The Pitter Patter of Little Songs

Sid sent me a cute link in one of his comments, and it got me remembering how much I enjoyed the parody that his link parodied (reminding me of good times with both my father and my son.) So, since I'm still hip deep in NaNoWriMo (30,000 words to date) and don't have much time for blogging, I thought I'd do a post in which I follow the evolution of how a particular song that began as ridiculous morphed into outrageous, and thence to just plain silly.

It all started, as so much does, with Gilbert & Sullivan, a pair of seriously disturbed gentlemen who lived in England and wrote a series of operettas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most of which contained at least one patter song. Here's one of several versions available on YouTube of the Modern Major General's song:

(For anyone who may have trouble following all the words, the lyrics are here.)



A while later, an even more seriously disturbed gentleman named Tom Lehrer wrote a completely pointless song in which he set the names of the chemical elements to the music of the above song. Again, one of several versions available on YouTube:



(This version, not available on YouTube, is also cute.)

And finally (thanks again, Sid) we have this, which you have to go click on to watch.