NRR Project: 'Songs by Tom Lehrer' (Jan. 22, 1953)

NRR Project: “Songs by Tom Lehrer”

Composed and performed by Tom Lehrer

Recorded Jan. 22, 1953

23:18

Tom Lehrer (1928-2025) was a genius. With an unerring ear for parody, he composed and performed humorous songs that shocked many and pleased many more. This initial album by him marks the birth of “sick” humor in the United States, a classification that would eventually include many comics of the 1950s, including Lenny Bruce, MAD magazine, Jules Feiffer, Charles Addams, and Nichols and May.

Lehrer was a Harvard student, majoring in mathematics, when he went into a studio and paid $15 to record himself singing 12 songs that he had been performing around campus for a couple of years. An initial pressing of 400 sold out, then 400 more. Finally the album was re-recorded and reissued, and sold strongly across the U.S.

Lehrer, a fan as a boy of musical theater, had the ability to mimic popular song styles to a T. Within his lively, catchy musical expeditions were couched lyrics that were snappy, incisive – and grim. Try these from his “My Home Town”: 

I really have a yen
To go back once again
Back to the place where no one wears a frown
To see once more those super-special just plain folks
In my home town

No fellow could ignore
The little girl next door
She sure looked sweet in her first evening gown
Now there's a charge for what she used to give for free
In my home town

I remember Dan
The druggist on the corner,
He was never mean or ornery
He was swell
He killed his mother-in-law and ground her up real well
And sprinkled just a bit
Over each banana split

The guy that taught us math
Who never took a bath

Acquired a certain measure of renown
And after school he sold the most amazing pictures
In my home town

That fellow was no fool
Who taught our Sunday School
And neither was our kindly Parson Brown
We're recording tonight so I have to leave this line out
In my home town

I remember Sam
He was the village idiot
And though it seems a pity, it was so
He loved to burn down houses just to watch the glow
And nothing could be done
Because he was the mayor's son

The guy that took a knife
And monogrammed his wife
Then dropped her in the pond and watched her drown
Oh, yes indeed, the people there are just plain folks
In my home town

Lehrer tackles school spirit with “Fight Fiercely, Harvard,” sings a sentimental song about “The Old Dope Peddler,” and makes fun of nuclear annihilation in “The Wild West Is Where I Want to Be.”

Lehrer immediately became a celebrity. However, fame didn’t suit him. After some short tours (he claims to have only written 37 songs and performed 109 shows in his sporadic 20-year career) he gave up writing and performing and settled down into teaching mathematics and the history of musical theater at the University of California in Santa Cruz.

He was simply done, satisfied with his accomplishments and unwilling to push farther. He enjoyed widespread admiration, and the regular playing of his songs, throughout his life until he passed away at the age of 97.

You really have to listen to his output to get a sense of how talented he was. Singing with gusto and sarcastic verve, he puts over his creations, as tuneful and witty as those of any songwriter in the Great American Songbook. He was just funny, that’s all.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Tipitina.