I recently found recordings of science songs by Tom Glazer. The quality is tinny, due to the originals being from the 50s and 60s and on LPs. That is a RECORD, for those of you younger than me.
They Might Be Giants remade a few on their Here Comes Science album and I found them... meh. The kids didn't enjoy them much at all. (TMBG just couldn't pass Barenaked Ladies - Snacktime in our charts.)
But play a few of the original Tom Glazers and they are captivated. Maybe it's the clearly audible fuzz in the recording. Maybe it's the hypnotic radio voice. Maybe it's the skill of the rhyme, or the awesome beat.
The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees
Alright, it is not really, and TMBG remade the song to reflect a more accurate science, but the newer words aren't as good for earworms.
The sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma
The sun's not simply made out of gas. No, no, no
The sun is a quagmire. It's not made of fire
Forget what you've been told in the past
I can totally sleep without that one in my head. But Tom Glazer's... I'll be singing it or one of his other 88 songs for the rest of my life and my kids will learn something useful, if not a little dated.
I LOVE YOU, MR. GLAZER! You've helped make my cookies a little more geeky.
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