Throwback Thursday: When a Maine Barbershop Quartet Saved the Day

Eight years ago, a barbershop quartet made a flight delay the best thing ever.

Before TikTok, before the pandemic, before we got so angry, we were still annoyed. In February of 2015, the Huffington Post ran a story about a barbershop quartet from Maine making a lousy flight delay not so lousy. The quartet was the Port City Sound, and they were on a US Airways flight from Indianapolis to New Orleans in January 2015 when the flight was delayed for maintenance.

Flight attendant Kari Mann realized that there was a barbershop quartet on board, and asked them if they wouldn't mind singing. Mind? They were happy to do a rendition of “Under The Boardwalk.”

On her YouTube video that has been seen almost 10 million times, Kari said:

The mood changed and our passengers were awesome for the whole 5 hours they were on the plane! One of my favorite moments!!! Thank you to Port City Sound for creating a wonderful memory!!!

Everyone loved it. Five hours is a long time to be on a plane, and to have them all almost tranquilized by a barbershop quartet got me thinking. I don't often read about people breaking out in song and all getting along. So that's it! We need more barbershop quarteting in the world! Yes, that's not a word, but it should be. Maybe we'd have more TikToks of people on planes being calm and smiling and less of them trying to kill each other. It's just a thought. I'll learn Under the Boardwalk if I can get three more to join me.