Singing Science Records

When I was a kid my parents got this six-LP set of science-themed folk songs for my sister and me. They were produced in the late 1950s / early 1960s by Hy Zaret (William Stirrat) and Lou Singer. Zaret's main claim to fame is writing the lyrics to the classic "Unchained Melody" for the 1955 movie "Unchained", later recorded by the Righteous Brothers and more recently used in "Ghost". Three of the albums (the best three in my opinion) were performed by Tom Glazer, semi-famous 1940s folk musician and somewhat of a lyricist himself (he wrote "On Top of Spaghetti").

The Singing Science lyrics were very Atomic Age, while the tunes were generally riffs on popular or genre music of the time. We played them incessantly.

In February 1998 I found the LPs in my parents' basement. I cleaned them up, played them one last time on an old turntable, and burned them onto a set of three CD-R discs. In December 1999 I read the songs back off the CDs and encoded them into MP3, so now you can hear them on the web. They are available at either 32 Kbps (about half a megabyte each) or 160 Kbps (about two megabytes each). The higher-quality MP3 versions were encoded by Ron Hipschman.

Space Songs

• Zoom A Little Zoom 32 160
• What Is The Milky Way 32 160
• Constellation Jig 32 160
• Beep, Beep 32 160
• Why Does The Sun Shine 32 160
• What Is A Shooting Star 32 160
• Longitude And Latitude 32 160
• It's A Scientific Fact 32 160
• Ballad Of Sir Isaac Newton 32 160
• Friction 32 160
• Why Are Stars Of Different Colors 32 160
• Why Do Stars Twinkle 32 160
• What Is Gravity 32 160
• Planet Minuet 32 160
• Why Go Up There 32 160

Energy & Motion Songs

• What Is Energy (part 1) 32 160
• Grand Coulee Dam 32 160
• E-lec-tri-city 32 160
• Engines 32 160
• Solar Energy 32 160
• Energy In Roundabout Ways 32 160
• What Is Energy (part 2) 32 160
• Kinetic And Potential Energy 32 160
• Jets 32 160
• Ultra Violet And Infra Red 32 160
• What Is Chemical Energy 32 160
• How Do We Measure Energy 32 160
• Motion, Motion Everywhere 32 160
• Thumbnail Sketch Of Atomic Energy 32 160

Experiment Songs

• It's A Magnet 32 160
• Vibration 32 160
• We Know The Air Is There 32 160
• We're Making Heat 32 160
• Ice Is A Solid 32 160
• Why Do I Have A Shadow 32 160
• Rocks And Gems And Minerals 32 160
• The Earth Goes Around The Sun 32 160
• Why Is It Raining Raindrops 32 160
• Where Does The Sun Go At Night 32 160
• What's Inside Our Earth 32 160
• Where Does The Sun Rise 32 160
• How Many Colors Are In The Rainbow 32 160
• Who's Afraid Of Thunder 32 160
• It's A Magnet, reprise 32 160

Weather Songs

• What Makes The Weather 32 160
• Where Is The Stratosphere 32 160
• The Water Cycle Song 32 160
• Why Does The Wind Blow 32 160
• How Clouds Are Formed 32 160
• Warm Fronts, Cold Fronts 32 160
• What Is Humidity 32 160
• The Hurricane Song 32 160
• Why Is It Hot In The Summer 32 160
• Highs And Lows 32 160
• What Makes The Lightning 32 160
• Stratus And Cumulus 32 160
• Snowflake, Snowflake 32 160
• What Does The Glass Of A Greenhouse Do 32 160
• What Is Climate 32 160
• What Makes The Weather, reprise 32 160

Nature Songs

• Introduction To Nature Study 32 160
• Why Do Leaves Change Their Color 32 160
• What Are The Parts Of A Tree 32 160
• What Is An Insect 32 160
• What Is A Mammal 32 160
• How Do The Fish Swim 32 160
• Song Of The Rocks 32 160
• The Birds Have A Language 32 160
• How Does A Bird Sing 32 160
• What Does A Bird Have That I Have Not 32 160
• How Silk Is Made 32 160
• What's In The Ocean 32 160
• How Do The Seeds Of Plants Travel 32 160
• The Balance Of Nature 32 160

More Nature Songs

• Metamorphosis 32 160
• How Does A Frog Become A Frog 32 160
• What Is An Animal 32 160
• Bobo The Bear 32 160
• Song Of The Fossils 32 160
• How Does A Cow Make Milk 32 160
• Eohippus 32 160
• The Conservation Song 32 160
• Why Is The Sky Blue 32 160
• What Makes A Rainbow 32 160
• Let's Wander Thru The Seasons 32 160
• Why Does A Bee Bzzz 32 160
• What Are The Parts Of A Flower 32 160
• The Face Of The Earth Is Changing 32 160

Mailing List

I've set up a little mailing list for people who are interested in the records. singing_science@mail.acme.com, singing_science-request@mail.acme.com to subscribe.

More Links

• Space Songs in Real Audio.
• Dr. Chordate has covered at least one of these songs.
• Marais & Miranda pages.
• Wonderful animated version of Tom Lehrer's The Elements.