What do you think?
Rate this book
Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer with Not Enough Drawings by Ronald Searle by Tom Lehrer (1981) Paperback
The subversive songs of Tom Lehrer, the sardonic piano-welding fugitive from Harvard, have corrupted generations of Americans since he first began recording and performing in the 1950s. This book contains the words, tunes, piano accompaniments, and guitar chords for thirty-four classics.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
119 people want to read
About the author
Ronald Searle
177 books33 followersRonald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI, is an influential English artist and cartoonist. Best known as the creator of St Trinian's School (the subject of several books and seven full-length films). He is also the co-author (with Geoffrey Willans) of the Molesworth series.
He started drawing at the age of five and left school at the age of 15. In April 1939, realizing that war was inevitable, he abandoned his art studies to enlist in the Royal Engineers. He trained at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, currently Anglia Ruskin University, for two years, and in 1941, published the first St Trinian's cartoon in the magazine Lilliput.
In January 1942, he was stationed in Singapore. After a month of fighting in Malaya, Singapore fell to the Japanese, and he was taken prisoner along with his cousin Tom Fordham Searle. He spent the rest of the war a prisoner, first in Changi Prison and then in the Kwai jungle, working on the Siam-Burma Death Railway. The brutal camp conditions were documented by Searle in a series of drawings that he hid under the mattresses of prisoners dying of cholera. Liberated late in 1945, Searle returned to England where he published several of the surviving drawings in fellow prisoner Russell Braddon's The Naked Island. Most of these drawings appear in his 1986 book, Ronald Searle: To the Kwai and Back, War Drawings 1939-1945. At least one of the drawings is on display at the Changi Museum and Chapel, Singapore, but the majority of these original drawings, approximately 300, are in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum, London, along with the works of other POW artists.
Searle produced an extraordinary volume of work during the 1950s, including drawings for Life, Holiday and Punch. His cartoons appeared in The New Yorker, the Sunday Express and the News Chronicle. He compiled more St Trinian's books, which were based on his sister's school and other girls' schools in Cambridge. He collaborated with Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth books (Down With Skool!, 1953, and How to be Topp, 1954), and with Alex Atkinson on travel books. In addition to advertisements and posters, Searle drew the title backgrounds of the Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder film The Happiest Days of Your Life.
In 1961, he moved to Paris, leaving his family and later marrying Monica Koenig, theater designer and creator of necklaces. In France he worked more on reportage for Life and Holiday and less on cartoons. He also continued to work in a broad range of media and created books (including his well-known cat books), animated films and sculpture for commemorative medals, both for the French Mint and the British Art Medal Society.[2][3] Searle did a considerable amount of designing for the cinema, and in 1965, he completed the opening, intermission and closing credits for the comedy film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. In 1975, the full-length cartoon Dick Deadeye was released. Animated by a number of artists both British and French, it is considered by some to be his greatest achievement, although Searle himself detested the result.
Searle received much recognition for his work, especially in America, including the National Cartoonists Society's Advertising and Illustration Award in 1959 and 1965, the Reuben Award in 1960, their Illustration Award in 1980 and their Advertising Award in 1986 and 1987. In 2007, he was decorated with France's highest award, the Légion d'honneur, and in 2009, he received the German Order of Merit. His work has had a great deal of influence, particularly on American cartoonists, including Pat Oliphant, Matt Groening, Hilary Knight and the animators of Disney's 101 Dalmatians. In 2005, he was the subject of a BBC documentary on his life and work by Russell Davies.
In 2010, he gave about 2,200 of his works as permanent loans to Wilhelm Busch Museum Hannover (Germany), now renamed Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst. The ancient Summer palace o
He started drawing at the age of five and left school at the age of 15. In April 1939, realizing that war was inevitable, he abandoned his art studies to enlist in the Royal Engineers. He trained at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, currently Anglia Ruskin University, for two years, and in 1941, published the first St Trinian's cartoon in the magazine Lilliput.
In January 1942, he was stationed in Singapore. After a month of fighting in Malaya, Singapore fell to the Japanese, and he was taken prisoner along with his cousin Tom Fordham Searle. He spent the rest of the war a prisoner, first in Changi Prison and then in the Kwai jungle, working on the Siam-Burma Death Railway. The brutal camp conditions were documented by Searle in a series of drawings that he hid under the mattresses of prisoners dying of cholera. Liberated late in 1945, Searle returned to England where he published several of the surviving drawings in fellow prisoner Russell Braddon's The Naked Island. Most of these drawings appear in his 1986 book, Ronald Searle: To the Kwai and Back, War Drawings 1939-1945. At least one of the drawings is on display at the Changi Museum and Chapel, Singapore, but the majority of these original drawings, approximately 300, are in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum, London, along with the works of other POW artists.
Searle produced an extraordinary volume of work during the 1950s, including drawings for Life, Holiday and Punch. His cartoons appeared in The New Yorker, the Sunday Express and the News Chronicle. He compiled more St Trinian's books, which were based on his sister's school and other girls' schools in Cambridge. He collaborated with Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth books (Down With Skool!, 1953, and How to be Topp, 1954), and with Alex Atkinson on travel books. In addition to advertisements and posters, Searle drew the title backgrounds of the Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder film The Happiest Days of Your Life.
In 1961, he moved to Paris, leaving his family and later marrying Monica Koenig, theater designer and creator of necklaces. In France he worked more on reportage for Life and Holiday and less on cartoons. He also continued to work in a broad range of media and created books (including his well-known cat books), animated films and sculpture for commemorative medals, both for the French Mint and the British Art Medal Society.[2][3] Searle did a considerable amount of designing for the cinema, and in 1965, he completed the opening, intermission and closing credits for the comedy film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. In 1975, the full-length cartoon Dick Deadeye was released. Animated by a number of artists both British and French, it is considered by some to be his greatest achievement, although Searle himself detested the result.
Searle received much recognition for his work, especially in America, including the National Cartoonists Society's Advertising and Illustration Award in 1959 and 1965, the Reuben Award in 1960, their Illustration Award in 1980 and their Advertising Award in 1986 and 1987. In 2007, he was decorated with France's highest award, the Légion d'honneur, and in 2009, he received the German Order of Merit. His work has had a great deal of influence, particularly on American cartoonists, including Pat Oliphant, Matt Groening, Hilary Knight and the animators of Disney's 101 Dalmatians. In 2005, he was the subject of a BBC documentary on his life and work by Russell Davies.
In 2010, he gave about 2,200 of his works as permanent loans to Wilhelm Busch Museum Hannover (Germany), now renamed Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst. The ancient Summer palace o
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 28, 2025
Tom Lehrer, a mathematician and satirist whose musical influence peaked in the 1950s and '60s with his topical songs, died on July 26th. He was 97.
As a lonely, nerdy teen, I spent many a happy hour listening to The Dr. Demento Radio Show. Not long after I became a regular listener, I heard the greatest song ever - Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. I was astounded! The next day, I just had to tell my dad. He held up one finger in a "wait a minute" gesture, and disappeared into his den. Emerging with a triumphant grin on his face (probably due to the fact that he'd actually been able to find something in there), he handed me two well-worn record albums - Tom Lehrer Revisited and An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer. I couldn't believe it. My dad was already hip to the scene.
I've inflicted this man's music on practically everyone I know. My husband and sons know many of his songs by heart . . . whether they want to or not. The albums are still played. The songs are still sung in the shower where (hopefully) no one can hear me.
Despite his success, Lehrer gave up performing for good in 1967. Instead, he turned his focus to teaching for the remainder of his career, including jobs at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California.
This book includes most of Lehrer's classics, and includes piano accompaniments, and guitar chords for thirty-four songs, plus lyrics only to many more. As the subtitle suggests, there are indeed NOT ENOUGH drawings by Ronald Searle, though the ones that do grace the pages are delightful.
I think Lehrer himself said it best when he summed up his musical career with this line, "If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while."
If you've never heard any of the man's tunes, check out YouTube:
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuML...
The Elements
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3N...
We'll All Go Together When We Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIoBr...
As a lonely, nerdy teen, I spent many a happy hour listening to The Dr. Demento Radio Show. Not long after I became a regular listener, I heard the greatest song ever - Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. I was astounded! The next day, I just had to tell my dad. He held up one finger in a "wait a minute" gesture, and disappeared into his den. Emerging with a triumphant grin on his face (probably due to the fact that he'd actually been able to find something in there), he handed me two well-worn record albums - Tom Lehrer Revisited and An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer. I couldn't believe it. My dad was already hip to the scene.
I've inflicted this man's music on practically everyone I know. My husband and sons know many of his songs by heart . . . whether they want to or not. The albums are still played. The songs are still sung in the shower where (hopefully) no one can hear me.
Despite his success, Lehrer gave up performing for good in 1967. Instead, he turned his focus to teaching for the remainder of his career, including jobs at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California.
This book includes most of Lehrer's classics, and includes piano accompaniments, and guitar chords for thirty-four songs, plus lyrics only to many more. As the subtitle suggests, there are indeed NOT ENOUGH drawings by Ronald Searle, though the ones that do grace the pages are delightful.
I think Lehrer himself said it best when he summed up his musical career with this line, "If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while."
If you've never heard any of the man's tunes, check out YouTube:
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuML...
The Elements
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3N...
We'll All Go Together When We Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIoBr...
December 24, 2015
I put the songs in order on my i-device and listened along as I read the music. It was wonderful! If you don't know Tom Lehrer, I highly recommend that you look him up; I know there are plenty of videos on the interwebs. It's amazing (and somewhat sad) that the social and political commentary is still spot on after 50 years...
August 14, 2025
Much love to you, Professor Lehrer. Rest in peace. ❤️
August 21, 2020
The tempo instructions for the songs very much enhanced my experience.
"The Irish Ballad": Authentically
"Be Prepared": Trustworthily, loyally, helpfully, friendlily, etc.
"Fight Fiercely, Harvard": Loyally
"The Old Dope Peddler": Wistfully
"The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be": Westerly
"I Wanna Go Back to Dixie": A little too fast
"The Hunting Song": Blithely
"I Hold Your Hand in Mine": Tenderly
"My Home Town": Nostalgically
"When You Are Old and Gray": Liltingly
"The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz": Mit Schlag
"Poisoning Pigeons in the Park": Vernally
"The Masochism Tango": Painstakingly
"A Christmas Carol": Merrily
"The Elements": As fast as possible
"Bright College Days": Adagio, con brio
"She's My Girl": Torchily
"In Old Mexico": Immoderato
"We Will All Go Together When We Go": Eschatologically
"National Brotherhood Week": Fraternally
"MLF Lullaby": Wiegenliedig [lullabyily]
"The Folk Song Army": Earnestly
"Smut": Pornissimo
"Send the Marines": alla collo di pelle
"Pollution": Calypso
"So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)": à la Cohan
"Who's Next?": Disarmingly
"Wernher von Braun": Gently
"I Got It from Agnes": Infectiously
"Silent E": With ease
"L-Y": Rapid-L Y
"The Vatican Rag": Ecumenically
"The Irish Ballad": Authentically
"Be Prepared": Trustworthily, loyally, helpfully, friendlily, etc.
"Fight Fiercely, Harvard": Loyally
"The Old Dope Peddler": Wistfully
"The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be": Westerly
"I Wanna Go Back to Dixie": A little too fast
"The Hunting Song": Blithely
"I Hold Your Hand in Mine": Tenderly
"My Home Town": Nostalgically
"When You Are Old and Gray": Liltingly
"The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz": Mit Schlag
"Poisoning Pigeons in the Park": Vernally
"The Masochism Tango": Painstakingly
"A Christmas Carol": Merrily
"The Elements": As fast as possible
"Bright College Days": Adagio, con brio
"She's My Girl": Torchily
"In Old Mexico": Immoderato
"We Will All Go Together When We Go": Eschatologically
"National Brotherhood Week": Fraternally
"MLF Lullaby": Wiegenliedig [lullabyily]
"The Folk Song Army": Earnestly
"Smut": Pornissimo
"Send the Marines": alla collo di pelle
"Pollution": Calypso
"So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)": à la Cohan
"Who's Next?": Disarmingly
"Wernher von Braun": Gently
"I Got It from Agnes": Infectiously
"Silent E": With ease
"L-Y": Rapid-L Y
"The Vatican Rag": Ecumenically
February 4, 2019
Be warned, not all songs are appropriate. But Tom was one of my biggest influences in comedy and I LOVE playing his songs. Poisoning Pigeons, Pollution, The Hunting Song...classics
November 4, 2020
Back in the day when I studied voice I insisted on working up a few of these pieces and drove my voice teacher crazy singing them. Great stuff.
May 20, 2010
Of course, there's no such thing as too many songs by Tom Lehrer, whose career as an academic (mathematics) has interfered with his genius for satire.
May 1, 2023
Tom Lehrer never disappoints, and the illustrations suit his tone so well. Will be very happy when I can finally play these up to speed.
Read
January 9, 2010WHere else can you find the periodic table to the tune of "The Modern Major-General"?
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews