Tom Lehrer, Satirist behind iconic political songs, dies at 97

Satirical singer-songwriter Tom Lehrer passed away at the age of 97. The artist, who was a favorite of 'Weird Al' Yankovic and Randy Newman, widely influenced the politics and society of '50s and '60s America.

According to Variety, he was found dead in his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Saturday, July 26, by his friends. Besides being a singer who self-released albums in the 50s, he worked as a mathematics professor, first at Harvard and later in his career at UC Santa Cruz. In one of his concerts, he told the audience,

“I don’t like people to get the idea that I have to do this for a living. I mean, it isn’t as though I had to do this. I could be making, oh, $3,000 a year just teaching.”

Who was Tom Lehrer?

Lehrer was a math prodigy who got into Harvard College at the age of 15 and graduated magna cum laude in 1946, and because of that, his musical career often took a backseat due to his success in his academic career.

He was born in New York on April 9, 1928. He began playing piano at a young age and recorded his debut album, Songs of Tom Lehrer, in 1953, which, though it did not top any charts, became a cult classic in the Boston area and sold 10,000 copies. After having success in the underground circuit, he finally started gaining recognition through his regular contributions to NBC’s That Was The Week That Was.

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But through everything else, his legacy lives on as a man who loved to question and challenge societal taboos through his songs, such as drug addiction (‘The Old Dope Peddler’), militant patriotism (‘It Makes A Fellow Proud To Be A Soldier’), nuclear proliferation (‘So Long Mom’), and more.

Lehrer never got married and didn't have any children that he left behind.

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