American musician and satirist Tom Lehrer passed away at the age of 97, according to US media reports. Lehrer, who was a Harvard-trained mathematician, gained popularity in the 1950s and 1960s with his darkly humorous songs that often had political undertones. Modern comedians such as Weird Al Yankovich have been influenced by Lehrer’s work. David Herder, a friend of Lehrer, confirmed his death to the New York Times.
Lehrer was born in Manhattan in 1928 and was a classically trained pianist. Despite his musical success, he spent most of his life in academia, teaching at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of California. He graduated from the Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut at a young age and then attended Harvard, where he majored in mathematics and earned his bachelor’s degree in 1946. He also pursued a master’s degree at Harvard and started a PhD at Columbia University, but never completed it. While at Harvard, Lehrer began writing lyrics to entertain his friends.
Lehrer’s most famous songs include “The Elements,” which sets the chemical elements to the tune of “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera “The Pirates of Penzance.” Other popular songs of his include “The Masochism Tango,” “I Hold Your Hand in Mine,” “I Got It From Agnes,” and “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.” In 1953, he released the record “Songs by Tom Lehrer,” which became a word-of-mouth success and sold an estimated half a million copies. However, the BBC banned most of the songs from being played on the radio the following year.
After the success of his album, Lehrer began performing in nightclubs and at events for anti-war and left-wing groups. He also wrote songs for the US edition of the satirical British show “That Was the Week That Was,” which were later made into an album. Some of his most controversial songs include “The Vatican Rag” and “We Will All Go Together When We Go,” which criticized nuclear weapons.
Lehrer’s career also included writing for the educational children’s show “The Electric Company” in the 1970s and the musical revue “Tomfoolery” in 1980, which featured his work. From 1972 to 2001, he taught math and musical theatre courses at the University of California. In 2020, Lehrer placed his songwriting copyrights in the public domain, allowing anyone to perform, record, or interpret his work for free. He also relinquished all rights to his recordings and warned that his website would be shut down in the future, although it was still active at the time of writing.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv02yd2714o
