On a recent weeknight, Ryan Kennedy was just rounding a corner of his campus residence hall at Villanova University when he was ambushed by a rendition of “Shoo Bee Doo Whop, Shoo Bee Doo Whop. Haaaaapppy Birthday, Ryan.”
The Villanova Spires — an all-male student a cappella group — had come to call. They were hired by Kennedy’s football teammates to deliver the special birthday greetings. Over the next nearly four minutes, the singers performed an alumni piece called “Good Ol’ A Cappella” with a birthday twist, the traditional “Happy Birthday to You” and what has become their signature tune: “Birthday Sex” by Jeremih.
“That was cool,” Kennedy, 22, a mechanical engineering major from Cleveland, said. “I thought we were going to get cookies.”
And just like that, the Spires were out the door and off to their next gig — this one for a female freshman in another residence hall on Villanova’s South campus. There would be two more performances, too, before the night was over.
How did the a capella group go viral?
The Spires are the oldest a cappella group at Villanova, founded in 1961. It once counted the late singer Jim Croce — a 1965 Villanova graduate — music producer Tommy West, and Tim Hauser of The Manhattan Transfer among its members. The group leaned toward folk music at that time. Over the decades, the Spires have toured around the country and internationally as its music evolved.
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But it’s the birthday singing on campus over the last year that has attracted much attention, locally and beyond.
“What began as a fun way to celebrate our fellow students has unexpectedly taken off on TikTok, with our videos generating 9.3 million views in just the past month and a half,” Cole Joyce, 22, the group’s president, said.
Since last November, they’ve performed more than 150 times on and off campus. They charge $50 per performance and now they get so many requests, they can’t accommodate everyone, said Joyce, a senior marketing major from St. Louis. They are full-time students, too.
Last month, they filmed a video of the group performing seven birthday gigs in one night, the most they’ve had.
Reactions to their performances range from screaming and crying to singing along. There have been a few angry or uncomfortable looks, too, from boyfriends when they sing “Birthday Sex” to females, said Connor Feick, a junior communications major from Harleysville, who is the group’s musical director.
The group’s TikTok videos are attracting interest from potential students, too.
“Maybe I should go to Villanova,” said one commenter. “Transferring immediately,” said another.
The Spires are one of nine a cappella groups on campus, a surprising number given that Villanova doesn’t have a music major, said Christine Nass, associate director of student performing arts. The group is made up of chemical engineering, biology, communications, finance, and political science majors.
“They’re all super talented,” Nass said. “This is their outlet. It’s all fun.”
The Spires have the most releases on Spotify and released their first studio album, House Rules, earlier this year, Joyce said. They were also the first Villanova a cappella group to release records decades ago, Nass said.
At the end of every practice, they huddle in a group and shout “Jim Croce, pray for us.”
Nass said the birthday performances “took off” before she or other administrators even knew students were doing it.
Now, the Spires are recognized by students, faculty, and staff everywhere they go, members said.
Joyce said when he first came to Villanova, he planned on joining a fraternity, but then opted for the Spires instead and has taken a lot of ribbing over the years from friends and family.
“That’s so dorky,” they would tell him.
But that’s changed.
“Now they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I literally see you all over TikTok,’” he said.
How did the Spires start singing birthday surprises?
Joyce said he got the idea after watching TikTok videos of singing groups at other colleges deliver birthday greetings, including “Birthday Sex.” And for years, the Villanova Singers, an all-male student chorus that the Spires are all a part of, have sung surprise Valentine’s greetings around campus.
“I thought we could totally do something like that and monetize it and get exposure,” Joyce said.
They stay away from the “Birthday Sex” song for some performances, such as those in restaurants. For a tennis coach, they substituted “birthday tennis” and instead of saying “girl,” they said Steve, the coach’s name.
But the song is almost always in their repertoire for on-campus performances, many of them delivered in dorm bedrooms.
When they book requests, customers “almost always say please sing ‘Birthday Sex,’” Joyce said. “So we always do.”
Customers are mostly women and mostly students, though sometimes parents will order for their Villanova student, Joyce said.
“I just love doing it,” said Feick, the music director who presides over practices and makes the musical selections. “I never get bored.”
Spires member Brady Keane, a junior political science and communications major from upstate New York, is in charge of booking and organizing the birthday gigs. He shared his color-coded spreadsheet for keeping track.
He’s also Villanova’s student body president.
“A lot of times I find myself telling people I’m a Spire before student body president,” he said. “This group has been the most important and transformative thing I’ve ever done.”
Joyce said the 13 Spires’ members are also best friends and most of them live together.
“It’s ended up being one of the most profound experiences of college for me and my life,” Joyce said.
Other members include: senior Eric Van Zele; juniors Nick Leyesa and Lucas Scotto; sophomores Grayson Bucher, Mannan Pandey, Nick Sherbondy, and Andrew Trueman; and freshmen Steven Blanco, Matthew Geiger, and Michael Rose.
After the group finished practice on Thursday, they grabbed their backpacks and headed to The Commons for Kennedy’s birthday performance. It was raining hard, and they had a five-minute walk.
“Snow, sleet or rain, we show up,” said Van Zele, a senior from South Carolina.