Songs from Stranger Things (arr. Alan Billingsley): SSA Choral Octavo

Billingsley has a genuine gift for respecting pop and rock material while making it singable and dramatically effective for student choirs. The SSA voicing keeps the arrangement accessible to developing singers without sacrificing the signature sounds that made these Stranger Things tracks memorable, and his sense of dramatic pacing means students stay engaged from rehearsal through performance.

Atmospheric, mysterious, and propulsive all at once. Billingsley captures the eerie emotional core of Stranger Things while maintaining the propulsive energy that made these songs memorable, creating arrangements that sound modern and cinematic rather than simply translated from recordings.

Choirs with a mix of soprano and alto voices who want to program contemporary material that resonates with audiences of all ages. This works especially well for choirs seeking to expand beyond traditional classical or musical theater repertoire without sacrificing musicality.

• Balance the blend between the three voices carefully during the harmonic sections; SSA writing can blur if the soprano 2 line doesn't sit clearly above the alto part.
• Use the style of the original recordings as a reference point, but encourage your singers to own the phrasing rather than imitate. The material lands hardest when it feels like a choir performance, not a karaoke track.
• Pay attention to any key centers or modulations built into the arrangement; they often signal emotional turning points in the narrative of these songs.

Consider programming one or more selections alongside contemporary pop arrangements or as part of a themed concert exploring music from television and film. The 22 pages of material gives you flexibility to pull individual songs or work through several as a suite, making this especially useful for spring concerts or end-of-year celebrations.

• Singing in contemporary pop and rock idioms with stylistic authenticity
• Blending three-part SSA voicing with clear harmonic function
• Interpreting modern song structures outside traditional verse-chorus frameworks
• Responding to atmospheric and emotional cues in arrangement choices