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Composer Burt Bacharach was honored at Spring Sing on Friday.

They came from the Hill, from the apartments on Landfair Avenue and from their homes in their suburban neighborhoods. Some had waited over six hours in line for reserved seating, while others desperately tried to find an extra ticket for the sold-out event.

Whether it was because the Gershwin Award winner was rumored to be, as second-year mechanical engineering student Katie Reeves put it, “cooler than Jack Bauer and Chuck Norris” or anything else, about 5,000 people turned out for Spring Sing 2006. Braving the chilly weather, the crowd filled the Los Angeles Tennis Center with the soft blue light of glow stick necklaces in anticipation of one of UCLA’s oldest traditions.

The wide array of talent kept the audience captivated during the show. The UCLA Affiliates Award winner for best production entry, Chi Omega and Alpha Gamma Omega with “When Joe Met Josie,” featured a humorous musical rendition of a dating show in which Joe Bruin met Josie Bruin. The other group entries proclaimed Bruin pride as well, such as Kappa Delta and Delta Tau Delta’s “Freaky Friday: Campus Crossover,” in which a North Campus student and a South Campus student switched places.

Talent was not lacking in any of the other categories. The ScatterTones performed “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from “Mulan,” complete with matching karate outfits, and Awaken A Cappella energetically performed “Listen to the Voices.” But it was Random Voices who won for best a cappella entry with its haunting rendition of the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams.”

Despite being the last performers, Kevin Carey and the Quest Band took the award for best band entry for their song, “It’s Good to Be With You.” The winner for best solo entry was Stacey Capoot. Her song, “Dirt,” had the audience smiling, especially with the line “You’re dirt / and that’s why I dig you.” Last year’s best overall winner, Willie Chase, managed to win the honorable mention category with Jeremy Pagan for their performance of “Lying Feet.”

But it was Mikey G and Dan from Danville who were the big winners of the night. Winning both the best duet entry and the best overall entry, Mikey G and Dan from Danville proved themselves to be UCLA favorites when they received a standing ovation and loud cheers after performing their song, “Cast Away.”

Beginning with its “24” spoof in which they introduced the members of the group, Company kept the audience laughing between set changes. Company provided entertainment by poking fun at typical UCLA stereotypes and experiences, proving that nothing was a taboo subject.

Company’s skits ranged from the joys of being trapped with fellow Bruins in an elevator in the dorms to the fanatical members of the Den. Proving that Company could do more than act, some of the set changes were aided by musical numbers, such as “It’s a Hard Jock Life,” which mockingly brought up the trials and tribulations of student-athletes, while others included juggling fire, as was seen in a skit about a mysterious box found in the tunnel system of UCLA.

On top of all this, Company created video spoofs of popular movies, such as “Brokeback Fountain,” the tale of forbidden love between an English student and a chemistry student, and “The March of the Trojans,” the story of the journey that USC students have to make in order to get Diddy Riese in Westwood.

To make the night even more complete, the audience was treated to a special performance by the legendary Burt Bacharach, who composed 48 top 10 hits and nine No. 1 hits, including “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” and “That’s What Friends Are For.” Bacharach was the 2006 Gershwin Award winner.

In his acceptance speech, Bacharach mentioned that in order to win the Gershwin Award, one must have had attended UCLA at one point and time. Bacharach said that he attended summer school at UCLA and stayed in one of the fraternity houses on Gayley Avenue, but admitted he only went to two classes since they interfered with “going to the beach and going to the race tracks.”

– Michelle Castillo

E-mail Castillo at mcastillo@media.ucla.edu.