Tom Lehrer, the influential musical satirist and educator, died on Saturday at his dwelling in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His good friend David Herder confirmed the information. Lehrer was 97.
Thomas Andrew Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928, to a secular Jewish household who lived on Manhattan’s Higher West Aspect. Lehrer started learning classical piano at 7 years outdated, however he realized early on he was extra eager about up to date widespread music. He shifted his focus to writing pop songs and present tunes, changing into a toddler prodigy, and by 15 he was learning at Harvard. Whereas at Harvard, he started writing comedian songs for his personal enjoyment and to entertain his buddies. However he studied arithmetic as an alternative of music, graduating magna cum laude. He self-released his debut album Songs By Tom Lehrer in 1953.
Lehrer started educating arithmetic at quite a lot of universities, together with Harvard, till he was drafted into the U.S. Military in 1955. He spent two years as a member of the Nationwide Safety Company, however he didn’t publicly reveal this data till 2020, as a result of the company’s existence was categorized on the time. His expertise on the military base impressed songs of his together with “The Wild West is The place I Need to Be” and “It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier.” (He additionally as soon as claimed to have invented the Jello shot as a option to get across the base’s alcohol ban.)
Lehrer returned to Cambridge and resumed a profession as a full-time educator. He taught at Harvard and MIT earlier than becoming a member of the college on the College Of California, Santa Cruz, combining his two passions by educating an introductory math course for liberal arts majors. He’d often carry out his songs within the class, a course he’d nicknamed “Math For Tenors.”
Although Lehrer solely launched two studio albums and infrequently toured, he accrued a cult following. His music was used continuously within the Physician Demento Present, and the British theater producer Cameron Waterproof coat produced a jukebox musical known as Tomfoolery based mostly on his songs; Lehrer didn’t have a lot involvement within the manufacturing, however praised it. Randy Newman, Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, and “Bizarre Al” Yankovic are just some of the songwriters who’d go on to quote Lehrer as a significant incluence on their work.
In 2020, Lehrer relinquished all his songs to the general public area. Revisit a few of them beneath.