Thomas Andrew Lehrer (/ˈlɛərər/; born April 9, 1928) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, who later taught mathematics and musical theater. He recorded pithy and humorous songs that became popular in the 1950s and 1960s. His songs often parodied popular musical forms, though they usually had original melodies. An exception is "The Elements", in which he set the names of the chemical elements to the tune of the "Major-General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance.
Tom Lehrer | |
---|---|
![]() Lehrer c. 1957 | |
Born | Thomas Andrew Lehrer April 9, 1928 Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
Education | Harvard University (AB, MA) |
Occupations |
|
Musical career | |
Genres | |
Instruments |
|
Years active |
|
Labels |
|
Website | tomlehrersongs |
Signature | |
![]() |
Lehrer's early performances dealt with non-topical subjects and black humor in songs such as "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park". In the 1960s, he produced songs about timely social and political issues, particularly for the U.S. version of the television show That Was the Week That Was. The popularity of these songs has far outlasted their topical subjects and references. Lehrer quoted a friend's explanation: "Always predict the worst and you'll be hailed as a prophet."[1] In the early 1970s, Lehrer largely retired from public performance to devote his time to teaching mathematics and musical theater history at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Early life
editThomas Andrew Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928, to a secular Jewish family and grew up on Manhattan's Upper East Side.[2][3] He is the son of Morris James Lehrer (1897 – 1986) and Anna Lehrer (née Waller; 1905 – 1978) and older brother of Barry Waller Lehrer (1930 – 2007).[4][5] He began studying classical piano at the age of seven, but was more interested in the popular music of the age. Eventually, his mother also sent him to a popular-music piano teacher.[6] At this early age, he began writing show tunes, which eventually helped him as a satirical composer and writer in his years of lecturing at Harvard University and later at other universities.[7]
Lehrer attended the Horace Mann School in Riverdale, New York, part of the Bronx.[2][8] He also attended Camp Androscoggin, both as a camper and a counselor.[9] Lehrer was considered a child prodigy and entered Harvard College, where one of his professors was Irving Kaplansky,[10][11] at the age of 15 after graduating from Loomis School.[2] As a mathematics undergraduate student at Harvard College, he began to write comic songs to entertain his friends, including "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" (1945). Those songs were later named collectively The Physical Revue,[12] a joking reference to a leading scientific journal, the Physical Review.
Academic and military career
editLehrer graduated Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from Harvard University, magna cum laude,[13] in 1946.[14] At Harvard, he was the roommate of the Canadian theologian Robert Crouse.[15] He received his MA degree the next year and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.[16] He later taught mathematics and other classes at MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.[17] Lehrer remained in Harvard's doctoral program for several years, taking time out for his musical career and to work as a researcher at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory.[18]
Lehrer was drafted into the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957, working at the National Security Agency (NSA). Lehrer has stated that he invented the Jello shot during this time, as a means of circumventing a naval base's ban on alcoholic beverages.[18] Despite holding a master's degree in an era when American conscripts often lacked a high school diploma, Lehrer served as an enlisted soldier, achieving the rank of Specialist Third Class, which he described as being a "corporal without portfolio".[19] These experiences became fodder for songs, such as "The Wild West is Where I Want to Be" and "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier".[20] In 2020 Lehrer publicly revealed that he had been assigned to the NSA; since the mere fact of the NSA's existence was classified at the time, Lehrer found himself in the position of implicitly using nuclear weapons work as a cover story for something more sensitive.[21]
In 1960, Lehrer returned to full-time math studies at Harvard.[8] From 1962, he taught mathematics in the political science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[22] In 1965 he gave up on his mathematics dissertation on modes in statistics, after working on it intermittently for 15 years.[2]
In 1972, Lehrer joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz, teaching an introductory course entitled The Nature of Mathematics to liberal arts majors—"math for tenors", according to Lehrer. He also taught a class in musical theater. He occasionally performed songs in his lectures.[11]
In 2001, Lehrer taught his last mathematics class, on the topic of infinity, and retired from academia.[23] He has remained in the area, and in 2003 said he still "hangs out" around the University of California, Santa Cruz.[24]
Musical career
editStyle and influences
editWhen You Are Old and Gray | |
---|---|
Lehrer c. 1958 | |
Lehrer was mainly influenced by musical theater. According to Gerald Nachman's book Seriously Funny,[25] the Broadway musical Let's Face It! made an early and lasting impression on him. Lehrer's style consists of parodying various forms of popular song. For example, his appreciation of list songs led him to write "The Elements", which lists the chemical elements to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Major-General's Song".[26]
In author and Boston University professor Isaac Asimov's second autobiographical volume, In Joy Still Felt, Asimov recounted seeing Lehrer perform in a Boston nightclub on October 9, 1954. Lehrer sang a song about Jim getting it from Louise, and Sally from Jim, "...and after a while you gathered the 'it' was venereal disease. Suddenly, as the combinations grew more grotesque, you realized he was satirizing every known perversion without using a single naughty phrase. It was clearly unsingable outside a nightclub." (The song was likely "I Got It From Agnes".) Asimov also recalled a song that dealt with the Boston subway system, making use of the stations leading into town from Harvard, observing that the local subject-matter rendered the song useless for general distribution. Lehrer subsequently granted Asimov permission to print the lyrics to "The Subway Song" in his book. "I haven't gone to nightclubs often," said Asimov, "but of all the times I have gone, it was on this occasion that I had by far the best time."[27]
Recordings
editWe Will All Go Together When We Go | |
---|---|
Lehrer c. 1958 | |
Lehrer was encouraged by the success of his performances, so he paid $15 (equivalent to $171 in 2023) for some studio time in 1953 to record Songs by Tom Lehrer. The initial pressing was 400 copies. Radio stations would not air his songs because of his controversial subjects, so he sold the album on campus at Harvard for $3, equivalent to $34 in 2023, while "several stores near the Harvard campus sold it for $3.50, taking only a minimal markup as a kind of community service. Newsstands on campus sold it for the same price."[28] After one summer, he started to receive mail orders from all parts of the country, as far away as San Francisco, after the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article on the record.[29] Interest in his recordings spread by word of mouth. People played their records for friends, who then also wanted a copy.[30] Lehrer recalled, "Lacking exposure in the media, my songs spread slowly. Like herpes, rather than ebola."[31]
The album included the macabre "I Hold Your Hand in Mine", the mildly risqué "Be Prepared", and "Lobachevsky" regarding plagiarizing mathematicians. It became a cult success by word of mouth, despite being self-published and without promotion. The limited distribution of the album led to a knock off album by Jack "Enjal" (a pseudonym of Jack Nagel) being released in 1958 without Lehrer's approval, where some of the lyrics were mistranscribed.[32]
Lehrer embarked on a series of concert tours and recorded a second album in 1959. He released the second album in two versions: the songs were the same, but More of Tom Lehrer was a studio recording and An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer was recorded live in concert. In 2013, Lehrer recalled the studio session for "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park", which referred to the practice of controlling pigeons in Boston with strychnine-treated corn:[33]
The copyist arrived at the last minute with the parts and passed them out to the band... And there was no title on it, and there was no lyrics. And so they ran through it, "What a pleasant little waltz".... And the engineer said, "'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,' take one," and the piano player said, "What?" and literally fell off the stool.[34]
Touring
editLehrer had a breakthrough in the United Kingdom on December 4, 1957, when the University of London awarded a doctor of music degree honoris causa to Princess Margaret, and the public orator, Professor J. R. Sutherland, said it was "in the full knowledge that the Princess is a connoisseur of music and a performer of skill and distinction, her taste being catholic, ranging from Mozart to the calypso and from opera to the songs of Miss Beatrice Lillie and Tom Lehrer."[35][36][37] This prompted significant interest in Lehrer's works and helped to secure distribution in Britain for his five-year-old debut album. It was there that his music achieved real sales popularity, as a result of the proliferation of university newspapers referring to the material, and inadvertently due to the BBC, which in 1958 banned from broadcast 10 of the 12 songs on the album.[38] By the end of the 1950s, Lehrer had sold 370,000 records.[2]
That Was The Week That Was
editIn 1960, Lehrer essentially retired from touring in the U.S.[2] The same year, he toured Australia and New Zealand, performing a total of 33 concerts to great acclaim[28] and controversy.[39] While in New Zealand, he penned lyrics critical of the All Blacks' upcoming tour of Apartheid-era South Africa and Prime Minister Walter Nash's stance on it.[40][41] Lehrer's tours occurred during a time in which he was, he said, "banned, censored, mentioned in several houses of parliament and threatened with arrest". In particular, "Be Prepared" drew advance resistance in Brisbane from the commissioner of police. He performed several songs in Australia that were still unreleased, including "The Masochism Tango".[24] In the early 1960s, he was employed as the resident songwriter for the U.S. edition of That Was The Week That Was (TW3), a satirical television show.[28]
National Brotherhood Week | |
---|---|
Lehrer performing in Copenhagen, 1967 | |
A greater proportion of his output became overtly political, or at least topical, on subjects such as education ("New Math"), the Second Vatican Council ("The Vatican Rag"), race relations ("National Brotherhood Week"), air and water pollution ("Pollution"), American militarism ("Send the Marines"), and nuclear proliferation ("Who's Next?" and "MLF Lullaby"). He also wrote a song satirizing rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who worked for Nazi Germany before working for the United States. Lehrer did not appear on the television show; vocalist Nancy Ames performed his songs (to Lehrer's chagrin),[32] and lines were often cut from his songs.[32] Lehrer later recorded nine of these songs on the album That Was The Year That Was (1965) recorded at the Hungry i nightclub in San Francisco.[42]
In 1966, BBC TV host David Frost returned to the UK with the BBC program The Frost Report; alongside Julie Felix, Lehrer provided musical satire on the weekly subject.[43] The show was transmitted live, and he pre-recorded all his segments at one performance.[42] Lehrer was not featured in every edition, but his songs featured in an appropriate part of each show.[44] At least two of his songs were not included on any of his LPs: a reworking of Noël Coward's "That is the End of the News" (with some new lyrics)[45] and a comic explanation of how Britain might adapt to the coming of decimal currency.[46] The record deal with Reprise Records for That Was The Year That Was also gave Reprise distribution rights for his earlier recordings, because Lehrer wanted to wind up his own record imprint.[32] The Reprise issue of Songs by Tom Lehrer was a stereo re-recording. This version was not issued on CD, as Lehrer was unhappy with this version.[42] The live recording included bonus tracks "L-Y" and "Silent E", two of the ten songs that he wrote for the PBS children's educational series The Electric Company. Lehrer later commented that worldwide sales of the recordings under Reprise surpassed 1.8 million units in 1996. That same year, That Was The Year That Was went gold.[30] The album liner notes promote his songs with self-deprecating humor, such as quoting a New York Times review from 1959: Mr. Lehrer's muse is "not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste".[47]
Lehrer toured Sweden, Norway and Denmark in 1967;[48] his concert in Oslo was recorded for Danish television and subsequently released on DVD some 40 years later.[49] He performed as a prominent international guest at the Studenterforeningen (student association) in Copenhagen, which was televised, and he commented on stage that he might be America's "revenge for Victor Borge".[50] He performed original songs in a Dodge automobile industrial film distributed primarily to automobile dealers and shown at promotional events in 1967, set in a fictional American wild west town and titled The Dodge Rebellion Theatre presents Ballads For '67.[28][51] He attempted to adapt Sweeney Todd as a Broadway musical, working with Joe Raposo, to star Jerry Colonna. They started a few songs but, as Lehrer noted, "Nothing ever came of it, and of course twenty years later Stephen Sondheim beat me to the punch."[52]
Departure from the music scene
editL-Y | |
---|---|
Lehrer performing at a fundraising event for George McGovern in Brattleboro, Vermont, 1972 | |
In the 1970s, Lehrer concentrated on teaching mathematics and musical theater, although he also wrote ten songs for the educational children's television show The Electric Company. His last public performance for many years took place in 1972, on a fundraising tour for Democratic US presidential candidate George McGovern.[2]
When asked about his reasons for abandoning his musical career in an interview in the book accompanying his CD boxed set, released in 2000, Lehrer cited a lack of interest, a disdain of touring, and the monotony of performing the same songs repeatedly. He observed that when he was moved to write and perform songs, he did and, when he was not, he did not, and that after a while he simply lost interest. Even though Lehrer was "a hero of the anti-nuclear, civil rights left" and covered its political issues in many of his songs and, even though he shared the New Left's opposition to the Vietnam War, and advocated for civil rights, he disliked the aesthetics of the counterculture of the 1960s and stopped performing as the movement gained momentum.[2]
Lehrer's musical career was relatively brief. He once mentioned that he performed a mere 109 shows and wrote 37 songs over 20 years.[53] Nevertheless, he developed a significant following in the United States and abroad.
Revivals and reissues
editLehrer's music became a staple of the Doctor Demento Show when it began national syndication in 1977.[54] In 1980, Cameron Mackintosh produced Tomfoolery, a revue of Lehrer's songs that was a hit on the London stage. Lehrer was not initially involved with the show, but he was pleased with it; he eventually gave the stage production his full support and updated several of his lyrics for the show. Tomfoolery contained 27 songs and led to more than 200 productions,[30] including an Off-Broadway production at the Village Gate which ran for 120 performances in 1981.[55] Lehrer made a rare TV appearance on BBC's Parkinson show in conjunction with the Tomfoolery premiere in 1980 at the Criterion Theatre in London, where he sang "I Got It from Agnes".[56][57] There were "Tomfoolery" performances in San Francisco about 1982 and in 2018–19. In 1993, he wrote "That's Mathematics" for the closing credits to a Mathematical Sciences Research Institute video[58] celebrating the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.
On June 7 and 8, 1998, Lehrer performed in public for the first time in 25 years at the Lyceum Theatre, London as part of the show Hey, Mr. Producer! celebrating the career of Cameron Mackintosh, who had produced Tomfoolery. The June 8 show was his only performance before Queen Elizabeth II. Lehrer sang "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" and an updated version of the nuclear proliferation song "Who's Next?".[59]
In 2000, Lehrer commented that he doubted his songs had any real effect on those not already critical of the establishment: "I don't think this kind of thing has an impact on the unconverted, frankly. It's not even preaching to the converted; it's titillating the converted ... I'm fond of quoting Peter Cook, who talked about the satirical Berlin Kabaretts of the 1930s, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the Second World War."[60]
Lehrer has said, jokingly, of his musical career: "If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while."[6] In 2003, Lehrer commented that his particular brand of political satire is more difficult in the modern world: "The real issues I don't think most people touch. The Clinton jokes are all about Monica Lewinsky and all that stuff and not about the important things, like the fact that he wouldn't ban land mines ... I'm not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirize George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporize them."[24] Earlier, he had said: "Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel peace prize."[61]
In 2000, the boxed CD set The Remains of Tom Lehrer was released by Rhino Entertainment. It included live and studio versions of his first two albums, That Was The Year That Was, the songs that he wrote for The Electric Company, some previously unreleased material, and a small hardbound lyrics book with an introduction by Dr. Demento. In 2010, Shout! Factory launched a reissue campaign, making Lehrer's out-of-print albums available digitally. The CD/DVD combo The Tom Lehrer Collection was also issued, including his best-known songs, with a DVD featuring an Oslo concert.[62]
In a February 2008 phone call, Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post interviewed Lehrer off the record. When Weingarten asked if there was anything he could print for the record, Lehrer responded "Just tell the people that I am voting for Obama."[63]
In 2012 rapper 2 Chainz sampled Lehrer's song "The Old Dope Peddler", on his 2012 debut album, Based on a T.R.U. Story. In 2013, Lehrer said he was "very proud" to have his song sampled "literally sixty years after I recorded it". Lehrer went on to describe his official response to the request to use his song: "As sole copyright owner of 'The Old Dope Peddler', I grant you motherfuckers permission to do this. Please give my regards to Mr. Chainz, or may I call him 2?"[34][64]
All songs in the public domain
editIn October 2020, Lehrer transferred the music and lyrics for all songs he had ever written into the public domain.[65][66] In November 2022, he formally relinquished the copyright and performing/recording rights on his songs, making all music and lyrics composed by him free for anyone to use, and established a website (https://tomlehrersongs.com) from which all of his recordings and printable copies of all of his songs could be downloaded.[67] His statement releasing all his works into the public domain concludes with this note: "This website will be shut down at some date in the not too distant future, so if you want to download anything, don't wait too long."[67]
Musical legacy
editIn 1967, Swedish actor Lars Ekborg, known outside Sweden for his part in Ingmar Bergman’s Summer with Monika, made an album called I Tom Lehrers vackra värld ("In the beautiful world of Tom Lehrer"), with 12 of Lehrer's songs interpreted in Swedish. Lehrer wrote in a letter to the producer Per-Anders Boquist that, "Not knowing any Swedish, I am obviously not equipped to judge, but it sounds to me as though Mr. Ekborg is perfect for the songs", along with further compliments to pianist Leif Asp for unexpected additional flourishes.[68]
In 1971, Argentinian singer Nacha Guevara sang Spanish versions of several Lehrer songs for the show/live album Este es el año que es.[69][70]
Composer Randy Newman said of Lehrer, "He's one of the great American songwriters without a doubt, right up there with everybody, the top guys. As a lyricist, as good as there's been in the last half of the 20th century."[34] Singer and comedian Dillie Keane has acknowledged Lehrer's influence on her work.[71]
Dr. Demento praised Lehrer as "the best musical satirist of the twentieth century." Other artists who cite Lehrer as an influence include "Weird Al" Yankovic, whose work generally addresses more popular and less technical or political subjects,[72] and educator and scientist H. Paul Shuch, who tours under the stage name Dr. SETI, and calls himself "a cross between Carl Sagan and Tom Lehrer: He sings like Sagan and lectures like Lehrer."[73] Yankovic saw Daniel Radcliffe (who called Lehrer his "hero")[74] perform "The Elements" on The Graham Norton Show in his native United Kingdom, which led to Radcliffe starring in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.[75]
From January 16 to February 25, 2006, the play Letters from Lehrer, written and performed by Canadian Richard Greenblatt, ran at CanStage in Toronto. It followed Lehrer's musical career, the meaning of several songs, the politics of the time, and Greenblatt's own experiences with Lehrer's music, while playing some of Lehrer's songs.[76]
In the March 16, 2006, issue of New York magazine, Donald Fagen of Steely Dan named Tom Lehrer among the writers who had influenced him and his songwriting partner Walter Becker. "We also liked comic songwriting, like Tom Lehrer. He was a piano player and songwriter who wrote these grim, funny songs."[77]
In 2010, the German musician-comedian Felix Janosa released an album with the title "Tauben vergiften: Die bösen Lieder von Tom Lehrer" ("Poisoning pigeons: The Evil Songs of Tom Lehrer"), with German versions of some of his best-known songs.[78]
In 2024, Francis Beckett wrote a play Tom Lehrer Is Teaching Math and Doesn’t Want to Talk to You, which features Lehrer's music and was performed with Lehrer's tacit approval at the Upstairs at The Gatehouse theatre in Highgate, London.[79][80]
Performers influenced by Lehrer's style include American political satirist Mark Russell,[81] Canadian comedian and songwriter Randy Vancourt, and the British duo Kit and The Widow. Composer/cabarettist Leonard Lehrman extended three of Lehrer's songs, writing a new verse 4 to "Clementine",[82] a new verse 2 to "Hanukkah in Santa Monica",[83] and a new verse 3 to "The Elements".[84]
Discography
edit- Studio albums
- Songs by Tom Lehrer (1953), re-recorded in 1966
- More of Tom Lehrer (1959)
- Live albums
- An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer (1959)
- Revisited (1960)
- Tom Lehrer Discovers Australia (And Vice Versa) (1960; Australia-only)
- That Was the Year That Was (1965)
- Compilation albums
- Tom Lehrer in Concert (1994; UK compilation)
- Songs & More Songs by Tom Lehrer (1997; US compilation of his first two studio albums with additional songs)
- The Remains of Tom Lehrer (2000)
- The Tom Lehrer Collection (2010)
- The Conducted Tom Lehrer (2023; Adds instrumental versions of four songs, with an additional song, 'Trees', that was never released before)
Many of Lehrer's songs are performed by others in That Was The Week That Was (Radiola LP, 1981).
The sheet music of many songs is published in The Tom Lehrer Song Book (Crown Publishers Inc., 1954; Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 54-12068) and Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer: With Not Enough Drawings by Ronald Searle (Pantheon, 1981, ISBN 0-394-74930-8; Methuen, 1999, ISBN 978-0-413-74230-8). A second song book, Tom Lehrer's Second Song Book, is out of print, ISBN 978-0517502167.
Publications
editThe American Mathematical Society database lists him as co-author of two papers:
- R. E. Fagen; T. A. Lehrer (March 1958). "Random walks with restraining barrier as applied to the biased binary counter". Journal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. 6 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1137/0106001. JSTOR 2098858. MR 0094856.
- T. Austin; R. Fagen; T. Lehrer; W. Penney (1957). "The distribution of the number of locally maximal elements in a random sample". Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 28 (3): 786–790. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177706893. MR 0091251.
Two of Lehrer's songs were reprinted, with his permission, in Mad magazine:[85]
- Tom Lehrer Sings "The Wild West is Where I Want To Be" (illustrated by George Woodbridge, MAD #32, April 1957)[86]
- Tom Lehrer's "The Hunting Song" (illustrated by George Woodbridge, MAD #35, October 1957)[87]
References
edit- ^ Ford, Andrew (July 8, 2006). "Tom Lehrer". The Music Show. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Radio National. Interview transcript.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Smith, Ben (April 9, 2014). "Looking For Tom Lehrer, Comedy's Mysterious Genius". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on November 29, 2021. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
- ^ Warren Allen Smith (2002). "Tom Lehrer". Celebrities in Hell. ChelCpress. p. 72. ISBN 9781569802144.
He responded: No one is more dangerous than someone who thinks he has The Truth. To be an atheist is almost as arrogant as to be a fundamentalist. But then again, I can get pretty arrogant.
- ^ "Spotlight: 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer resurfaces". HeraldScotland. November 2020. Archived from the original on February 12, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
- ^ "Tom Lehrer: An equal opportunity offender". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. May 31, 2000. Archived from the original on February 12, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
- ^ a b Liner notes, Songs & More Songs By Tom Lehrer, Rhino Records, 1997.
- ^ Jeremy Mazner. "Tom Lehrer: The Political Musician That Wasn't". Casualhacker.net. Archived from the original on September 30, 2019. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
- ^ a b Toobin, Jeffrey R (November 9, 1981). "Tom Lehrer". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on August 7, 2013. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
- ^ "The Elements by Tom Lehrer". Archived from the original on February 1, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
- ^ "MTArchive: A Song about Pi". Mtarchive.blogspot.com. September 22, 2013. Archived from the original on October 25, 2019. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
- ^ a b Lehrer performance excerpt, "Irving "Kaps" Kaplansky's 80th Birthday Celebration". 1997. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ "The Physical Revue, by Tom Lehrer". Ww3.haverford.edu. October 22, 2003. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ Toobin, Jeffrey R. (November 9, 1981). "Tom Lehrer". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ "Tom Lehrer Biography". Dmdb.org. Archived from the original on October 31, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ Burton, Anthony (Easter 2011). "In Memoriam: The Revd. Dr. Robert Crouse" (PDF). The Prayer Book Society of Canada Newsletter. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 24, 2016. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ Lynch, Peter (September 17, 2018). "Tom Lehrer: a comical, musical, mathematical genius". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ Cromelin, Richard (May 26, 2000). "Tom Lehrer's Playful Satire Still Delivers a Musical Punch". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 23, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
- ^ a b Boulware, Jack (April 19, 2000). "That Was the Wit That Was". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
- ^ Monologue self-introduction on Tom Lehrer Revisited.
- ^ Lehrer, Tom (May 23, 2000). "The Wild West is Where I Want to Be: spoken introduction". The Remains of Tom Lehrer. Archived from the original on November 18, 2021. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
- ^ Bernstein, Jeremy (2020). Quantum Profiles (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-190-05686-5.
- ^ Longley, Eric. "Tom Lehrer". St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. CBS Interactive Resource Library. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012.
- ^ Reynolds, Alan (April 1, 2013). "Whatever Happened to Tom Lehrer?". The American Spectator. Archived from the original on May 18, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ a b c "Stop clapping, this is serious". smh.com.au. March 1, 2003. Archived from the original on August 14, 2018. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ Nachman, Gerald (2004). Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s. New York, NY: Pantheon Books (published 2003). pp. 659. ISBN 9780375410307. OCLC 50339527.
- ^ "Tom Lehrer's 'The Elements' and 'Clementine' (1959) The Gilbert and Sullivan Discography". Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
- ^ Asimov, Isaac, In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1954–1978. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1980, p. 15.
- ^ a b c d Dr. Demento (2000). "Too Many Facts About Tom Lehrer". The Remains of Tom Lehrer (CD liner notes). Warner Bros Records.
- ^ Bernstein, Jeremy (1984). "Out of My Mind: Tom Lehrer: Having Fun". The American Scholar. 53 (3): 295–302. ISSN 0003-0937. JSTOR 41211046. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ a b c Jim Bessman. "Rhino Reissues Lehrer's Seminal 'Songs' Albums". Billboard. June 21, 1997.
- ^ Maslon, Laurence, Make Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America, Hachette Book Group, 2008, pg. 81
- ^ a b c d "An Interview with Tom Lehrer". Crazy College. Archived from the original on May 8, 2023. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
- ^ Faulkner, Clarence (May 1, 1999). "As It Was in Region 5, 1949–1964". The Probe. 200: 7. Archived from the original on March 31, 2020. Retrieved March 2, 2020 – via DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln, "City-wide pigeon control in Boston, MA using strychnine-treated whole corn".
- ^ a b c "Tom Lehrer at 85". BBC Radio 4. April 6, 2013. Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved September 24, 2019 – via The Public Radio Exchange. Alt URL Archived September 25, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ East Africa and Rhodesia. 1957. p. 493. Archived from the original on April 26, 2016. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
- ^ "The Kansas City Times from Kansas City, Missouri · Page 4". The Kansas City Times. Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press. December 5, 1957. p. 4. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
- ^ "British Pathé, quoted only "from Mozart to calypso"". YouTube. April 13, 2014. Archived from the original on November 18, 2021.
- ^ "Unfit for Auntie's airwaves: The artists censored by the BBC". The Independent. December 14, 2007. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ "Lehrer Dissected … | NZETC". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Archived from the original on February 4, 2019. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
- ^ Berry, John (April 16, 1960). ""Oh, Mr Nash," says Tom Lehrer". Auckland Star.
- ^ Berry, John (1964). Seeing Stars - A Study of Show Folk in New Zealand. Wellington: Seven Seas. pp. 75–78.
- ^ a b c Morris, Jeff. "Tom Lehrer Discography". Demented Music Database (dmdb.org). Archived from the original on May 8, 2023. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
- ^ "The Frost Report". BBC Comedy. Archived from the original on April 15, 2023. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
- ^ "Marty meets Tom". The Official Marty Feldmab. January 18, 2016. Archived from the original on May 8, 2023. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
- ^ The end of the news .. heh .wmv, May 25, 2011, archived from the original on December 23, 2022, retrieved December 23, 2022
- ^ "Lehrer Decimal The Frost Report - YouTube". YouTube. July 8, 2013. Archived from the original on December 23, 2022. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
- ^ Wilson, J. S. (February 9, 1959). "TOM LEHRER IN PROGRAM; Offers His Brand of 'Sick' Humor at Town Hall". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ "Songs by Tom Lehrer" (PDF). LOC.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 22, 2023. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
- ^ "Premiere Opera". Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
- ^ "The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel". YouTube. September 11, 1967. Archived from the original on June 28, 2013. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ "The Dodge industrial Film". The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel. Archived from the original on April 20, 2017. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
- ^ Nachman, Gerald (2003). Seriously funny the rebel comedians of the 1950s and 1960s. New York: Pantheon Books. p. 149. ISBN 978-0307490728. Archived from the original on August 17, 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
- ^ Andrews, Dale (April 9, 2013). "Tom Lehrer". SleuthSayers. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ Billboard Magazine pg 19. July 10, 1982, Vol. 94, No. 27 ISSN 0006-2510
- ^ Tomfoolery at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- ^ "The Tom Lehrer Collection (CD + DVD) : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". Dvdtalk.com. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ Tom Lehrer: I Got It From Agnes on YouTube—from "Parkinson" 1980
- ^ "Fermat's Last Theorem - The Theorem and Its Proof: An Exploration of Issues and Ideas". MSRI. Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco: Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. July 28, 1993. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
- ^ Tom Lehrer - Poisoning Pigeons In The Park (live, 1998). on YouTube
- ^ Thompson, Stephen (May 24, 2000). "Tom Lehrer Interview · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ Todd S. Purdom, " 'When Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize, satire died' ", The Guardian, July 31, 2000.
- ^ "Tom Lehrer: '60s Satirist Still Strikes A Chord". NPR. April 30, 2010. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ "Chatological Humor: A Tribute to Tom Lehrer". The Washington Post. February 12, 2008. Archived from the original on January 23, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ Prospero (October 17, 2017). "Who can fill the role of Tom Lehrer today?". The Economist. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
- ^ Sanderson, David (October 22, 2020). "Copyright-busting website is invitation to have a laugh with Tom Lehrer". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ Ho, Justin (October 21, 2020). "Satirist Tom Lehrer has put his songs into the public domain". Marketplace. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
- ^ a b "Tom Lehrer Songs". Tom Lehrer. November 1, 2022. Archived from the original on November 1, 2022. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
- ^ Liner notes (translation): Holmgren, Pontus (2002). Lars Ekborg i Tom Lehrer's Vackra Värld. Sweden: Amigo. Archived from the original on June 21, 2015.
- ^ "Nacha Guevara". TomLehrer.org. Archived from the original on February 19, 2015. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
- ^ Guevara, Nacha (1971). Este es el año que es. Argentina: Music Hall. Archived from the original on February 26, 2019. Retrieved February 26, 2019. Track list and lyrics (Spanish).
- ^ "The British Theatre Guide: Interview with Dillie Keane". Archived from the original on October 8, 2009. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
- ^ "Weird Al" Yankovic. "Weird Al's FAQs". Weirdal.com. Archived from the original on September 2, 2006. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
- ^ "SETI League executive director emeritus Dr. H. Paul Shuch". Setileague.org. Archived from the original on April 8, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
- ^ Daniel Radcliffe sings "The Elements" - The Graham Norton Show - Series 8 Episode 4 - BBC One, November 12, 2010, archived from the original on November 3, 2022, retrieved November 4, 2022
- ^ Gajewski, Ryan (March 19, 2022). "Daniel Radcliffe Says He Landed 'Weird Al' Role Due to Novelty Song He Performed for Rihanna". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on May 13, 2022. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
- ^ Ouzounian, Richard (January 29, 2006). "Letters From Lehrer". Variety. Archived from the original on November 11, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
- ^ Williams, Ben (March 16, 2006). "Influences: Donald Fagen". New York Magazine. Archived from the original on June 30, 2023. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
- ^ Tauben vergiften - Die bösen Lieder des Tom Lehrer - Felix Janosa | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic, archived from the original on November 11, 2021, retrieved November 11, 2021
- ^ "My songs spread like herpes, why did satirical genius Tom Lehrer swap worldwide fame for obscurity". The Guardian. May 22, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
- ^ O'Brien, John (May 30, 2024). "Tom Lehrer is Teaching Math and Doesn't Want to Talk to You". LondonTheatre1. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
- ^ "NewsHole". Holecity.com. March 5, 2000. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
- ^ 20230311 20 Clementine, March 25, 2023, archived from the original on May 1, 2023, retrieved April 30, 2023
- ^ 20170409 07 Hanukka in SantaMonica + GootYuntif, April 15, 2017, archived from the original on May 1, 2023, retrieved April 30, 2023
- ^ 04+202100601 The Elements Updated (2021), June 2, 2021, archived from the original on May 1, 2023, retrieved April 30, 2023
- ^ "Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site - Mad Magazine Contributors - Master List". madcoversite.com. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
- ^ "Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site - Mad #32". madcoversite.com. Archived from the original on November 16, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
- ^ "Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site - Mad #35". madcoversite.com. Archived from the original on November 16, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
External links
edit- "Official website". Archived from the original on May 21, 2008.
- Official website (Songs)
... Public Domain... This website will be shut down at some date in the not too distant future, so if you want to download anything, don't wait too long...
— Tom Lehrer, Disclaimer (Nov 26, 2022) - Tom Lehrer Topic's channel on YouTube Auto-generated by YouTube
- Tom Lehrer discography at Discogs
- Tom Lehrer at IMDb
- Free scores by Tom Lehrer at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- "Tom Lehrer" (podcast). Interview. Desert Island Discs. BBC Radio 4. July 18, 1980.
- Tom Lehrer and The Topp Twins - ABC Radio National (podcast). Interview. Conversation recorded in 2000, re-broadcast in 2021
- "Tom Lehrer" (PDF). Interview. Library of Congress. July 22, 2015.
... Joan Baez—whom I've never met—was asked in an interview if she sang lullabies to her baby. She said that doesn't work, but she sings "The Old Dope Peddler" to him and he goes right to sleep.