Tom Lehrer, the American satirist whose piano-based comic songs skewered politics, culture and human folly with elegantly cutting wit, has died aged 97. His recordings from the 1950s and 1960s – including Songs by Tom Lehrer and That Was the Year That Was – are benchmarks in musical satire, influential for their blending of sophistication and risqué sting.

Tom Lehrer (1928 – 2025)

Born in New York City in 1928, Lehrer was a precocious intellectual talent who entered Harvard at 15 to study mathematics. There he gravitated to the piano as well as the blackboard, drawing on his classical piano training and a love of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas to compose intricate comedy songs to entertain friends.

Lehrer graduated from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics in 1946. Working as a teacher and researcher, he also refined his comic chops, and in 1953, booked some studio time to record his first album, Songs by Tom Lehrer, which he sold via mail order. Featuring the macabre I Hold Your Hand in Mine and the risqué Be Prepared, it became something of a...