TOM LEHRER -- SONGS AND MORE SONGS BY TOM LEHRER (Rhino): (9/1/97) I remember the first time I was introduced to the music of Tom Lehrer. It was at my church's teen youth group meeting and someone played "Vatican Rag." It was then I knew Lehrer was in a class by himself. This disc reissues two early and long unavailable Lehrer albums, "Songs By Tom Lehrer" (which Rhino says was the biggest selling comedy album of the '50s with over 370,000 copies) and "More Of Tom Lehrer." The recordings date from the '50s and '60s. Back in those days, Lehrer was sort of an underground favorite. He touched on subjects that weren't "allowed," such as drugs ("The Old Dope Peddler") and sex ("The Masochism Tango"). These days, Lehrer's basically retired from performing music (he's a professor of musical theater and mathematics at the University of California at Santa Cruz), but Rhino got him to do a new recording, "I Got It From Agnes," for this disc, and the recording makes you realize how much his talent is missed. A Lehrer boxed set rounding up all his work (or a good cross section of it) would seem to be an obvious project. You can find a transcript of Lehrer's online chat to promote this CD at http://www.rhino.com/chat/Lehrerquestions.html. It superbly displays Lehrer's sharp wit -- and why we so badly need him back performing again. (Sept. '97)