Glee Club
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- Alternate meanings: See Glee Club (comedy club), Glee Club (Liberalism).
A Glee Club is a chorus, historically of men but also of just women or mixed voices, which specializes in singing short songs. Glee clubs originated in England, but are no longer common in Britain; modern glee clubs are primarily found in North American colleges and universities. Contrary to popular belief, a glee club is not necessarily a club full of gleeful people or a chorus that sings gleeful songs. Instead, the name comes from a specific form of English seventeenth and eighteenth century part song, the glee.
| School | School Founding | Glee Club Founding | Percent of History with Glee Club as of 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard University | 1646 | 1858 | 40% |
| University of Michigan | 1817 | 1859 | 78% |
| Wabash College | 1832 | 1859 | 84% |
| University of Pennsylvania | 1751 | 1862 | 56% |
| Yale University | 1701 | 1863 | 47% |
| Cornell University | 1865 | 1868 | 98% |
The Yale Glee Club is the only one of the oldest six that is no longer all-male.
Although the oldest Glee Club in the United States is the Harvard Glee Club, the oldest continually-operating Glee Club in the United States is the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) Glee Club.