An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer The lyrics of "The Elements" are a recitation of the names of all the chemical elements that were known at the time of writing, up to number 102, nobelium. It can be found on his albums "Songs & More Songs by Tom Lehrer" as well as "An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer". The song is sung to the tune of Sir Arthur Sullivan's "Major General's Song" ("I am the very model of a modern major-general...") from "The Pirates of Penzance". Since that time, 16 more have been discovered. At his concert in Copenhagen (1967), Lehrer admitted, "I like to play
An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer is an album recorded by Tom Lehrer, the well-known satirist and Harvard lecturer. The recording was made on March 20–21, 1959 in Sanders Theater at Harvard. The lyrics refer to controlling pigeons with strychnine-treated corn. In 1950s Boston, this was how the US Fish and Wildlife Service controlled pigeons in public places. The pianist hired for the studio-recorded album, "More of Tom Lehrer", fell off his bench when he heard the title. This song borrows heavily from "The Whiffenpoof Song", the traditional signature song of the Yale Whiffenpoofs.