The Elements

Now if I may digress momentarily

From the main stream of this evenings symposium

I'd like to sing a song

Which is completely pointless

But which is something

I picked up during my career as atist

This may prove useful

To somebody some day perhaps

In a somewhat bizarre set of circumstances

It's simply the names of the chemical elements

Set to a possibly recognizable tune

Theres 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 and protactinium

And indium and gallium

And iodine and thorium

And thulium and thallium

Theres yttrium ytterbium

Actinium rubidium

And boron gadolinium

Niobium iridium

And strontium and silicon

And silver and samarium

And bismuth bromine

Lithium beryllium and barium

Isn't that interesting

I knew you would

I hope you're all taking notes

Because theres going to be

A short quiz next period

Theres 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 cesium

And lead praseodymium

And platinum plutonium

Palladium promethium

Potassium polonium

And tantalum technetium

Titanium tellurium

And cadmium and calcium

And chromium and curium

Theres sulfur californium

And fermium berkelium

And also mendelevium

Einsteinium 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 havard

And there may be many others

But they havent been discavard

The Elements (Live) - Tom Lehrer