Back in the days of the Garrens Comedy Troupe at BYU, I wrote a song in which I sang the names of all of the LDS Church’s current general authorities, all 100 or so of them. ‘Twas a big hit, back in the day. (The first performance of it was in early 1996.) But as Mormons are well aware, twice a year, at general conference, there are usually a few G.A.’s released and new ones called to replace them. So the song was always being updated.
The last update was for my second CD, in 2005. I’ve had no incentive to update “The General Authorities Song” since then because I haven’t been performing at all, much less for a mostly Mormon audience. But then I got word from some friends of mine that their children had been listening to the most recent recording, and were delighted by it, and have even memorized a lot of it (which, believe me, is no picnic). And they were greatly desirous that I should update it, particularly since several of the important names in the song have, um, died since the last revision.
So … I did it. Here’s the new version, accurate as of the most recent changes at the April 2009 General Conference. I slapped together a recording to send to my friends and their children, and you can listen to it too. Non-Mormons probably won’t recognize any of the names (well, except for Gary Coleman and Anthony Perkins, since those are also the names of famous actors), but even Mormons wouldn’t recognize a lot of them. Many of the men were called recently and haven’t done anything yet to gain notoriety in the LDS world. So I guess to the extent that the song is fun, it is fun because, well, there are a lot of names, and I sing them really fast. I guess.
