Tom Lehrer Biography

Tom Lehrer, born as Thomas Andrew Lehrer, is an American singer-songwriter and mathematician. He is known for his dark humour and satire. As a singer he often parodied popular songs and wrote controversial lyrics dealing with the social and political issues of his times. As a child, he used to receive classical piano lessons but gradually his interest shifted towards pop music. He began writing songs and tunes from a young age. Lehrer was a brilliant student; he earned his AB in mathematics from Harvard University at the age of 19 and his master’s degree the next year. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa Society—an academic honor society in the United States, which aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences—and taught at MIT, Harvard and Wellesley. He was a confident man who spoke his mind and never worried about political correctness. His songs often created controversy due to their dark, macabre and satirical nature, but he never bothered. He started writing funny songs while in college to amuse himself and his friends though he had no plans to become a musician. But his friends who greatly enjoyed his parodies and comic songs encouraged him to record them. Thus, he recorded his first album, ‘Songs by Tom Lehrer’ under his own label Lehrer Records in 1953. Lehrer was a comic paradox who successfully managed two seemingly unrelated careers—one as a mathematician, the other as a musician.