Editing Tom Lehrer (section)

===''That Was The Week That Was''===
In 1960, Lehrer essentially retired from touring in the U.S.<ref name=bensmith/> The same year, he toured Australia and New Zealand, performing a total of 33 concerts to great acclaim<ref name=barryhansen/> and controversy.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lehrer Dissected … {{!}} NZETC|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Salient23041960-t1-body-d16-d1.html|access-date=April 6, 2021|website=nzetc.victoria.ac.nz|archive-date=February 4, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204190301/http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Salient23041960-t1-body-d16-d1.html|url-status=live}}</ref> While in New Zealand, he penned lyrics critical of the [[1960 New Zealand rugby union tour of Australia and South Africa|All Blacks' upcoming tour of Apartheid-era South Africa]] and Prime Minister [[Walter Nash]]'s stance on it.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Berry |first1=John |title="Oh, Mr Nash," says Tom Lehrer |work=Auckland Star |date=April 16, 1960}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Berry |first1=John |title=Seeing Stars - A Study of Show Folk in New Zealand |date=1964 |publisher=Seven Seas |location=Wellington |pages=75–78}}</ref> Lehrer's tours occurred during a time in which he was, he said, "banned, censored, mentioned in several houses of parliament and threatened with arrest". In particular, "Be Prepared" drew advance resistance in Brisbane from the commissioner of police. He performed several songs in Australia that were still unreleased, including "The Masochism Tango".<ref name=smh/> In the early 1960s, he was employed as the resident songwriter for the U.S. edition of ''[[That Was The Week That Was#US versions|That Was The Week That Was]]'' (TW3), a satirical television show.<ref name=barryhansen/>

{{Anchor|NewMath}}<!-- This anchor referenced by [[Andrew Gleason]] -->
{{Infobox
| above        = National Brotherhood Week
| image        = [[File:Tom Lehrer performing in Copenhagen, 1967 (10).jpg|frameless|upright=0.77 |border |Black-and-white photograph of Lehrer]]
| caption      = Lehrer performing in Copenhagen, 1967
| below        =
{{listen
|type=music
| filename     = 3-01 National Brotherhood Week.mp3
| title        = National Brotherhood Week
| description  = "National Brotherhood Week", a song about an annual event promoted by the [[National Conference for Community and Justice]]. Live recording from ''[[That Was the Year That Was]]'' (1965). 
| embed        = yes
}}
}}
A greater proportion of his output became overtly political, or at least topical, on subjects such as education ("[[New Math (song)|New Math]]"), the [[Second Vatican Council]] ("[[The Vatican Rag]]"), race relations ("National Brotherhood Week"), air and water pollution ("Pollution"), American militarism ("Send the Marines"),  and [[nuclear proliferation]] ("Who's Next?" and "MLF Lullaby"). He also wrote a song satirizing rocket scientist [[Wernher von Braun]], who worked for Nazi Germany before working for the United States. Lehrer did not appear on TW3; vocalist [[Nancy Ames]] performed his songs (to Lehrer's chagrin),<ref name="CrazyCollege"/> and lines were often cut from his songs.<ref name="CrazyCollege"/> Lehrer later performed nine of these songs at the [[Hungry i]] nightclub in [[San Francisco]], and this became the album ''[[That Was the Year That Was]]'' (1965).<ref name="dmdb"/>

In 1966, BBC TV host [[David Frost]] returned to the UK with the BBC program ''[[The Frost Report]]''; alongside [[Julie Felix]], Lehrer provided musical satire on the weekly subject.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/thefrostreport/|title=The Frost Report|publisher=BBC Comedy|access-date=May 9, 2023|archive-date=April 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415033653/https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/thefrostreport/|url-status=live}}</ref> The show was transmitted live, and he pre-recorded all his segments at one performance.<ref name="dmdb">{{cite web|last = Morris|first = Jeff|title = Tom Lehrer Discography|publisher = Demented Music Database (dmdb.org)|url = http://dmdb.org/discographies/lehrer.disco.html|accessdate = May 8, 2023|archive-date = May 8, 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230508111019/http://dmdb.org/discographies/lehrer.disco.html|url-status = live}}</ref> Lehrer was not featured in every edition, but his songs featured in an appropriate part of each show.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theofficialmartyfeldman.com/main/news/marty-meets-tom/|title=Marty meets Tom|date=January 18, 2016|publisher=The Official Marty Feldmab|access-date=May 8, 2023|archive-date=May 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230508120107/http://www.theofficialmartyfeldman.com/main/news/marty-meets-tom/|url-status=live}}</ref> At least two of his songs were not included on any of his LPs: a reworking of [[Noël Coward]]'s "That is the End of the News" (with some new lyrics)<ref>{{Citation |title=The end of the news .. heh .wmv | date=May 25, 2011 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lto81YU2Nj4 |language=en |access-date=December 23, 2022 |archive-date=December 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221223081414/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lto81YU2Nj4 |url-status=live }}</ref> and a comic explanation of how Britain might adapt to the [[Decimal Day|coming of decimal currency]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntW9NDRHXnc |title=Lehrer Decimal The Frost Report - YouTube |website=[[YouTube]] |date=July 8, 2013 |access-date=December 23, 2022 |archive-date=December 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221223103943/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntW9NDRHXnc |url-status=live }}</ref> The record deal with [[Reprise Records]] for ''That Was The Year That Was'' also gave Reprise distribution rights for his earlier recordings, because Lehrer wanted to [[Liquidation|wind up]] his own record imprint.<ref name="CrazyCollege"/> The Reprise issue of ''Songs by Tom Lehrer'' was a stereo re-recording. This version was not issued on CD, as Lehrer was unhappy with this version.<ref name="dmdb"/> The live recording included bonus tracks "L-Y" and "Silent E", two of the ten songs that he wrote for the PBS children's educational series ''[[The Electric Company (1971 TV series)|The Electric Company]]''. Lehrer later commented that worldwide sales of the recordings under Reprise surpassed 1.8 million units in 1996. That same year, ''That Was The Year That Was'' went gold.<ref name="Jim Bessman 1997"/>  The album liner notes promote his songs with self-deprecating humor, such as quoting a ''New York Times'' review from 1959: Mr. Lehrer's muse is "not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=J. S. |author-link=John S. Wilson (music critic) |date=February 9, 1959 |title=Tom Lehrer in Program; Offers His Brand of 'Sick' Humor at Town Hall |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/02/09/archives/tom-lehrer-in-program-offers-his-brand-of-sick-humor-at-town-hall.html |access-date=October 22, 2020 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026061902/https://www.nytimes.com/1959/02/09/archives/tom-lehrer-in-program-offers-his-brand-of-sick-humor-at-town-hall.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Lehrer toured Sweden, Norway and Denmark in 1967;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/songs%20by%20tom%20lehrer.pdf|title=Songs by Tom Lehrer|publisher=LOC.gov|access-date=May 8, 2023|archive-date=May 22, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522064135/https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/songs%20by%20tom%20lehrer.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> his concert in Oslo was recorded for Danish television and subsequently released on DVD some 40 years later.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://premiereoperaintl.com/dvd16802tomlehrerlivefromoslo.aspx|title=Premiere Opera|access-date=November 13, 2020|archive-date=November 14, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114124755/https://premiereoperaintl.com/dvd16802tomlehrerlivefromoslo.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> He performed as a prominent international guest at the ''Studenterforeningen'' (student association) in Copenhagen, which was televised, and he commented on stage that he might be America's "revenge for [[Victor Borge]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/6funswede |title=The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel |publisher=YouTube |date=September 11, 1967 |access-date=October 27, 2015 |archive-date=June 28, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628092336/http://www.youtube.com/6funswede |url-status=live }}</ref> He performed original songs in a [[Dodge]] automobile industrial film distributed primarily to automobile dealers and shown at promotional events in 1967, set in a fictional American wild west town and titled ''The Dodge Rebellion Theatre presents Ballads For '67''.<ref name=barryhansen/><ref>{{cite web|title=The Dodge industrial Film|url=http://home.broadpark.no/~emeyn/tl/dodge.html|website=The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel|access-date=March 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420112540/http://home.broadpark.no/~emeyn/tl/dodge.html|archive-date=April 20, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He attempted to adapt [[Sweeney Todd]] as a Broadway musical, working with [[Joe Raposo]], to star [[Jerry Colonna (entertainer)|Jerry Colonna]]. They started a few songs but, as Lehrer noted, "Nothing ever came of it, and of course twenty years later [[Stephen Sondheim]] beat me to the punch."<ref name="Todd">{{cite book|last1=Nachman|first1=Gerald|title=Seriously funny the rebel comedians of the 1950s and 1960s|date=2003|publisher=Pantheon Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0307490728|page=149|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=45tG8jqrx5oC&pg=PA149|access-date=September 11, 2016|archive-date=August 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817202331/https://books.google.com/books?id=45tG8jqrx5oC&pg=PA149|url-status=live}}</ref>