*** Tom Lehrer

SONGS & MORE SONGS

(Rhino)

Back in 1953, it took Harvard math teacher Tom Lehrer $15 and a few hours to record 12 of his playful but pointed satires. RCA passed on the 10-inch LP rather than offend its appliance customers, so Lehrer marketed it himself. He sold 370,000 copies.

Broadway, schmaltzy pop, Gilbert and Sullivan, and international folk melodies were his fodder in an era when humorists didn't kowtow to politically correct cries and Northern liberals thought racism was a Southern situation. Some may abhor Lehrer's liberties with rules of rhyming, but the 24 songs collected on this Rhino reissue make it clear why he was such a hit. Lehrer deals with minor and major foibles in cheerful, piano-backed ditties that detail drug dealing, poisoning our feathered friends, a religious serial murderess, and the pitfalls of kissing a severed hand. Lehrer the academic even found humor in chemistry's periodic table and, as the Cold War heated up, aimed his wit at the specter of world annihilation.

-- Bruce Sylvester