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The Songs of Phi Gamma Delta
Fraternity songs have been around as long as fraternities themselves. Phi Gamma Delta printed its first of over eight songbooks in 1886, and produced at least three official albums. Individuals and chapters also made albums and tapes. The first official record was recorded in 1922; see the image to the left. A record was reportedly produced in the 1930s (we have no copy of it), and a third came in 1947, consisting of two records with ten songs sung by the Fraternity Glee Club. The most recent album was recorded in 1960 and is available today on a remastered CD.
Like to sing along? Learn the words from the online songbook. To purchase a CD or a songbook, call the International Headquarters at 859-255-1848, or use the online Fiji store.
If you have any Phi Gamma Delta sound recording, please contact the Curator of Archives by e-mail or through the International Headquarters, P.O. Box 4599, Lexington, Kentucky 40544, 859-255-1848. We wish to secure originals (or digital copies) for our Archives and, possibly, to make available to our brothers. For that matter, anyone interested in helping make an updated recording of select songs, please drop us a line.
1922 phonograph
It is 78 rpm and was recorded by commercial artists in New York City. Aeolian Company and University Records Corporation also recorded albums for other fraternities.
Side One: Fiji Land is the Land for Me by Phillip E. Lyon (Ohio Wesleyan 1916). Performed by Vocalion Quartet.
Side Two: Smoke Dreams by Donald R. Richberg (Chicago 1901). Performed by Shannon Quartet.
The Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta (1947)
Recorded in New York City by The Fraternity Glee Club. This organization included several Fijis. Directed by Ennis D. Davis (William Jewell 1923) and Hummel Fishburn (Pennsylvania State 1922). Frank W. Hower (Bucknell 1931), piano.
Hower played for Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, and Davis was on the group's executive staff. Fishburn was professor of music at Penn State. Incidentally, they were co-editors of Songs of the Fijis and Their Colleges, 1932.
Ten songs on two 78 RPM records.
1. Jubilate
2. Fiji Land is the Land for Me
3. Smoke Dreams
4. Fijis Arise
5. Doxology
6. Fiji Honeymoon
7. The Marching Fiji Men
8. Here's to Good Old Delta
9. Show Me The Scotchman
10. Landlord Fill the Flowing Bowl
Chapter Recordings, 1946-1963
A wide range of songs, mostly from college interfraternity sing contests, arranged chronologically. Sound quality is uneven. Do you have additional such recordings? Let us know!
1. Delta's Men, adapted from The Wippenpoof Song, sung May 18th, 1946 by Tau Deuteron Chapter for first place at the University of Texas Sing Song. From a 78 rpm phonograph transcribed onto tape in 1996.
2. The Farewell Song, an adaptation of You'll Never Walk Alone from Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1945 play Carousel. Tau Deuteron Chapter won Sing Song with this in the spring of 1947. From a 78 RPM phonograph transcribed onto tape in 1996.
3. Marching band melody circa 1948, used in the film A Journey Through Fijiland and played at the 1948 Centennial Ekklesia parade at Washington and Jefferson College. It appears to be a unique, one-off recording on a 78 rpm vinyl record.
4. Tau Deuteron Hymn, Four Fijis, c. 1956-7. This is the final song from a collection recorded at a party: Four Fijis with the Jimmy Gough Quintet. 10" LP. Echo, 1957.
5. Jubilate, Tau Deuteron Chapter, second place winners at the 1957 University of Texas Sing Song.
6. Tea For Two / I've Got You Under My Skin, Tau Deuteron Chapter, their second song from the 1957 Sing Song. Same arrangement the chapter used in 1946 to win first place.
7. Jubilate, Rutgers University Glee Club, Sounds Our Alma Mater Taught Us. LP. FTP Records, c. 1961 or 1962.
8. Phi Gam Melody, Lambda Deuteron Chapter, 1963 Fraternity Sing Contest, Denison University.
9. My Phi Gam Girl, Omega Kappa Chapter, Occidental College. Sung for the Interfraternity Sing Contest, year unknown.
The Songs of Phi Gamma Delta (1960)
Recorded June 1960 at RCA Studios, New York City. Produced by Richard Maltby (Northwestern 1936). The seventeen-voice male chorus was organized and supervised by Michael Stewart, conducted by James Leyden. Song arrangements by Maltby and Leyden. Hummel Fishburn (Penn State 1922) consulted.
1. Rise Up Singing: suggested by Purdue chapter; revised by Maltby and Leyden
2. When College Songs by Mathias H. Richards (Gettysburg 1860) c. 1858; tune: "Lauriger Horatius"
3. Phi Gamma Delta Here's to Thee
4. Marching Fiji Men by Donald R. Richberg (Chicago 1901)
5. Smoke Dreams by Donald R. Richberg (Chicago 1901), written in 1902 while at Harvard Law
6. Here's to Good Old Delta: author unknown
7. Show Me the Scotchman: Traditional
8. Fijiland is the Land for Me by Phillip E. Lyon (Ohio Wesleyan 1916) written in the fall of 1915
9. Silver Falls the Moonlight by Richard Maltby (Northwestern 1936) and Jimmy Leyden
10. Fiji Honeymoon by Harry Wilson; arr. by W.C. Stier (Lafayette 1884). First published 1922.
11. My Little Fiji Wanderer
12. I Would Rather be a Fiji by Ralph Freese (Illinois Wesleyan 1911), 1910
13. Prayer of Thanksgiving by Riverda Harding Jordan (Yale 1893); tune: Netherlands folk song
14. Jubilate by Phillip E. Lyon (Ohio Wesleyan 1916) about 1928
15. Doxology by Walter C. Stier (Lafayette 1884). Tune: pre-Soviet Russian national anthem
16. Fijis Arise by Mortimer Wilson (Nebraska 1901), 1932
17. Two Silhouettes
18. Fiji Girl I Love You by Charles B. Cissna (Washington 1930)
19. Fiji Moon by Ralph Freese (Illinois Wesleyan 1911), 1910
20. Landlord Fill the Flowing Bowl by Ira A. Hawkins, Jr. (Williams 1916)
21. Cannibal Isles by Kenneth L. Holderman (Penn State 1931)
22. How Ja Like to be a Friend of Mine
23. I'm Looking for a Sister by James Dyrenforth (Chicago 1916) and Ray Perkins (Columbia 1917)
24. Phi Gamma Delta Hymn by Gerald L. Dickey (Ohio Wesleyan 1960); tune: Navy Hymn