Songs and parodies about science

Subject: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST,Fred Maslan
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 04:30 PM

I'm looking for songs and parodies about science, I know Tom Lehrer's periodic table and Mony pythons Universe, but there must be a gazillion more.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 04:37 PM

Would you consider the source of Lehrer's tune, Gilber and Sullivan's Major General song?

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: sapper82
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 04:45 PM

Did hear a take off of Ghost Riders in the Sky.
Had a chorus
Euripedese, and I'll ripedose,
And shove it up your quid quo pro!

Anyone else recall this one?

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Ned Ludd
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 04:55 PM

Les Barker's Science of unclear physics...C'mon L.T.S. You'll have the words.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 06:22 PM

I'm thinking more of the hard sciences, physics, geologly, astronomy etc.

and yes of course that is where the tune for the periodic table came from.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 06:22 PM

I'm thinking more of the hard sciences, physics, geologly, astronomy etc.

and yes of course that is where the tune for the periodic table came from.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 06:32 PM

Talking Atom Blues - Oscar Brand, Sons of the Pioneers et. al.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 06:41 PM

Not hard science enough?

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 07:06 PM

A few of us catters wrote a "Wild Rover" parody for the Mars Rover a couple of years ago. A forum search for "Mars Rover" should turn up the old thread.
                                 Sandy

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Ken Schatz
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 07:11 PM

Flanders and Swann: 'The First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics' from their album 'At the Drop of Another Hat.'

It's catchy. Here's a link to the lyrics: http://physics.about.com/cs/jokeoftheweek/a/flandersandswan.htm

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Ken Schatz
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 07:21 PM

I'm glad to see Science News is keeping active its page dedicated to Jonathan Eberhart. It includes the lyrics to his great song Solar Privateer (jargon-packed and still romantic, about solar sailing), among others:

http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/jonathan.asp

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Ken Schatz
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 07:28 PM

And then there's Frederick Winsor's 'The Space Child's Mother Goose':

http://www.purplehousepress.com/space.htm

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Stewart
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 07:46 PM

Hi Fred, I have a copy the "The Biochemists' Songbook" by Harold Baum. This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but I used to teach these songs to my biochemistry students when I used to be a College Prof., before I became an "unemployed musician" (by choice, now that I can afford it!). These songs were written by a U. of London biochem prof. "whilst travelling upstairs on the No. 22 bus between Putney Bridge and Manresa Road" for his Departmental Christmas Party. Most of them describe metabolic pathways such as...

"Battle Hymn of the Aerobes"

Mine eyes have seen the glory of respiratory chains
In every mitochondrion, intrinsic to membranes
Functionally organized in complex sub-domains
Where electrons flow along.
Glory, glory, respiration! 3X
Where electrons flow along.
(plus 7 more verses)


Or "Fatty Acid Biosynthesis" (tune: "Men of Harlech")

If you gobble tagliatelli
Chicken soup with bermicelli
You'll acquire a sagging belly
What's the use of that?
Guzzling beer till soporific
Possibly you'll feel terrific
But you'll end up fat.
Fat against starvation; fat for insulation;
If you sit hard you'll bounce on lard
Which substitutes in females for inflation.
Fat provides when you are needing
Glucogenic when you're seeding
Product of excessive feeding
Hail adipocyte! (plus 5 more verses)

They're all biochemically correct, but probably for a limited audience. You're welcome to borrow my copy. I also have buried away somewhere a whole file on chemistry- and biology- related songs and parodies.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 08:05 PM

Check the thread "Unified Field Theory"

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 08:15 PM

Sam Hinton MCed the Berkeley Folk Festivals back in the early Sixties. In real life, he was Director the Aquarium-Museum at the Scripp's Institute of Oceanography.

During the festival, I heard him sing this. It's to the tune of It's a Long Way to Tipperary:   

It's a Long Way from Amphioxus ^^^

Oh a fish-like thing appeared among the annelids one day
It hadn't any parapods nor setae to display
It hadn't any eyes or jaws or ventral nervous chord,
But it had a lot of gill slits and it had a notochord.

CHORUS:
It's a long way from Amphioxus
It's a long way to us,
It's a long way from Amphioxus
To the meanest human cuss.
Well, it's good-bye to fins and gill slits,
And it's hello lungs and hair,
It's a long, long way from Amphioxus
But we all came from there.

It wasn't much to look at and it scarce knew how to swim,
And Nerius was very sure it hadn't come from him
The molluscs wouldn't own it and the arthropods got sore,
So the poor thing had to burrow in the sand along the shore. (CHORUS)

He burrowed in the sand before a crab did nip his tail,
And he said, "Gill slits and myotomes are all to no avail,
I've grown some metoplural folds and sport an oral hood,
But all these fine new characters don't do me any good." (CHORUS)

He sulked a while down in the sand without a bit of pep,
Then he stiffened up his notochord and said "I'll beat 'em yet,
Let 'em laugh and show their ignorance I don't mind their jeers,
Just wait until they see me in 100 million years!" (CHORUS)

My notochord shall change into a chain of vertebrae,
And as fins my metoplural folds shall agitate the sea;
My tiny dorsal nervous chords shall be a mighty brain,
And the vertebrate shall dominate the animal domain." (CHORUS)

Unfortunately, I never got around to learning it, so I haven't worked out the chords, but considering the tune it's attached to, they shouldn't be hard to find.

Don Firth

Hmm. . . .   I wonder if I should post this on the "BS: Evolution is Heresy" thread……

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 09:45 PM

I don't know if you'd consider pharmacology a "hard" science (I thought it was pretty hard when I was a medical student), but here is The Formulary Song.

Oh, and there's a line missing in the DT version. The third line of verse 3 should be:

"There's Miltown, Motrin, Medrol, Maalox, Myleran and Miradon"

Aloha,
Mark

fixed. Thanx Marc. S of DT

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 10:11 PM

http://www.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 10:45 PM

to "Colonel Bogey March"

"Physics is what we learned in class.
Einstein said 'En-er-gy- is mass.
Newton is high-fa-lutin'-
And Pacsal's a rascal...so's Boyle"

"Trolley, he made the Trolley car,
Leyden, he made the Leyden jar-
Curie rides in a surrey-
And Diesel's a weasel...so's Boyle"

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 10:47 PM

Just on a hunch, I typed "science songs" into Google:

http://faculty.washington.edu/crowther/Misc/Songs/

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 10:52 PM

http://www.science-groove.org/MASSIVE/

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST,Ingrid Frances Stark
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 11:13 PM

A google search for "Dr. Jane Songs" might turn up some interesting stuff.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: SINSULL
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 11:25 PM

Alaska Mike's "Iditerod" fits the category.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 11:28 PM

Don, that's the song! The one that got me thinking about starting this thread. But I want more...more...HaHahahahhaa

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: open mike
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 11:29 PM

i do remember a thread we had a while back featuring two scientists
(physiscists?) who had an album or c.d. of songs used in university
classrooms?

or are the atoms of my brain dissapating??

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: open mike
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 11:38 PM

i can't find that reference..
but if you search for physics
this thread will come up..
What Do Physicists Think About??
along with some other musical ones.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST,reggie miles
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 12:40 AM

What about biology? Because if you'd consider this topic, here's one I put together called Grossosity which loosely hints at some of the grosser workings of our human anatomy. ;o) Enjoy!

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 01:27 AM

Also check out Tom Lehrer's "Lobochevsky," sometimes referred to by the subtitle "Plagiarize." It's a "how I succeeded in science" sort of thing, but apparently accurate for tenured academics. Academics of all kinds - including scientists should appreciate it.

His "Wernher von Braun" might also fit your description.

Both of these are more about "scientists" than about "science," but you can't have one without t'other.

John

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Splott Man
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 03:44 AM

NaCl by Kate & Anna McGarrigleis an Inter-elemantal love song

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: JohnB
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 10:47 AM

What about Donovan's "Intergallactical Laxative" it is about space travel, I think :)
JohnB

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 12:13 PM

Well . . . It's a slow morning here at the Skunk Works, so I tried googling "leprosy" and "parody" and came up with a fair amount of stuff. I randomly selected two of them. For what they're worth:

To the Beatles' "Let It Be."

I was sittin' in Rwanda when a pimpled guy came up to me!
Now I have a disease,
Leprosy!

And everywhere I go people stare and call me friggin' freak!
Please put on a ski mask,
Leprosy!

Leprosy, Leprosy, Leprosy, Leprosy!
Please burn off these lesions, Leprosy!

Now im sittin on the sofa with a shotgun propped up next to me!
Mother Mary wouldn't save me,
Leprosy!

And when my brains are splattered and you have to call an EMT!
Make sure they don't touch me,
Leprosy!

What is this with the Beatles and leprosy? Here's another one, to the tune of "Yesterday."

Leprosy.
That old rotten man just touched my knee.
Now my flesh is falling off of me.
I think he gave me leprosy.

Suddenly
I'm just half the man I used to be.
Bits and pieces coming off of me.
Yes, leprosy came suddenly.

Why'd my arm fall off?
I don't know, no one will say.
I know something's wrong,
'cause my leg just walked away (without me.)

Yesterday,
I could always lounge the time away.
Now my bed is in a slimy way,
Leprosy has ruined my day.

Why did I get cursed
With this rot, I need to hide.
I'm sure I'm diseased
For my spleen fell out my side. (ooooohhhh.)

Leprosy
It really is a drag for me.
All my friends now run away from me.
Oh how I hate this leprosy.

I've read these through, but I haven't tried singing them, so I'm not sure they scan all that well, but give 'em a try of so moved. Fell free to "folk process" them if they need it.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: open mike
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 12:35 PM

i think there is a thread about leprosy--but this isn't it..
i guess it is scientific though. as science may be needed
to find a cure--but have they?

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Susan of DT
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 04:05 PM

Check out the following keywords in the Digital Tradition:
@science @computer @medicine
Both Dick and I have been scientists, so we like this stuff.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Tootler
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 04:14 PM

Flanders and Swann did a song about the laws of thermodynamics.

I did a Google search and found the words. The tune is more of a chant.

The First Law of Thermodymamics:
Heat is work and work is heat
    Heat is work and work is heat
Very good!
The Second Law of Thermodymamics:
Heat cannot of itself pass from one body to a hotter body
    (scat music starts)
    Heat cannot of itself pass from one body to a hotter body
Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter
    Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter
You can try it if you like but you far better notter
    You can try it if you like but you far better notter
'Cos the cold in the cooler with get hotter as a ruler
    'Cos the cold in the cooler with get hotter as a ruler
'Cos the hotter body's heat will pass to the cooler
    'Cos the hotter body's heat will pass to the cooler

First Law:
Heat is work and work is heat and work is heat and heat is work
Heat will pass by conduction
    Heat will pass by conduction
Heat will pass by convection
    Heat will pass by convection
Heat will pass by radiation
    Heat will pass by radiation
And that's a physical law

Heat is work and work's a curse
And all the heat in the Universe
Is gonna cooool down 'cos it can't increase
Then there'll be no more work and there'll be perfect peace
    Really?
Yeah - that's entropy, man!

And all because of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which lays down:

That you can't pass heat from the cooler to the hotter
Try it if you like but you far better notter
'Cos the cold in the cooler will get hotter as a ruler
'Cos the hotter body's heat will pass to the cooler
Oh, you can't pass heat from the cooler to the hotter
You can try it if you like but you'll only look a fooler
'Cos the cold in the cooler will get hotter as a ruler
That's a physical Law!

Oh, I'm hot!
    Hot? That's because you've been working!
Oh, Beatles - nothing!
That's the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics!

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 09:39 AM

The Bug Came Back
(Copyright 1991 by Joel Polowin. Music: "The Cat Came Back" by Harry Miller)

The program wasn't complex, and it wasn't very long,
Though it seemed a bit erratic, its results were seldom wrong.
But that little error nagged us, so we stayed up late one night -
Found a missing comma, and we thought that fixed it right -

(Chorus)
But the bug came back, the very next day
The bug came back, we thought it was a gonner
But the bug came back, it just wouldn't stay away.

We put away our documents, rewrote the code from scratch
To find out where the new and older versions didn't match.
A subtle shift of logic showed where we had gone astray;
We felt a bit embarrassed, but at least it ran okay -

(Chorus)

We wrote in other languages, from FORTH to APL
And ev'ry one ran ev'ry time - just sometimes not too well.
Translation to assembler didn't give us any clue;
The COBOL version crashed on ev'ry system it went through -

(Chorus)

We gave it to the hacker squad - the folks who code for fun -
And asked them if they couldn't get the stupid thing to run.
But less than one week later, they no longer wished to play -
Three paranoids... one suicide... and six who ran away...

(Chorus)

We got a summer student in to check the code by hand,
With paper, pen and calculator, run through each command,
But suddenly the lights went out -- the air went thin and queer --
A sudden FLASH! of lightning -- and the student... disappeared..?

(Chorus)

(Last verse and corresponding alternate chorus are optional)

We set up an experiment that Schrodinger inspired:
A box; a cat; some poison; a computer system wired
Such that IF the program failed, the little moggy would be gassed.
A quasar was - almost - the only remnant of the blast...

(Chorus)

But the cat came back the very next day
The bug came back, we thought they were a goner
But they both came back, they just wouldn't stay away

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 09:43 AM

Here's one based upon "Ya gotta pick a pocket or two" (from Oliver):

Pick a Packet or Two

Strangers with
    Strange accounts
Porno GIF
    Large amounts
Villains like these use FSP
You godda pick a packet or two
    You
Godda pick a packet or two, boys
You godda pick a packet or two.

FSP you do not see
Unless you pick a packet or two.

Forged IPs
    Leave no tracks
When they launch
    SYN attacks
Never know why your mail has dried
Unless you pick a packet or two
    You
Godda pick a packet or two, boys
You godda pick a packet or two.

Buffers fill, net I/O's killed
Unless you drop a packet or two.

RTM
    What a worm
Internet
    All asquirm
When he was caught he said it ought
To've only sent a packet or two
    You
Godda pick a packet or two, boys
You godda pick a packet or two.

Spaf revealed the bug that yielded
More than just a packet or two.

IP port
    Six-six-six
Firewalls play
    Deadly tricks
Never assume cross-campus Doom
Won't yield an evil packet or two
    You
Godda pick a packet or two, boys
You godda pick a packet or two.

Name the campus Ether spammers
When you pick a packet or two.

MBA
    Browsing by
Activates
    CGI
Credit-card details, indiscreet
Disclosure in a packet or two
    You
Godda pick a packet or two, boys
You godda pick a packet or two.

Whiff of porn, all caution's gawn
A compromising packet or two.

IP frags
    Steal your breath
When they yield
    Ping o' Death
Kernels beware, rebuild with care
Or gag upon a packet or two
    You
Godda pick a packet or two, boys
You godda pick a packet or two.

Bound'ry checks can save your neck
A kamikaze packet or two.

Thoughts of this
    Sort of trick
Reboots my
    Facial tic
Simply to find some peace of mind
I have to pick a packet or two
    You
Godda pick a packet or two, boys
You godda pick a packet or two.

We will find some peace of mind
When he can pick a packet or two.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Flash Company
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 12:08 PM

My wife and I , we worked alone,
In a sweet little lab we called our own,
We developed a germ that would kill in an hour,
And sold it to a foreign power!

Ch....
Ha ha ha, He he he
Little brown bug how I love thee.....

It's good to be back!

FC

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Jon W.
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 12:56 PM

The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas" is a song about the sun, covered in recent years by They Might Be Giants but composed in the '50s as an educational ditty (possibly produced by the Nuclear Power industry).

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: moongoddess
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 07:29 PM

When I was part of the Providence Journal's Follies ( the ProJo is a RI newspaper) we sang a song about an Amoeba that one of the reporters wrote. I used to sing it every year to the Science classes on my team, even though I was a mathematics teacher.

I saw you there, with some algae in your hair,
I knew right away we were meant to love and share.
I walked up to you and I said in a voice so rare,
"Be my amoeba, baby, be my amoeba, be my babe"

We swam for a while and then we swam away,
We swam around together all night and all day,
We swam with our arms around our pseudopodea,
"Be my amoeba, baby, be my amoeba, be my babe."

Then one dark and stormy night,
You gave me such a fright,
Said that you were feeling sick,
And then by gosh you began to split!

"Be my amoeba,baby, be my amoeba, be my babe."

Now I have a problem, I don't know what to do.
Now I have two lovers, and they both are you!
How can I love one, and still be true to two?
"Be my amoeba, baby, be my amoeba, be my babe."

My students really loved this song. Diana

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST,Stephen
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 08:42 PM

Out here in the Portland (OR, not cement) area, Shanghied on the Willamette sings this:

EINSTEIN THE GENIUS (3:21)          MP3
by Henry Jankiewicz (Kicking Mule)

Einstein was a genius
As smart as he could be.
He wrote one equation every day.
On Mondays he wrote three,
On Mondays he wrote three.

CHORUS
Albert dance around , Albert be profound.
Albert let your hair stick out, And your socks hang down.
Albert dance around , Albert be profound.
Albert let your hair stick out, And your socks hang down.

A man got in a spaceship.
And flew a million miles.
He busted through the speed of light
And he came back a child,
Yes, he came back a child.

REPEAT CHORUS

Well, a man looked through a telescope
Until his eye was red.
He looked around space and saw
The back of his own head,
Saw the back of his own head.

REPEAT CHORUS

A wave and a particle
Were walking side by side.
One to the other said
Which one of us am I?
Which one of us am I?

REPEAT CHORUS

Albert played the fiddle.
He loved to shout and sing.
Now if that ain't genius,
Well, that ain't anything.
No, that ain't anything.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: oldhippie
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 09:16 AM

Hard to believe nobodys posted:

"Modern Physics In Five Easy Verses" by Bruce Lesnick.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 02:35 PM

Emily (Kates? Kaitz?) wrote & sings one about "I'm from the shallow end of the gene pool". This song is a lot of fun. She's from down here in Texas.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 02:40 PM

Little Willie's dead and gone,
His face we'll see no more;
For what he thought was H20
Was H2S04.

Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Micca
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 03:26 PM

The World was cloaked in darkest Stygian night
God cried "let Newton be"! and all was light!!!
The devil watching, leaped up crying "Ho
Let Einsein be" restored the status quo.

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: Micca
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 03:38 PM

OOOps, My mistake, and misquotw .ine 1 should read
"The World of Science was cloaked in Stygian night"
Sorry

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 08:29 PM

An outfit called Lyrical Learning has a bunch of recordings ably performed by Bobby Horton, each covering a different fields of science. They're aimed at kids, and they manage to be both accurate and fun.
(Available from CAMSCO, of course).

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST,JimP
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 11:25 PM

Theme song from The Big Bang Theory by Barenaked Ladies:

Big Bang Theory (full)

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: mousethief
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 11:49 PM

I didn't realize that TMBG didn't write "Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)". Although they do lots of covers (most famously "Istanbul (not Constantinople)") so it's not a total surprise. A quick google turned up this:

[b]The song was written by Hy Zaret in 1950, for Space Songs, part of the "Ballads for the Age of Science" series.[/b]

The same website notes that the sun is not, in fact, a mass of incandescent gas, and says that on a newer album, TMBG sang, "The sun's a miasma of incandescent plasma." Not nearly as catchy, even if scientifically more up-to-date.

Unfortunately, another website says the song was written by one Tom Glazer. Wikipedia, the repository of all knowledge and wisdom, says it's from Glazer's 1965 album Space Songs. But when you click the hypertext link on the album name, the page it takes you to says it was released in 1959 and written by Hy Zaret and Lou Singer. Their page on Glazer, on the other hand, claims he [i]sang[/i] the song on the 1959 album, and admits it was written by Zaret and Singer.

So you figure it out!

Anyway it might be worthwhile to find the Space Songs album, or any of the albums in the series mentioned. The wikipedia article on Space Songs is probably the best place to start.

ANYway, the original words:

Why the Sun Shines
Hy Zaret (music) and Lou Singer (words)

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

Yo ho, it's hot, the sun is not
A place where we could live
But here on earth there'd be no life
Without the light it gives

We need its light
We need its heat
We need its energy
Without the sun, without a doubt
There'd be no you and me

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

The sun is hot

[spoken] It is so hot that everything on it is a gas: iron, copper, aluminum, and many others.

The sun is large

[spoken] If the sun were hollow, a million earths could fit inside. and yet, the sun is only a middle-sized star.

The sun is far away

[spoken] About 93 million miles away, and that's why it looks so small.

And even when it's out of sight
The sun shines night and day

The sun gives heat
The sun gives light
The sunlight that we see
The sunlight comes from our own sun's
Atomic energy

[spoken] Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine. the heat and light of the sun come from the nuclear reactions of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and helium.

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

(The best TMBG version is the up-tempo live ska version. Well worth looking for.)

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST,deanofrochester
Date: 17 Jul 10 - 10:01 AM

sally ironmonger trio do a great song called 'sod's law' which is a hilarious richard digance song includes pythagoras einstein archimedes laws etc as well as sods law

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 17 Jul 10 - 10:23 AM

has anyone else come across a physics song to the tune of Men of Harlech, with lines "What's the new equation, governs radiation, what's the new and only true electrodynamical equation?...."?

Subject: RE: Songs and parodies about science
From: beeliner
Date: 17 Jul 10 - 07:43 PM

Hy Zaret is, of course, best known for "Unchained Melody". A lot of old, and sometimes obscure songs get mistakenly credited to the performers who revive them.

Surely Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me with Science" deserves a place on the list. British scientist and eccentric Dr. Magnus Pyke (1908-1992) shouts the word "Science" throughout the recording and also appears in the video.