Tom Lehrer

Thomas Andrew Lehrer (; born April 9, 1928) is an American former musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, having lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy and humorous songs that he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. His songs often parodied popular musical forms, though he usually created original melodies when doing so. A notable 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''.

Lehrer's early musical work typically dealt with non-topical subject matter and was noted for its black humor in songs such as "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park". In the 1960s, he produced a number of songs that dealt with social and political issues of the day, particularly when he wrote 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." In the early 1970s, Lehrer largely retired from public performances to devote his time to teaching mathematics and musical theater history at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Early life

Thomas Andrew Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928 to a secular Jewish family and grew up on Manhattan's Upper East Side. He was the second and younger son of Moses James Lehrer (1898-?) and Anna Lehrer (née Waller) (1905-1978). 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.Liner notes, ''Songs & More Songs By Tom Lehrer'', Rhino Records, 1997. 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.

Lehrer attended the Horace Mann School in Riverdale, New York, part of the Bronx. He also attended Camp Androscoggin, both as a camper and a counselor. Lehrer was considered a child prodigy and entered Harvard College, where one of his professors was Irving Kaplansky, at the age of 15 after graduating from Loomis School. 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'', a joking reference to a leading scientific journal, the ''Physical Review''.

Academic and military career

Lehrer graduated Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from Harvard University, magna cum laude, in 1946. At Harvard, he was the roommate of the Canadian theologian Robert Crouse. He received his AM degree the next year and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He later taught mathematics and other classes at MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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.

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.
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". 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". 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.

In 1960, Lehrer returned to full-time math studies at Harvard.

From 1962, Lehrer taught in the political science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1965 he gave up on his mathematics dissertation on modes in statistics, after having worked on it intermittently for 15 years.

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.Lehrer performance excerpt,

In 2001, Lehrer taught his last mathematics class, on the topic of infinity, and retired from academia. He has remained in the area, and in 2003 said he still "hangs out" around the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Publications

The American Mathematical Society database lists him as co-author of two papers:

*
*
Two of Lehrer's songs were also reprinted, with his permission, in ''MAD Magazine'':

* ''Tom Lehrer Sings "The Wild West is Where I Want To Be"'' (illustrated by George Woodbridge, ''MAD'' #32, April 1957)
* ''Tom Lehrer's "The Hunting Song"'' (illustrated by George Woodbridge, ''MAD'' #35, October 1957)

Musical career

Style and influences

Lehrer was mainly influenced by musical theater. According to Gerald Nachman's book ''Seriously Funny'', 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".

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. I_Got_It_From_Agnes"..html" ;"title="Songs & More Songs by Tom Lehrer">I Got It From Agnes".">Songs & More Songs by Tom Lehrer">I Got It From Agnes".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." 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."

Recordings

Lehrer was encouraged by the success of his performances, so he paid $15 () 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, , 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."
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. Interest in his recordings spread by word of mouth. People played their records for friends, who then also wanted a copy.Jim Bessman. "Rhino Reissues Lehrer's Seminal 'Songs' Albums". '' Billboard''. June 21, 1997. Lehrer recalled, "Lacking exposure in the media, my songs spread slowly. Like herpes, rather than ebola."

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. 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:

Touring

Lehrer 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." This prompted significant interest in Lehrer's works and helped to secure distribution for his five-year-old debut album in Britain. 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
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