50 Facts About Tom Lehrer

Thomas Andrew Lehrer is an American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, who later taught mathematics and musical theater.

Tom Lehrer recorded pithy and humorous, often political songs that became popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

Thomas Andrew Tom Lehrer was born on April 9,1928, to a secular Jewish family and grew up on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Tom Lehrer is the son of Morris James Lehrer and Anna Lehrer and older brother of Barry Waller Lehrer.

Tom Lehrer began studying classical piano at the age of seven, but was more interested in the popular music of the age.

Tom Lehrer attended the Horace Mann School in the Riverdale, New York, part of the Bronx.

Tom Lehrer attended Camp Androscoggin, both as a camper and a counselor.

Tom 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.

Tom Lehrer received his MA degree the next year and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

Tom Lehrer later taught mathematics and other classes at MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Tom Lehrer remained in Harvard's doctoral program for several years, taking time for his musical career and to work as a researcher at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory.

Tom Lehrer was drafted into the US Army in 1955 and served until 1957, working at the National Security Agency.

Tom Lehrer once stated that he invented the Jello shot during this time, as a means of circumventing the naval base's ban on alcoholic beverages.

In 2020 Tom 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, Tom Lehrer found himself in the position of implicitly using nuclear weapons work as a cover story for something more sensitive.

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

In 2001, Tom Lehrer taught his last mathematics class, on the topic of infinity, and retired from academia.

Tom Lehrer has remained in the area, and in 2003 said he still "hangs out" around the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Tom Lehrer subsequently granted Asimov permission to print the lyrics to "The Subway Song" in his book.

Tom Lehrer embarked on a series of concert tours and recorded a second album in 1959.

In 2013, Tom 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:.

In 1960, Tom Lehrer essentially retired from touring in the US The same year, he toured Australia and New Zealand, performing a total of 33 concerts to great acclaim and controversy.

Tom Lehrer's tours occurred during a time in which he was, he said, "banned, censored, mentioned in several houses of parliament and threatened with arrest".

Tom Lehrer performed several songs in Australia that were still unreleased, including "The Masochism Tango".

Tom Lehrer wrote a song satirizing rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who worked for Nazi Germany before working for the United States.

Tom Lehrer did not appear on TW3; vocalist Nancy Ames performed his songs, and lines were often cut from his songs.

Tom Lehrer later performed nine of these songs at the Hungry i nightclub in San Francisco, and this became the album That Was The Year That Was.

In 1966, BBC TV host David Frost returned to the UK with the BBC program The Frost Report; alongside Julie Felix, Tom Lehrer provided musical satire on the weekly subject.

Tom Lehrer was not featured in every edition, but his songs featured in an appropriate part of each show.

The record deal with Reprise Records for That Was The Year That Was gave Reprise distribution rights for his earlier recordings, because Tom Lehrer wanted to wind up his own record imprint.

The Reprise issue of Songs by Tom Lehrer was a stereo re-recording.

Tom Lehrer later commented that worldwide sales of the recordings under Reprise surpassed 1.8 million units in 1996.

The album liner notes promote his songs with self-deprecating humor, such as quoting a New York Times review from 1959: Mr Tom Lehrer's muse is "not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste".

Tom Lehrer toured Sweden, Norway and Denmark in 1967; his concert in Oslo was recorded for Danish television and subsequently released on DVD some 40 years later.

Tom Lehrer performed as a prominent international guest at the Studenterforeningen in Copenhagen, which was televised, and he commented on stage that he might be America's "revenge for Victor Borge".

Tom Lehrer performed original songs in a Dodge automobile industrial film distributed primarily to automobile dealers and shown at promotional events in 1967, set in a fictional American wild west town and titled The Dodge Rebellion Theatre presents Ballads For '67.

Tom Lehrer attempted to adapt Sweeney Todd as a Broadway musical, working with Joe Raposo, to star Jerry Colonna.

Tom Lehrer once mentioned that he performed a mere 109 shows and wrote 37 songs over 20 years.

Tom Lehrer's music became a staple of the Doctor Demento Show when it began national syndication in 1977.

Tom Lehrer was not initially involved with the show, but he was pleased with it; he eventually gave the stage production his full support and updated several of his lyrics for the show.

In 2000, the boxed CD set The Remains of Tom Lehrer was released by Rhino Entertainment.

In 2013, Tom Lehrer said he was "very proud" to have his song sampled "literally sixty years after I recorded it".

In October 2020, Tom Lehrer transferred the music and lyrics for all songs he had ever written into the public domain.

Tom Lehrer wrote in a letter to the producer Per-Anders Boquist that, "Not knowing any Swedish, I am obviously not equipped to judge, but it sounds to me as though Mr Ekborg is perfect for the songs", along with further compliments to pianist Leif Asp for unexpected additional flourishes.

From January 16 to February 25,2006, the play Letters from Tom Lehrer, written and performed by Canadian Richard Greenblatt, ran at CanStage in Toronto.

Tom Lehrer was a piano player and songwriter who wrote these grim, funny songs.

In 2024, Francis Beckett wrote a play Tom Lehrer Is Teaching Math and Doesn't Want to Talk to You, which features Lehrer's music and was performed with Lehrer's tacit approval at the Upstairs at The Gatehouse theatre in Highgate, London.

Performers influenced by Tom Lehrer's style include American political satirist Mark Russell, Canadian comedian and songwriter Randy Vancourt, and the British duo Kit and The Widow.

Tom Lehrer has been referred to as the "King of Satire" by fans.

Many of Tom Lehrer's songs are performed by others in That Was The Week That Was.

Two of Tom Lehrer's songs were reprinted, with his permission, in Mad magazine:.