''Space Songs'' is an album in the "''Ballads For The Age of Science''" or "''Singing Science''" series of scientific music for children from the late 1950s and early 1960s. Songs were written by

Hy Zaret Hy Zaret (born Hyman Harry Zaritsky, August 21, 1907 – July 2, 2007) was an American Tin Pan Alley lyricist and composer who wrote the lyrics of the 1955 hit "Unchained Melody," one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century. Persona ...

(lyrics) and

Lou Singer Lou may refer to: __NOTOC__ Personal name * Lou (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lou (German singer) * Lou (French singer) * Lou (surname 娄), the 229th most common surname in China * Lou (surname 楼), the 269th most co ...

(music). "Space Songs" was released in 1959 by Hy Zaret's label "Motivation Records" (a division of Argosy Music Corp.) and was performed by

Tom Glazer Thomas Zachariah Glazer (September 2, 1914 – February 21, 2003) was an American folk singer and songwriter known primarily as a composer of ballads, including: "Because All Men Are Brothers", recorded by The Weavers and Peter, Paul and M ...

and

Dottie Evans Dottie or Dotty is a feminine given name or nickname (most often a short form of Dorothy) which may refer to: People * Dottie Alexander (born 1972), keyboardist for of Montreal, an American indie pop band * Dotty Attie (born 1938), American pa ...

. Other albums in the "Ballads for the Age of Science" series were: " Energy and Motion Songs," performed by Tom Glazer and Dottie Evans; " Weather Songs," performed by Tom Glazer and The Weathervanes; " Experiment Songs," performed by

Dorothy Collins Dorothy Collins (born Marjorie Chandler;
''

Nature Songs," and " More Nature Songs," both performed by Marais and Miranda.

Track listing

#"Zoom a Little Zoom" #"What is the Milky Way?" #"Constellation Jig" #"Beep, Beep" #"Why Does the Sun Shine?" #"What is a Shooting Star?" #"Longitude and Latitude" #"It's a Scientific Fact" #"Ballad of Sir Isaac Newton" #"Friction" #"Why Are Stars of Different Colors?" #"Why Do Stars Twinkle?" #"What is Gravity?" #"Planet Minuet" #"Why Go Up There?"

Space Songs in popular media

Isaac Asimov wrote an essay called "Catskills in the Sky" which appeared in the August 1960 issue of

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher a ...

. He tells an anecdote about his children receiving this album as a present. He liked the music so much, especially the song "Why Go Up There," that he appropriated the album for his own record collection. (And in the essay, gives reasons as why mankind should "go up there.") Japanese electronic music producer and DJ

Yoshinori Sunahara is a Japanese record producer and DJ from Sapporo, Hokkaido. He is a former member of Denki Groove. He was also a member of Metafive. Discography Studio albums * ''Crossover'' (1995) * '' Take Off and Landing'' (1998) * '' The Sound of '70s'' ...

sampled "Zoom a Little Zoom" in his song "Journey Beyond the Stars", which featured on his 1998 album Take Off and Landing. The song "Zoom a Little Zoom" has notably been used in the popular online vlog

Rocketboom Rocketboom was a daily vlog produced by Andrew Baron in the format of a newscast with a comedic slant. Since 2004 Rocketboom has presented oddities, vlog excerpts, social and political commentary. The Rocketboom weblog and Apollo Pony featured s ...

as its theme song. On September 27, 2005 episode of

featured the songs "Why Do Stars Twinkle?" and "Beep,Beep

The band

They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a d ...

has recorded cover versions of two Space Songs, " Why Does The Sun Shine?", and "What Is A Shooting Star? (A Shooting Star Is Not A Star)", as well as a reply to the former called "Why Does the Sun Really Shine?" which corrects scientific errors in the original. In 2008 Chloé Leloup, Miss LaLaVox und Achim Treu reworked the album under the title "The Space Songs - Ballads for the Age of Science". The album was released on the label Sopot Record

The lyrics of the first stanza of "Why Does the Sun Shine?" also appear verbatim in the book ''Stars: A Golden Guide'', apart from the omission of "its core is" before "a gigantic nuclear furnace".

References

External links

Information about the ''Singing Science'' seriesThey Might Be GiantsMen From Earth
authors of new songs about space.
Rocketboom
{{Authority control 1959 albums Children's music albums