Tom Lehrer, the witty American musician and songwriter, masterfully combined humor and education in his song “The Elements.” Set to the tune of the Major-General’s Song from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, this clever piece is often referred to as the “Atomic Table Song” due to its lyrical listing of chemical elements.
Lehrer’s “The Elements” isn’t just a song; it’s a memorable and entertaining way to learn the periodic table. While I’ve always intended to record my own rendition of this classic, I want to first highlight the brilliance of the original. Below are the complete lyrics to The Elements, a song that has successfully transformed the periodic table into an engaging musical experience.
The Elements (To be sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s A Modern Major General)
by Tom Lehrer
There’s antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium
And gold, protactinium and indium and gallium
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.
There’s yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium and barium.
There’s holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium
And phosphorus and francium and fluorine and terbium
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and caesium
And lead, praseodymium, and platinum, plutonium,
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium, and
Tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium,
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.
There’s sulfur, californium and fermium, berkelium
And also mendelevium, einsteinium and nobelium
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, Tungsten, tin and sodium.
These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others but they haven’t been discovered.
You can listen to Lehrer’s original performance here. For more of Lehrer’s satirical and musically inventive work, explore tracks like The Vatican Rag and Masochism Tango.
For a visually engaging experience, check out this fantastic animated version of “The Elements” here. Imagine if a popular artist like Peter Kay covered this song – it could propel chemistry into the spotlight and introduce the atomic table song to a whole new audience!
To delve deeper into the history of chemical discovery, explore this timeline detailing the discovery of the elements. For a modern take, listen to Helen Arney’s updated and comprehensive version of Tom Lehrer’s classic – a testament to the enduring appeal and adaptability of the “atomic table song”.
