Tom Lehrer Set the Periodic Table of Elements to Music—and It Worked

This musical Ivy Leaguer made a song out of a scientific building block.

by Rich Watson 

Last July, Tom Lehrer died at the age of 97. For much of his life, he was a teacher, of math and musical theater, but people knew him best for his satirical music, often about current events but mainly about things one first learns in the classroom. 

Who would imagine, for example, that someone, anyone, would take the periodic table of elements and put it to the music from a world-renowned opera?

Five Members of Spike Jones’s City Slickers

This wacky bandleader had a band full of (talented) oddballs like him.

by Rich Watson 

Spike Jones (not to be confused with Spike Jonze) was a bandleader and musician from the forties and fifties whose public persona was, in a word… odd. He wore the loudest suits, performed the weirdest songs, and led a band that was different from others of the era.

To put it mildly.

How “David Seville” Created Alvin and the Chipmunks

The story of the songwriter who, with a little audio experimentation, made an entertainment franchise.

by Rich Watson 

Cartoon musical groups were once very popular on Saturday morning TV: the Archies, Josie and the Pussycats, Jem and the Holograms, not to mention dozens of shows about teens who also happen to play in bands. Occasionally the songs you heard on their shows became hit singles, blurring the line between fiction and reality.

Alvin and the Chipmunks were unique in that they began as a novelty singing group that went on to animated success on TV and the movies.