Thomas Andrew Lehrer, born 9 April 1928 in New York City, is an American mathematician who might have been thought an unlikely singer-songwriter. He taught mathematics at MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has published academic papers in “The Journal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics” and “Annals of Mathematical Statistics” and has worked as a researcher at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory.

But Tom Lehrer is best known for the pithy and humorous songs that he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. His songs often parodied popular musical forms, though he usually created original melodies. He had the knack of catching people’s attention, both with the song titles and the lyrics. “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" contains the verses:

All the world seems in tune on a spring afternoon

When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.

Every Sunday you'll see my sweetheart and me

As we poison the pigeons in the park.

When they see us coming

The birdies all try and hide.

But they still go for peanuts

When coated with cyanide.

However, the words did not come from an unpleasant imagination. They refer to the methods used by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to control pigeon populations in Boston public areas during the 1950s.

The pianist hired for the studio-recorded album “More of Tom Lehrer” fell off his bench when he heard the title.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org