IN CONCERT

What: Straight No Chaser

Where: McPherson Playhouse

When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $38.50 (McPherson box office: 250 386-6121)

An amateur choir rockets from sorority party gigs to — get this — a five-album deal with Atlantic Records.

The way Chicago-based singer Randy Stine of Straight No Chaser tells it, this career trajectory was practically a fluke.

A fairy tale, almost.

Straight No Chaser, performing in Victoria on Saturday, is a 10-man a cappella choir. This instrument-free ensemble specializes in harmony-rich reinventions of pop hits such as Soft Cell's Tainted Love and Wonderwall by Oasis.

For its McPherson Playhouse concert, it's a sure bet the choir will sing (despite being out of season) the novelty song that started it all: The 12 Days of Christmas. In 2008, Straight No Chaser's performance video went viral, scoring six million views in three weeks. On the strength of this, the group was offered its multi-album contract and commenced a professional career that continues today.

Its arrangement of The 12 Days of Christmas — funny and beautifully sung — includes snippets of Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, Deck the Halls, Toto's Africa and I Have a Little Dreidel. The video, still posted on YouTube, is pushing 13 million views.

The curious thing is that an entire decade separates the YouTube success of the clip and the original performance. During those years, members of Straight No Chaser — formed in 1996 at the University of Indiana — had gone their separate ways. The college singers had become bankers, medical company salesmen, TV reporters.

Three years ago, Stine, a full-time sales rep for IBM, received a telephone call from a man professing to be the CEO of Atlantic Records. He had noted the clip's success. It was New Year's Day — Stine was recovering from the previous evening's festivities.

"I thought, is someone trying to play a prank on me? It certainly seemed too good to be true. A couple of days later I was in L.A. sitting at Spago with [Atlantic head Craig Kallman], discussing the potential of getting the group back together."

A week later, all members of Straight No Chaser flew to New York City on the record company's dime.

"We all thought, 'Oh, this was a fun little thing.' I doubt anything will come of it. But at least we'd get to have an all-expenses-paid reunion weekend in New York," Stine said.

Kallman was serious about signing the group. Straight No Chaser has so far released four recordings on Atlantic, the latest being With a Twist (2010). Its resumé includes a 40-show run at Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City and a 75-city tour of the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

The video of The 12 Days of Christmas, shot in 1998, captures the first time Straight No Chaser performed the piece in public following two weeks of rehearsals.

"We thought at the time, 'We think this'll be pretty funny. Hopefully, the crowd gets it.' "

The crowd did. Stine recalls celebrating with cast members backstage over the enthusiastic reception. He had hired a company to videotape the performance. However, the outfit immediately went bankrupt. It took Stine some effort to track down the tape — something he was determined to do, partly because he had already paid for it.

The recovered tape sat on his shelf for years unwatched because it was shot using an old Betamax format. Only when Straight No Chaser had a 10-year reunion celebration did Stine convert it into a computer-friendly format. He posted it on YouTube for the amusement of friends, it went viral ... and the rest is history.

Straight No Chaser is a full-time career for its members. Stine admits after Atlantic came knocking, some were hesitant about quitting their day jobs for showbiz.

"Who knew where this was going to go? Was it actually going to produce enough income for us to live on?"

In the pop and rock world, a cappella choirs are widely considered less than hip. However, with the popularity of television shows such as The Sing-Off (a competition for a cappella groups), American Idol and Glee, the act of standing up and belting it out may be gaining cachet.

Or so says Stine. He insists, deep down, we're all singers at heart.

"You'll be at a stop light and you'll see someone in the other car, singing along. Everyone sings in the shower.

"Everyone has that urge to perform," he said. "Now it's becoming more and more popular — and I guess cool — to sing."

achamberlain@timescolonist.com

Watch a YouTube clip of The 12 Days of Christmas at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8