Pretty ironic that the main song that Carolina Crown is playing, in beating out the Cavaliers, thusfar, is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I saw Carolina perform, in person, 3 days ago; they're good! They have been coming on in recent years. Last night, they beat the Holy Name Cadets by 1.3 points, a fairly large margin. That is the Cadets first loss of '09. Go Crown!

Even MORE ironic is the fact that, in the mid 1980s, it was a large number of recruits from SOUTH CAROLINA which helped save the Cadets.

I have never seen the Carolina Crown. They sound very good.

What years were you a Corps member? 1968-63

I noted that when I checked corps repitores a week or so ago. Even I will always associate that song with the Cavaliers (just like "You'll Never Walk Alone" with Madison and "Climb Every Mountian" with Garfield). I wonder how the old time Cavaliers feel.

And Crown's show is entitled "The Grass is Always Greener"; they have also switched to green plumes and green drums. Cue Rod Serling...

As for them playing "Rainbow", I doubt it will bother anybody. Sky Ryders made DCI finals a couple of years in the 80s playng it. I don't think the Cavaliers have played it since 79?

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

I thought the song was part of their tradition. When I first started checking out the free music download sites (which no longer exist). I came across a lot of DCI stuff and downloaded a number of full shows (some going back to the early DCI days) but I also downloaded an MP3 called Cavies Rainbow recorded in about 2000 which I'd guess is used as a warmup for the brassline. So my point is that at least five or six years ago the song was still associated with the corps.

I noticed this past weekend that the Vanguard still plays "Send In the Clowns" as a warmup which is a number they played back in the early DCI days and same for the Blue Devils "Chase the Clouds Away."

Don't recollect that we had any such numbers at Norwood. Would have been nice but don't remember one.

Whenever The Cavaliers get together, to celebrate, or whatever, they always get into a circle and sing Rainbow... every time. Also, at their Naperville show each late June, they always play an encore, which always includes Rainbow... and the crowd cheers loudly. So, yes, the Cavies use Rainbow regularly, tho never in any of their contest programs for many years now.

Last year, in celebrating their 60th anniversary, they had the Classic Cavaliers (alumni) perform at Finals. They had a huge corps for this event, which is (by the way) available on DVD. They played Rainbow and the entire crowd stood and applauded.

The encore part of the shows was something I was not aware of until this year at Stanford. At the two big shows that I have attended at Leland Stanford Junior University I haven't waited for the scores. The University's parking and traffic patterns are a mess so we get on the road and the socres are posted on the internet during the hour or so were driving home. But the other night I found a clip on UTube of the Blue Devils encore last Saturday. Pretty nice and for those of us who prefer the music to the drill more entertaining because the corps play music that is generally different from their show. Have to wait around next time.

Actually I didn't miss anything this year as the Blue Devils played their encore music during the BBQ before the contest--that too is posted on UTube. (There are also some Royal Air Alumni clips on UTube).

The Cavaliers "Over The Rainbow" was always a great
ending for them.After they changed it in 66 it was
sought disappointing to here them playing something
else,but I thought they made a good choice with what
they replaced it with,but I don't know the remember
the name of it off hand.

What did you do in the Corps? Frech Horn

What years were you a Corps member? !957 thru 1963

Whenever The Cavaliers get together, to celebrate, or whatever, they always also sing their corps song, which opens with the words, "We are the corps, the Cavaliers."

The Cavaliers sing both "Rainbow" and the corps song - rarely just one. The corps song is sung to the tune of the United States Coast Guard.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Gosh, what wonderful news to hear what the Cavaliers sing!