Tomorrow, April 9, Tom Lehrer will be 96

[oldbrownhat]

Tom Lehrer, b.April 9, 1928

Aside from his regular day job as a math prof., which continued after he largely gave up performing in the 1970s, he was a man with a song for just about everone.

Just a few:

Ornithologists: Poisining Pigeons in the Patk
Catholics (lapsed or otherwise): Vatican Rag
Chemists: The Periodic Table
Love/Music: The Wienerschnitzel Waltz
Mathematics/teaching: New Math; The Professor's Song
Academia: Bright College Days ("Ivy covered professors in ivy-covered halls")
Society scandal: Alma (Mahler/Gropius/Werfel)
Climate: Pollution
Umm....Kinks: The Masochism Tango
Palagiarism: Lobachevsky
Post-war remembrance: A Song for WW III
Military diplomacy: Send the Marines!
Post-WWII expediency: Werner von Braun

There's a list here, and lots on YooTooB.
In 2020 he transferred all his songs into the public domain.

Happy birthday, Tom

 

[Baxter6551]

I listened to his music with my parents in the 60s and have “that was the year that was” on CD. Great stuff. I had no idea he wrote so many songs !

 

[Rudi]

He was a regular on Dr. DeMento. Go Tom go!!

 

[Alk8944]

He will be 96 if he wakes up in the morning! No one is promised tomorrow, we will just have to wait and see.