Canon

The sites have a variety of traditions as to which songs constitute the Canon.

Sites not listed below may or may not have well-defined Canons. If you know yours, add it! However, American Pie is played last at every CTY dance, regardless of site.

Lancaster

At Lancaster, the Canon is divided into two sections: the "High Holy Canon," which is played at every dance, and the "Low Canon," half of which is played at each dance (though everything is played at the last dance). Since Lancaster holds dances every Friday and Saturday, as well as the final Thursday, this means that each Low Canon song is heard once each weekend.

High Holy Canon:

• American Pie - Don McLean
• Forever Young - Alphaville
• Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
• Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
• In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
• Nightswimming - R.E.M.

Low Canon:

• Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
• Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
• Oh L'Amour - Erasure
• Rock Lobster - The B-52s
• James Brown is Dead - LA Style
• Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
• It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
• The Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Tunak Tunak Tun - Daler Mehndi

In 93.1, the RA DJs screwed things up by omitting some important songs at a dance on the first weekend. The following Monday, students circulated a petition demanding that the DJs play Bizarre Love Triangle, Rock Lobster, End of the World, Forever Young, and Pie at every remaining dance, without fail. Though the word "Canon" was not yet applied to this list, this is the author's earliest recollection of the concept being made explicit.

Every few years, there is a vote at Lancaster to put more songs on the Canon. Recent votes (in 2000 and 2003) have not added any new songs, though the High/Low status of some songs has changed. Although most of the things on the Lancaster canon are considered by most Lancasterians to be some of the best songs in the world, some of the newer ones have been disappointing. A vote 05.2 kept James Brown Is Dead as canon and made Daler Mehndi - Tunak Tunak Tun canon one year after kids from Dietz Hall made a CTY Lancaster specific dance.

Carlisle

The Canon at Carlisle consists of many (insert number here)disks, and is only played through in its entirety at the last dance. The songs are arranged in order of holiness.

The full list is too long to place here. See Carlisle Canon.

Skidmore

I would appreciate it if someone would contact the copyright owner for this page and ask for permission to appropriate the material. Otherwise, we could just paraphrase the information ourselves. Also, perhaps someone should verify to see if the information is current.

This list was primarily compiled by Jon Good ('97-'00), a quasi-cult figure among Skidmore CTY students.

• American Pie
• Stairway to Heaven
• Forever Young
• It's the End of the World (As We Know It)
• My Sharona
• Blister in the Sun
• Brown Eyed Girl
• Nightswimming
• Birdhouse in Your Soul
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
• Stand
• Time Warp
• Cecilia
• In Your Eyes
• Tunak Tunak Tun
• Love Shack
• American Music
• Bizarre Love Triangle
• Jump Around
• Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Particle Man
• Ice Ice Baby
• Can't Touch This
• Jump, Jive n' Wail
• Copo Cabana
• YMCA
• Tarzan and Jane
• Cotton-Eyed Joe
• Build Me Up, Buttercup
• Bohemian Rhapsody

Siena

Note: If someone could sort out the ones that aren't played second session, that'd be great.

Played at every dance/official real canon:

• Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
• Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
• They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople) -banned 2005.1 because running around holding hands is too dangerous
• Weezer - Buddy Holly
• Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe
• Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
• They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul
• Madonna - Like A Prayer
• Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
• The B-52's - Love Shack
• Rocky Horror Picture Show - Timewarp
• Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl

In particular these last four played in this order as the last four songs:

• R.E.M. - Nightswimming
• R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
• Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
• Don McLean - American Pie

Canon but not always played:

• Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes

Traditions but not canon:

• The Verve Pipe - The Freshmen
• Peter, Paul, and Mary - Leaving on a Jet Plane
• Battlefield Band - One More Chorus

Used to be canon or isn't actually canon and was on this page before this edit (somebody help with these...):

• Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
• The Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Origin of Love
• Divynls - I Touch Myself
• Eve 6 - Here's to the Night
• Corky and the Juice Pigs - I'm the Only Gay Eskimo
• Guns N' Roses - Paradise City
• Jon Bon Jovi - It's My Life
• Green Day - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)

Los Angeles

Played at every dance:

• American Pie - Don McLean
• Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
• Time Warp - RockyHorrorPictureShow Cast
• It's the End of the World (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants

Some of these songs are played at some dances and not others:

• Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - Green Day
• Brown-Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
• Cotton-Eye Joe - Rednex
• Graduation (Friends Forever) - Vitamin C

Interestingly, some of the High Canon songs at other sites are not played here. Most notably, Forever Young by Alphaville is not even on the site's computers.