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3d ago

Tom Lehrer, Pioneering Musical Satirist and Mathematician, Dies at 97

Friends confirmed his death in Cambridge on July 26, capping a career defined by incisive musical satire, sealed by a landmark 2020 decision to release his works into the public domain.

FILE - Musician Tom Lehrer sits beside the piano in his house in Santa Cruz, Calif., on April 21, 2000. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
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Satirist Tom Lehrer passed away at 97-years-old.
Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Overview

  • Lehrer was found dead at his Cambridge home on July 26 at age 97, as confirmed by longtime friend David Herder.
  • In 2020, he relinquished all copyrights, making his sharply satirical songs freely accessible in the public domain.
  • He self-published two seminal 1950s albums before writing weekly topical pieces for NBC’s That Was the Week That Was, later compiling them into a 1965 album that reached No. 18 on U.S. charts.
  • Opting out of public performance by the late 1960s, he served on the mathematics and musical theater faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz into his late 70s.
  • His darkly witty style paved the way for generations of musical satirists, inspiring figures from Randy Newman to “Weird Al” Yankovic and Harry Shearer.