Overview

• Lehrer was found dead on July 26 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at age 97.
• He rose to national prominence in the 1960s by contributing topical songs to NBC’s That Was the Week That Was, and his 1965 album That Was the Year That Was reached No. 18 on the U.S. charts.
• On his early self-released 1950s recordings, he tackled subjects such as militarism, drug addiction and sexuality with darkly comic songs like “The Masochism Tango” and “The Old Dope Peddler.”
• Despite his musical fame, Lehrer viewed himself primarily as a mathematician and taught at Harvard, MIT and the University of California, Santa Cruz for decades.
• Colleagues and fans have praised his pioneering satirical style and noted his 2020 decision to place his entire catalog in the public domain to ensure its ongoing influence.