Before attending college, Lehrer graduated from the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. As an undergraduate student at Harvard University, he began to write comic songs to entertain his friends, including Fight Fiercely, Harvard (1945). Those songs later became (in a joking reference to a leading scientific journal, The Physical Review) The Physical Revue. Influenced mainly by musical theater, his style consisted of parodying then-current forms of popular song. For example, his appreciation of list songs led him to set the names of the chemical elements to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Major-General's Song".
Inspired by the success of his performances of his songs, he paid for some studio time to record an album, Songs By Tom Lehrer, which he sold by mail order. Self-published and unpromoted, the album, which included the macabre (I Hold Your Hand in Mine), the mildly risqué (Be Prepared), and the mathematical (Lobachevsky), became a success via word of mouth. With a cult hit, he embarked on a series of concert tours and released a second album, which came in two versions: the songs were the same but More Songs by Tom Lehrer was studio-recorded, while An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer was recorded live in concert.
Lehrer's major break into the United Kingdom came as a result of the citation accompanying an honorary degree given to Princess Margaret, where she cited musical tastes as "catholic, ranging from Mozart to Tom Lehrer". This produced significant interest in his works, and helped secure distributors for his material. Ironically, it was in the UK where his music ended up more popular due to the proliferation of university newspapers referring to the material, and the willingness of the BBC to play his songs on the radio (something that was a rarity in the USA).
By the early 1960s, Lehrer had retired from touring (which he intensely disliked) and was employed as the resident songwriter for the US edition of That Was The Week That Was (TW3), a satirical TV show. An increased proportion of his output became overtly political, or at least topical, on subjects such as pollution (Pollution), Vatican II (The Vatican Rag), race relations (National Brotherhood Week), education (New Math), American militarism (Send the Marines), World War III nostalgia (So Long, Mom, premiered by Steve Allen), and nuclear proliferation (Who's Next? and MLF Lullaby). He also wrote a song which satirized the alleged amorality of Wernher von Braun. A selection of these songs was released in the album That Was The Year That Was.
The record deal with Reprise Records for the That Was The Year That Was album also gave Reprise distribution rights for Lehrer's earlier recordings, as Lehrer wanted to shut down his own Lehrer Records. The Reprise issue of Songs by Tom Lehrer was a stereo re-recording. This version was not issued on CD, but the songs were issued on the live Tom Lehrer Revisited on CD instead.
There is an urban legend that Lehrer gave up political satire when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Henry Kissinger in 1973. He did say that the awarding of the prize to Kissinger made political satire obsolete, but has denied that he stopped doing satire as a form of protest, and asserts that he had stopped doing satire several years earlier. Another urban legend held that he had been sued for libel by the subject of one of his songs, Wernher Von Braun, and been forced to relinquish all of his royalty income to Von Braun. However, Lehrer firmly denied this in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. (He had also mentioned Frank Fontaine and Jerry Lewis in "National Brotherhood Week", in an uncomplimentary context, on the same album, but nothing resulted from that.)
When asked about his reasons for abandoning his musical career, he cited a simple lack of interest, a distaste for touring, and boredom with performing the same songs repeatedly. He has observed that when he was moved to write and perform songs, he did; when he wasn't, he didn't, and after a while the latter situation prevailed. It has been frequently observed that, though many of Lehrer's songs satirized the Cold War political establishment of the day, that he stopped writing and performing just as the 1960s counterculture movement gained momentum. Lehrer has stated that he doubts his songs had an impact on those not already critical of the establishment: "I don't think this kind of thing has an impact on the unconverted, frankly. It's not even preaching to the converted; it's titillating the converted... I'm fond of quoting Peter Cook, who talked about the satirical Berlin cabarets of the '30s, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the Second World War."
Lehrer's musical career was notably brief, stating in an interview in the late 90s that he had performed a mere 109 shows, and written 37 songs across his 20-year career. Nevertheless, the cult following that had grown around his music significantly bolstered the effect that he had on a global scale.
In the 1970s, Lehrer concentrated on teaching mathematics and musical theater, although he also wrote 10 songs for the children's television show The Electric Company. (Harvard schoolmate Joe Raposo was the show's musical director for its first three seasons.) In the early 1980s, Tom Foolery, a revival of his songs on the London stage, was a surprise hit. Although not its instigator, Lehrer eventually gave it his full support and updated several of his lyrics for the production.
On 7 June and 8 June 1998, Tom Lehrer performed in public for the first time in 25 years at the Lyceum Theatre, London as part of the gala show Hey Mr Producer! celebrating the career of impresario Cameron Mackintosh (who had been the producer of Tom Foolery). The 8 June show has been his only performance before the Queen. Lehrer sang Poisoning Pigeons in the Park and an updated version of "Who's Next". The DVD of the event includes the former song.
In 2000, a CD box set, The Remains of Tom Lehrer, was released by Rhino Entertainment. It included live and studio versions of his first two albums, That Was The Year That Was, the songs he wrote for The Electric Company, and some previously unreleased material, accompanied by a small hardbound book containing an introduction by Dr. Demento and lyrics to all the songs.
Lehrer celebrated his 80th birthday on April 9th 2008.
A Christmas Carol
Tom Lehrer Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
In order to get a song popular by christmas time, you have to start plugging it well in advance. so here goes. it has always seemed to me after all. that christmas, with it's spirit of giving, o
Us all a wonderful opportunity each year to reflect on what we all most sincerely and deeply believe in.
I refer of course, to money. and yet none of the christmas carols that you hear on the radio or in the street, even attempt to capture the true spirit of christmas as we celebrate it in the unit
Ates. that is to say the commercial spirit. so I should like to offer the following christmas carol for next year, as being perhaps a bit more appropriate.
Christmas time is here, by golly,
Deck the halls with hunks of holly,
Fill the cup and don't say "when."
Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens,
Mix the punch, drag out the dickens,
Even though the prospect sickens,
Brother, here we go again.
On christmas day you can't get sore,
Your fellow man you must adore,
There's time to rob him all the more
The other three hundred and sixty-four.
Relations, sparing no expense'll
Send some useless old utensil,
Or a matching pen and pencil.
"just the thing I need! how nice!"
It doesn't matter how sincere it
Is, nor how heartfelt the spirit,
Sentiment will not endear it,
What's important is the price.
Hark the herald tribune sings,
Advertising wondrous things.
God rest ye merry, merchants,
May you make the yuletide pay.
Angels we have heard on high
Tell us to go out and buy!
So let the raucous sleigh bells jingle,
Hail our dear old friend kris kringle,
Driving his reindeer across the sky.
Don't stand underneath when they fly by.
Actually I did rather well myself, this last christmas. the nicest present I received was a gift certificate "good at any hospital for a lobotomy". rather thoughtful.
Tom Lehrer's song "A Christmas Carol" is a satirical commentary on the commercialization of Christmas. With biting wit and sarcastic humor, Lehrer calls attention to the fact that the true spirit of Christmas has become overshadowed by the financial aspects of the holiday season.
Lehrer points out that Christmas is a time for giving, but instead of focusing on the joy of giving, he suggests that the real spirit of Christmas is all about money. He pokes fun at the commercialization of Christmas through lyrics like, "Hark the herald tribune sings, Advertising wondrous things. God rest ye merry, merchants, May you make the yuletide pay."
Lehrer also takes aim at the gift-giving culture of Christmas, suggesting that people often give gifts out of obligation rather than sincerity or generosity. He sings, "It doesn't matter how sincere it is, nor how heartfelt the spirit, Sentiment will not endear it, What's important is the price."
Line by Line Meaning
One very familiar type of song is the christmas carol. although it is perhaps a bit out of season at this time. however, I'm informed by my "disk jockey" friends - of whom I have none,
To get a Christmas song to become popular, we have to start promoting it in advance. Despite it being not the season, my DJ friends let me know about it, although I don't have any DJ friends.
In order to get a song popular by christmas time, you have to start plugging it well in advance. so here goes. it has always seemed to me after all. that christmas, with it's spirit of giving, o
To make the song familiar for Christmas, promotion has to begin many months earlier. Christmas is not just about giving but also about the spirit of money, which we all can deeply believe in.
Us all a wonderful opportunity each year to reflect on what we all most sincerely and deeply believe in.
Christmas provides an opportunity to reflect on money which is what we all most sincerely and deeply believe in.
I refer of course, to money. and yet none of the christmas carols that you hear on the radio or in the street, even attempt to capture the true spirit of christmas as we celebrate it in the unit
Money is the real meaning of Christmas, but none of the carols try to capture the commercial spirit, which is celebrated in the United States.
Ates. that is to say the commercial spirit. so I should like to offer the following christmas carol for next year, as being perhaps a bit more appropriate.
So here's a Christmas carol for next year, which captures the commercial spirit, and maybe it's a bit more appropriate.
Christmas time is here, by golly,
It's Christmas time, and it's exciting, by golly.
Disapproval would be folly,
It'd be foolish to disapprove.
Deck the halls with hunks of holly,
Decorate the halls with holly.
Fill the cup and don't say "when."
Drink without limit.
Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens,
Kill the birds for dinner.
Mix the punch, drag out the dickens,
Make the punch and get the Dickens book out.
Even though the prospect sickens,
Even if this prospect makes us feel sickened.
Brother, here we go again.
Here we go again, brother.
On christmas day you can't get sore,
On Christmas day, one must not get angry.
Your fellow man you must adore,
We need to adore our fellow man.
There's time to rob him all the more
And, there's more time to take advantage of him.
The other three hundred and sixty-four.
For the rest of the year.
Relations, sparing no expense'll
Family members won't mind spending money like water.
Send some useless old utensil,
Send some useless utensil as a gift.
Or a matching pen and pencil.
Or send a matching pen and pencil, which is equally useless.
"Just the thing I need! how nice!"
"How nice! Just what I needed!"
It doesn't matter how sincere it
Whether it's genuine or not does not matter.
Is, nor how heartfelt the spirit,
Nor how much the spirit was felt.
Sentiment will not endear it,
Sentiment won't help it become dearer.
What's important is the price.
The price of the gift is what matters.
Hark the herald tribune sings,
Hark! The Herald Tribune sings.
Advertising wondrous things.
Advertising amazing things.
God rest ye merry, merchants,
May God give you rest, happy merchants.
May you make the yuletide pay.
Make the Yuletide profitable.
Angels we have heard on high
We've heard angels up in the sky.
Tell us to go out and buy!
And they tell us to go out and purchase.
So let the raucous sleigh bells jingle,
Let the jingling sleigh bells be loud.
Hail our dear old friend kris kringle,
Greet Kris Kringle.
Driving his reindeer across the sky.
While he's driving his reindeers in the sky.
Don't stand underneath when they fly by.
Don't stay beneath them when they fly over.
Actually I did rather well myself, this last christmas. the nicest present I received was a gift certificate "good at any hospital for a lobotomy". rather thoughtful.
Actually, Christmas was good for me last year. The most thoughtful gift I received was a certificate for a lobotomy from any hospital.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: CHARLES IVES
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Isaac Mayer
The Droplett
Christmas time is here, by golly
Disapproval would be folly
Deck the halls with hunks of holly
Fill the cup and don't say when
Kill the turkeys, ducks, and chickens
Mix the punch, drag out the Dickens
Even though the prospect sickens,
Brother, here we go again
On Christmas Day, you can't get sore
Your fellow man you must adore
There's time to rob him all the more
The other three hundred and sixty-four
Relations, sparing no expense, 'll
Send some useless old utensil
Or a matching pen and pencil!
"Just the thing I need. How nice."
It doesn't matter how sincere it
Is, nor how heartfelt the spirit
Sentiment will not endear it
What's important is the price.
Hark, the Herald Tribune sings
Advertising wondrous things
God rest ye, merry merchants,
May ye make thy Yuletide pay
Angels we have heard on high
Tell us to go out and buy!
So...
Let the raucous sleighbells jingle
Hail our dear old friend Kris Kringle
Driving his reindeer across the sky
Don't stand underneath when they fly by!
Toshiro Dragon
Tom Lehrer is a national treasure.
Ann Bush
The most brilliant man of a generation, he combines Dorothy Parker’s caustic wit, Ogden Nash’s rhyming with his own high intellect and concert pianist level talents.
He has generously put these albums on the internet!
Sergei Ivanovich Mosin
I swear his songs will never stop being relevant
Michael Willis
This dude is both awesome/insane He was a mathematician by trade, and incidentally was brilliant at turning a tune.
oxyharmonic
I don't think he was insane in the slightest. this is the most sensible christmas song i've heard in ages.
6020e3
Fantastic. Tom Lehrer is such a brilliant satirist, too bad he is not known by too many people. You should also try Eric Idle's "Fuck Christmas", it always reminds me of Lehrer's song.
The Mad Librarian
Try "Christmas at the Airport" by Nick Lowe
Kathleen Ferguson
Wow. "Not too many people"?
I grew up on his music, and Everybody sang his stuff!
joyunicycle
My music teacher sang this and it was awesome to not only hear the audience of all ages laugh, but we were probably the only two in the whole building who knew who Tom Lehrer is!
Marcia Jacobs
Love him so much! Unbelievably brilliant!