OverviewAI-generated
Tom Lehrer (1928–2025) was an American male singer-songwriter whose professional career spanned from 1945 to 1998. His musical output is categorized by comedy and satire, with piano as a primary instrument. He is associated with works including *An evening wasted with Tom Lehrer*, *Poisoning Pigeons in the Park*, *Song Book*, *Remains of - features all Tom Lehrer's irreverant political satire*, and *If He Could Only See Us*.
Lehrer’s discography includes the quote, "Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize." He has an Erdős number of 4 and has been referenced by 290 other encyclopedia articles. His social media presence includes 24,000 followers, while Last.fm data indicates 289,893 listeners and 5,435,447 plays.
Synthesized by Vinony from 30 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, Firecrawl, Europeana Sparql, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Key facts
- Born
- Thomas Andrew Lehrer , ( 1928-04-09 ) April 9, 1928, New York City, U.S.
- Died
- July 26, 2025 (2025-07-26) (aged 97), Cambridge, Massachusetts , U.S.
- Education
- Harvard University ( AB , MA )
- Occupations
- Singer-songwriter satirist mathematician lecturer
- Genres
- Novelty satire comedy educational
- Instruments
- Vocals piano
- Years active
- 1945–1973 1980 1998
- Labels
- TransRadio Lehrer Reprise / Warner Bros. Rhino / Atlantic Shout! Factory Needlejuice Records
- Website
- tomlehrersongs .com
via Wikipedia infobox
Described at
Scientists mourn Tom Lehrer — nerdiest of singer-songwriters
The mathematician’s memorable satires are beloved by generations of researchers., The mathematician’s memorable satires are beloved by generations of researchers. The mathematician’s memorable satires are beloved by generations of researchers.
nature.com →Link to a page describing this subject · 12,667 chars · not written by Vinony
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Thomas
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- New York City
- Place of death
- Cambridge
- Occupation
- composer
- Educated at
- Columbia University
- Employer
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Religion
- atheism
- Field of work
- musical theater
- Genre
- stand-up comedy
- Instrument
- voice
- Record label
- Rhino
- Military branch
- United States Army
- Image
- Portrait of Tom Lehrer in c. 1957.jpg
Show 12 more facts
- date of birth
- 1928-04-09
- Commons category
- Tom Lehrer
- Erdős number
- 4
- member of
- Phi Beta Kappa Society
- start of work period
- 1945-00-00
- Commons Creator page
- Tom Lehrer
- maintained by WikiProject
- WikiProject Mathematics
- social media followers
- 24000
- name in native language
- Tom Lehrer
- date of death
- 2025-07-26
- end of work period
- 1998-00-00
Sources (9)
via Wikidata · CC0
Works in European collections
3 objects attributed to Tom Lehrer, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
~32 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Thomas Andrew Lehrer (/ˈlɛərər/ ; April 9, 1928 – July 26, 2025) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist and mathematician, who later taught mathematics and musical theater. He recorded pithy, humorous, and often political songs that became popular in the 1950s and 1960s. His songs parodied popular musical forms, often with original melodies.
Lehrer's early performances dealt with non-topical subjects and dark humor in songs such as "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park". In the 1960s, he produced songs about timely social and political issues, particularly for the U.S. version of the television show That Was the Week That Was. Lehrer quoted a friend's explanation: "Always predict the worst and you'll be hailed as a prophet." In the early 1970s, Lehrer largely retired from public performance to devote his time to teaching mathematics and musical theater history at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Tom Lehrer” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.