Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer was one of comedy's great paradoxes -- a respected Harvard mathematics professor by day, he also ranked among the foremost song satirists of the postwar era, recording vicious, twisted parodies of popular musical trends which proved highly influential on the "sick comedy" revolution of the 1960s. Despite an aversion to the press and a relatively small recorded output, Lehrer became a star, although he remained an enigma to even his most ardent fans; he rarely toured, never allowed his photo to adorn album jackets, and essentially retired from performing in 1965, leaving behind a cult following which only continued to grow in his absence from the limelight.
Lehrer was born April 9, 1928; even as a child, he frequently parodied popular songs of the day, and also learned to play piano. In 1944, he left New York City to study math at Harvard, earning his master's degree within three years and remaining as a graduate student through 1953. During his student years Lehrer wrote The Physical Revue, a collection of academic song satires staged on campus in January, 1951; an updated performance followed in May of the next year. He also sang his parodies at coffeehouses and student gatherings throughout the Cambridge, Massachusetts area; as demand for an album of his songs increased, he spent $15 on studio time to cut Songs by Tom Lehrer, a ten-inch record privately pressed in an edition of 400 copies.
The record sold out its entire run, and as the Harvard student body dispersed across the country for Christmas vacation, the disc spread ("like herpes," Lehrer joked) far beyond its intended local audience. Soon Lehrer was inundated with requests for copies from across the nation; after several re-pressings, Songs by Tom Lehrer sold an astounding 350,000 copies on the strength of tracks like "I Hold Your Hand in Mine" (about a man who cut off his girlfriend's hand in order to nibble on her fingertips), "Irish Ballad" (a buoyant romp about a killing spree), and "My Home Town" (concerning a place where murderers teach school and old perverts operate the candy store).
In 1955, Lehrer was inducted to serve in the Army, and was honorably discharged two years later. Finally, in 1959 he recorded a follow-up, More of Tom Lehrer, featuring "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" and "The Masochism Tango"; the same collection of songs were also recorded during a live performance at Harvard, and issued simultaneously as An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer. A tour of Europe followed, resulting in another concert collection, Tom Lehrer Revisited, which constituted live renditions of the tracks from the debut LP. However, controversial reactions to his "sick" comedy during a series of Australian performances prompted Lehrer to retire, and he returned full-time to his first love, teaching.
In early 1964, he resurfaced as a songwriter for the NBC news satire That Was the Week That Was. After the show's demise a year later, Lehrer recorded the material written for the program on an LP also titled That Was the Week That Was; the album, which featured his controversial "Vatican Rag," was the first in his contract with the Reprise label, which also agreed to reissue his earlier, self-released records. After re-recording Songs by Tom Lehrer to improve on the original master's poor fidelity, he again retired from show business to return to academia; however, his songs were played regularly on the Dr. Demento radio show beginning in the 1970s, and he became the program's second most requested artist of all time (behind Weird Al Yankovic). Lehrer's subsequent returns to show business were brief -- in 1972 he wrote a dozen tunes for the children's program The Electric Company, updated older material for a 1980 musical stage show dubbed Tomfoolery (produced by Cameron Mackintosh of Cats fame), and some years later agreed to write occasionally for Garrison Keillor. Lehrer continued to teach mathematics at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and at age 72 witnessed Rhino Records' 2000 reissue of his complete recorded works in the form of a three-CD box set titled The Remains of Tom Lehrer.
© TiVo
-
When You Are Old And Grey (Live)
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Diamond Days on 30 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Essential Tom Lehrer, Vol. 1 (Live)
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Top Tracks on 30 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tom Lehrer, Live Recordings
Humour - Released by Firefly Entertainment on 1 Oct 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
My Home Town (Live)
Humour - Released by Top Tracks on 30 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kings of Comedy Presents Tom Lehrer and George Formby
Humour - Released by Golden Sky Records on 30 Jan 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Selected Recordings (Live)
Humour - Released by Lumi Entertainment on 1 Feb 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Be Prepared, It's Tom Lehrer
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Lumi OMP on 8 Sep 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
My Home Town
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by MG1 on 30 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Wanna Go Back to Dixie
Musical Theatre - Released by Top Tracks on 30 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Have You Heard of Tom Lehrer, Vol. 1 (Live)
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Supreme Media on 30 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live in Concert
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Synergie OMP on 14 Apr 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tom Lehrer - Lobachevsky
Miscellaneous - Released by Digital World Contents S.A.S. on 13 Mar 1953
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Selected Recordings (Live)
Humour - Released by Supreme Media on 1 Feb 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
We're Listening to Tom Lehrer, Vol. 2 (Live)
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Top Tracks on 30 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tom Lehrer Sings, Vol. 1 (Live)
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Supreme Media on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tom Lehrer Live
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Lumi OMP on 3 Feb 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poisoning Pigeons In The Park (Live)
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Mile End on 5 May 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sweet Reggae, Vol. 2 (Live)
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Mile End on 5 May 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Be Prepared (Live)
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Diamond Days on 5 May 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
We're Listening To Tom Lehrer, Vol. 1 (Live)
Humour - Released by Diamond Days on 5 May 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Musical Satirist, Vol. 2 (Live)
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Diamond Days on 5 May 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo