s2cid=194072078 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/566731 |issn=1945-2349 }}</ref> The society's first meeting was held at the Tulsa Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on April 11, 1938,<ref name="auto"/> and it was open only to male singers. In 1945, a parallel organization for women was also founded in Tulsa, called [[Sweet Adelines International]] (SAI).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sweetadelines.com/about |title=About &#124; Sweet Adelines |website=sweetadelines.com |access-date=February 4, 2020}}</ref> [[Harmony, Incorporated]] (HI), also serving women, was established in Rhode Island in 1959.<ref>{{cite book |last=Averill |first=Gage |year=2003 |title=Four Parts, No Waiting: A Social History of American Barbershop Harmony |place=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1951-1672-4 |page=132}}</ref>

In 1971, president of BHS Ralph Ribble launched the "Barberpole Cat Program" to encourage barbershop singing as widely as possible.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://stellent.barbershop.org/web/groups/public/documents/pages/pub_id_047338.hcsp |title=The Barberpole Cat Program |date=March 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110321072849/http://stellent.barbershop.org/web/groups/public/documents/pages/pub_id_047338.hcsp |access-date=February 4, 2020|archive-date=March 21, 2011 }}</ref> Well-known and popular barbershop songs were published and promoted in order to provide a core set of pieces for barbershop quartets. The current list of 12 songs, commonly known as "polecats",<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Barbershop_Barberpole_Cat_Learning_Tracks_Lead?id=Bdcnxaxrh4cbkea6ointiw3ytai&hl=en_US |title=Barbershop Harmony Society: Barbershop Barberpole Cat Learning Tracks (Lead) – Music on Google Play |website=play.google.com |access-date=February 4, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www2.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=107342 |title=Classic barbershop songs |date=September 26, 2008 |newspaper=Reading Eagle |access-date=February 4, 2020}}</ref> was selected in 1987. These songs, plus the [[conclusion (music)|tag end]] of two others, are:

{{Columns-list|colwidth=25em|
* "My Wild Irish Rose" (1899)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://library.indstate.edu/about/units/rbsc/kirk/PDFs/sm1899_my_wild.pdf |last=Olcott |first=Chauncey |title=My Wild Irish Rose |publisher=M. Witmark & Sons |access-date=February 2, 2020}}</ref>
* "[[Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie]]" (1905)
* "[[Sweet and Lovely]]" (That's What You Are to Me)" (1931)
* "Down Our Way" (1927)
* "Honey—Little 'Lize Medley" (1898)
* "[[Let Me Call You Sweetheart]]" (1910)
* "Sweet, Sweet Roses of Morn" (c. 1930s)
* "Shine on Me" (19th century)
* "The Story of the Rose ([[Heart of My Heart]])" (1899)
* "You're the Flower of My Heart, Sweet Adeline" (1903)
* "[[Down by the Old Mill Stream]]" (1910)
* "You Tell Me Your Dream" (1899)
* "Give Me Your Hand" ''(tag)''
* "Ring, Ring the Banjo" ''(tag)''}}