In the fall of 1996, Indiana University student Dan Ponce hand-picked ten friends to create the campus's first a cappella group. Ponce chose the members not only for their outstanding voices, but for their personalities. Purposefully avoiding the stereotype of the traditional college a cappella group, they treated themselves more like a local band that just happened to use their voices as their instruments.

The formula worked: it wasn't long before they were headlining concerts, and within two years, they were touring nationally. In 1999, with college graduation looming, the members of Straight No Chaser chose their replacements -- putting a plan in place to ensure that the new tradition they had created would continue on with successive generations of IU undergrads. Then, in April 2006, Indiana University decided to host a reunion concert for the original members. In honor of the event, posted clips from one of their 1998 concerts on YouTube to share with the other founding members. Suddenly, concert footage that was nearly a decade old was available to be seen by millions of people worldwide... and see it they did, in mind-blowing numbers. With no promotion, Straight No Chaser's version of "The 12 Days Of Christmas" (interpolating Toto's "Africa") received more than seven million views in December of 2007 alone, becoming the hottest viral video of the season.

In the years since they graduated from college, the original members of Straight No Chaser had embarked on a variety of life paths -- some pursuing professional careers in music and theatre, some going into other fields entirely. But suddenly presented with the unforeseen opportunity to come back together, make their major label debut, and take their music to a new level, they all agreed to seize the head-spinning moment.

sncmusic.com