Allentown-bound a cappella group Straight No Chaser sails into future on yacht rock

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — It's been 15 years since Straight No Chaser released its debut album "Holiday Spirits" — after a video of the former Indiana University a cappella group reuniting for a mash-up of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and Toto's "Africa" went viral online.

But lead singer Jerome Collins, an Allentown native, said the anniversary had nothing to do with the group returning to Toto's songbook when it recorded its most recent album, "Yacht on the Rocks," released last week.

• A cappella singing group Straight No Chaser will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 6, at Miller Symphony Hall, 23 N. 6th St.,
  Allentown
• Tickets, at $49.50-$69.50, are available at www.millersymphonyhall.org or 610-432-6715
• The group just released its ninth album, "Yacht on the Rocks"

The album immerses the group in the recent yacht rock craze, which targets songs from the most commercially successful genres of the mid-1970s to mid-'80s, such as soft rock, adult-oriented pop and even disco.

Among the disc's songs are the group's take on Rupert Holmes' "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)," Christopher Cross's "Sailing," Steely Dan's "Reelin' In the Years" and The Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes."

Courtesy

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Ashley White Public Relations

But perhaps its highlight is a medley of Toto hits, including "Hold the Line," "I'll Be Over You," "Rosanna" and, of course, "Africa" — all sung with Toto keyboardist and singer (and songwriter), David Paich.

"It’s really, really ironic," Collins said in a phone call from a highway weigh station in the mountains of West Virginia, days into a tour that stops at Allentown's Miller Symphony Hall on Thursday, July 6.

"Basically the name of the album should have been ‘Jerome’s Dressing Room.’ This music, yacht rock music, is some of my parents’ favorite music of mine, and something I’ve been playing every time we’re on tour.

“And it’s an idea that I proposed to the group. I really think, in order to step out of ... being known as a Christmas group ... we were just trying to come up with something we thought could be, you know, nostalgic, fun and something new that we’ve never tried.

“So coming to find that all these anniversaries and things, it just was ironic. This was a concept idea that just came up, and we just wanted to give it a shot, see what happened.

"And lo and behold, here we are now — in the middle of Yacht Rock season.”

'Can't do yacht rock without Toto'

Rather than being prompted by the anniversary of "Holiday Spirits," the collaboration with Paich was initiated by him, Collins said. He said Paich simply showed up at a concert in California.

"He didn’t ask for tickets — he paid for tickets," Collins said. "He came to our [autograph] signing line. He stuck his hand out, ‘Hi, my name’s David. I wrote ‘Africa.’ That’s exactly how it went down."

Collins also said Paich also thanked the band for reinvigorating "Africa," which was Toto's only No. 1 song and sold 8 million copies when it was released in 1982. It got significant new life when Straight No Chaser used it in 2008.

"He said, ‘I want to thank you guys for really backing us [Toto],'" Collins said. "'But next time, why don’t you do a song that I fully wrote?’

“It was kind of like a cool moment, hanging out with a legend. ... He was, like, ‘Hey, I want to work with you guys.’ [We said] the honor would be ours if you’d like to work with us. That would be amazing. And he literally said, ‘Yeah, come on out to my home.’"

Collins said Straight No Chaser's nine members went to Paich's house "and did all the songs, walked though his home, looked at all his Grammys. I mean, his house is a walking museum. You just see all of the things, you’re, like, ‘Wow, this man, he did so much.’"

Collins said Paich also clearly enjoyed the experience.

"He didn't know anything about a cappella," Collins said. But "twenty-eight Grammys in his house, how do we tell a person like him?"

But "he was so receptive, he was so genuine. We were just bouncing ideas off each other. We were giving him music direction — ‘Hey, I think on this part, can you do this? Do this?’ And he just took it and did it."

Collins said he thinks that for Paich, who at 69 deals with health issues and no longer tours with Toto, "it was a throwback to when he started, when they were touring."

"It just reminded him of his day," Collins said. "He was just, ‘I’m loving it, I’m loving it. If you guys need anything from me, just let me know, I’ll gladly do it.’

“I think we have a friend for life, and nothing's wrong with having a legend as a friend.”

But the real payoff, Collins said, was having the Toto tunes on "Yacht on the Rocks." The songs in the Toto medley all were Top 5 hits and collectively sold 11 million copies.

“Look, you can’t do yacht rock without Toto,” Collins said.

Adding yacht rock to the mix

Much has happened since Straight No Chaser — the group also includes Forks Township native Walter Chase (who also is its musical director) — released “Twelve Days of Christmas,” which now has more than 30 million views on YouTube.

It signed a contract with Atlantic Records in 2008, and since has released nine full albums and five EPs — eight of which hit the Billboard charts.

But Collins said that after releasing another Christmas album, "Social Christmasing," in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, Straight No Chaser was looking to challenging itself again.

"I don’t think there’s any more Christmas songs we can do; we’ve done the whole gamut," Collins said. “This was just a chance to do something different. We wanted to challenge ourselves. This was a big challenge.”

Choosing to do yacht rock, Collins said, was “about taking people back to a place in time and life where that they didn’t realize that this music was cool — these were real men with perms. Like I like to call it, it was a lot of white soul.

“Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, Hall and Oates — a lot of those artists, it took me years to find out later that they were white," said Collins, who is Black. "That’s what was crazy for me; it was soulful music, it was good music.

“And I think people are having yearnings to hear this music again."

To make sure Straight No Chaser got the concept right, Collins said, they brought in Nick Niespodziani, a member of the popular band Yacht Rock Revue, to produce the disc.

“So we had our quintessential yacht rock master to tell us what was working," Collins said.

"He had been traveling for the last couple of years doing this music, so he was able to see what worked with the audience, what doesn’t work, what songs are quintessential yacht rock songs.

“It was a really, really great collaborative effort.”

Coming home again

Collins in recent years has made his home in Florida (Chase, the former Fork resident, now lives in Bucks County), and even Collins' parents have moved to Florida, though he said they'll be at the Miller Symphony Hall show.

But he said he still considers Allentown home, and he still has many friends and family members here — though he jokingly said he's sad his favorite restaurant, The Brass Rail, has closed.

“Allentown, Pennsylvania, will always be home, no matter where I’m living, no matter how long I’ve been living away," he said. "When I come home, it’s just a feeling — the goosebumps, the hairs on my back raise. It’s just a sense of normalcy.

“I have nothing but a lot of great memories growing up in Allentown, and I don’t think I would have wanted to grow up in any other place.
All the teachers, all the counselors, all the people who had an influence in my life, are still in Allentown.

“My heart is always in Allentown. It’s emotional for me to sing on that stage.”