Tom Lehrer

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comedy, satire, humor, piano, funny… see all

Thomas Andrew “Tom” Lehrer (born 9 April 1928) is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater.

Before attending college, Lehrer graduated from the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. As an undergraduate student at Harvard University, he began to write comic songs to entertain his friends, including “Fight Fiercely, Harvard” (1945). Those songs later became (in a joking reference to a leading scientific journal, The Physical Review) The Physical Revue. Influenced mainly by musical theater, his style consisted of parodying then-current forms of popular song. For example, his appreciation of list songs led him to set the names of the chemical elements to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Major-General’s Song”.

Inspired by the success of his performances of his songs, he paid for some studio time to record an album, Songs By Tom Lehrer, which he sold by mail order. Self-published and unpromoted, the album, which included the macabre (“I Hold Your Hand In Mine”), the mildly risqué (“Be Prepared”), and the mathematical (“Lobachevsky”), became a success via word of mouth. With a cult hit, he embarked on a series of concert tours and released a second album, which came in two versions: the songs were the same but More Songs by Tom Lehrer was studio-recorded, while An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer was recorded live in concert.

That Was the Year that Was
Tom Lehrer
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An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
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Tom Lehrer in Concert
Tom Lehrer
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Songs & More Songs by Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
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Top Tracks

1	Poisoning Pigeons in the Park	114
2	The Vatican Rag	111
3	National Brotherhood Week	103
4	New Math	102
5	The Elements	96
6	Send the Marines	89
7	Pollution	87
8	Wernher Von Braun	82
9	Smut	80
10	The Masochism Tango	64
11	The Folk Song Army	63
12	Oedipus Rex	60
13	MLF Lullaby	57
14	We Will All Go Together When We Go	51
15	I Hold Your Hand in Mine	49

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lucindalight wrote:
last week

Yay! we have Poisoning Pigeons! Now, may we please have I Hold Your Hand in Mine...? I'll grovel.

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gshgsh wrote:
last month

Genius, pure genius!

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lucindalight wrote:
last month

The elements song is really helpful to actually learn the elements, apart from being damn funny! We want more, especially Poisoning Pigeons in a playable form...

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violett-violett wrote:
August 2008

I found him only yesterday, he's amazing, isn't he?

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SilvaInk wrote:
August 2008

pure genius! this guy is a legend...

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a-lethe-ia wrote:
July 2008

wonderful.nest political satire. ist sad that his themes ar actual

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dafluke wrote:
July 2008

I'm so amazed by the elements song.

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universanna wrote:
June 2008

Let's claim him the official antidepressiv drug! Actualy works!

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lokiismyhomie wrote:
April 2008

Knowing The Elements song by heart helped me immensely way back in high school chemistry class :P

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salamndstron wrote:
April 2008

I love this guy and what he does. I have grown up listening to him and have fond memories with his music. Check one of them out here. http://jamsbio.com/index.php?page=memory&memoryId=c340e4b417f499ea0117f593e25f0019

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MagicalKiara wrote:
April 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

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pushbuttonmagic wrote:
April 2008

One man deserves the credit, one man deserves the blame and Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name HEY!

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sankatze wrote:
March 2008

Wow, he's the American Georg Kreisler! Gehmer Tauben vergiften im Park...

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Vanderdecken wrote:
March 2008

Nobody else even comes close. People are amazed when I tell them he's still alive. Remember to celebrate his 80th birthday on April 9th this year!

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Ealasaida wrote:
February 2008

I just found out one of my friend's grandfather was his college roommate...what a time that must have been! I love his stuff, as do my dad, granddad, and as did my great-granddad (tho he's no longer around to speak for himself)

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polexiaomg wrote:
February 2008

my friend is obbsesed with this dude O.o

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au_vagabond wrote:
February 2008

Tom Lehrer=My hero. and interestingly my grandpa's hero. I hold your hand in mine is the greatest, you can almost see him staring crazily at his audience. Now every time I kiss your hand, I get bloodstains on my tie. Respect.

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Melexion wrote:
January 2008

Brilliant stuff.

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alexarne wrote:
December 2007

spread the good word wherever you are. sharp mind or what!!

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robram wrote:
December 2007

The man can get 'genuflect' and 'transubstantiate' into a song AND make it funny. Sad that he stopped so young

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Recent Activity

zeroatthebone, harry-rag, PFreeman008 and 12 other people added Tom Lehrer to their libraries. 4 hours ago
DJ-Tholi tagged Tom Lehrer with ‘pop’. Sunday evening
sarahmichelef, ZOAB, markmc86 and 13 other people added Tom Lehrer to their libraries. last week
tgabbycadabra tagged Tom Lehrer with ‘comedy’ and ‘funny’. last week
msclifford, anonisherex, spigelwii and 19 other people added Tom Lehrer to their libraries. last month
coolcat77 connected Tom Lehrer to the group OMG there's no god. August 2008
PCProdigy, jerryconway, BadQuanta and 6 other people added Tom Lehrer to their libraries. August 2008
IKRU tagged Tom Lehrer with ‘comedy’ and ‘satire’. August 2008
Vortling, zamest, darknephilim and 5 other people added Tom Lehrer to their libraries. August 2008
spearbunny tagged Tom Lehrer with ‘humor’, ‘satire’ and ‘comedy’. August 2008