There is no disputin'... Space Age science songs are fun

[salvorhardin]

Back at the dawn of the Space Age it seemed like everybody was trying to turn kids onto science in every conceivable way. After all, everyone knew that if our kids didn't grow up to be scientists and engineers then those darn Ruskies would colonize the Moon and Mars and who wanted that? And what better way to popularize science with kids than by setting it to music? Oh, and if you can get the guy who wrote On Top Of Spagetti to perform them, then you might have thought you had a gold record in the making. Or maybe not. Who knows?

Whatever Hy Zaret and Lou Singer's motivations might have been, I'm sure thousands of kids must have been turned onto science and nature by recordings of their Ballads For The Age Of Science. Kids like Jef Pozkazner who found his old LPs in his parents' basement and graciously ripped them to MP3 format so a whole new generation of kids can enjoy them, or in the case of us old farts big kids, enjoy them again. There you'll find all six albums (although I agree with Jef that the first three are the best) free for downloading. At the very least, you'll want to give a listen for the sheer novelty and innocence of these recordings.

Download them all: http://www.acme.com/jef/singing_science
Or listen to The Ballad Of Sir Isaac Newton on my site: http://neuralgourmet.com/2008/02/12/there_is_no_disputin_space_age

[mr blur]

1. Excellent Stuff!

I particularly like "Kinetic And Potential Energy"!

[salvorhardin]

2. I like, "How do we measure energy?"

In foot-pounds, foot-pounds!

The metric system hadn't came to American education yet. Speaking of the metric system... Here's a song from the 1970s album The Metrics Are Coming.
MP3: http://odeo.com/show/2911653/1202438/download/TheMetricSystem.mp3
Info: http://audioddities.blogspot.com/2006/05/metrics-are-coming.html

I wish I had grabbed the whole album when it was available on Audio Oddities. I love this kind of cheezy edutainment.

[onager]

3. Found one of my faves!

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas,
A gigantic nuclear furnace...

(Covered by They Might Be Giants...)