RIP: Two musical legends, Chuck Mangione and Tom Lehrer

[thewayne]

Chuck was 84 and passed away in his sleep. The Grammy-winning jazz-man was best known for two numbers, Feels So Good and Bellavia, the latter named after his mother. Feels So Good spent 25 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at #4! Mangione also "composed and performed “Give it All You Got,” which was the theme song for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York."

An excellent career. He passed away in his sleep on July 22 at the age of 84. While it may have happened, I never heard of him having any problems with drugs or the law.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/24/entertainment/chuck-mangione-death


Tom Lerher had an amazing life. He was a math prodigy and entered Harvard at the age of 15, completing his Masters at 18. He did not complete his doctorate, preferring to remain a grad student. He taught at various universities throughout his career, mainly settling in Santa Cruz, CA. But he was also an amazing musical political satirist with a very sharp POV. His music career was fairly short, lasting from the '50s through the early '70s, his music remains tremendously popular even though he wrote only 37 songs over 20 years and made only 109 public performances.

He also composed music for The Electric Company and for This Was The Week That Was.

He passed away Saturday at the age of 97. His friend who announced his death 'did not disclose the cause'. I find this an utterly ridiculous statement - LERHER WAS NINTEY-SEVEN! HE WAS BLOODY OLD AND HIS BODY WAS KIND OF TIRED OF KEEPING HIM ALIVE!

One brilliant thing that Lehrer did a few years ago, and I posted about it here, was that he released all of his music to the public domain! Recordings, lyrics, everything! All of it released for the enjoyment of all, forever. I thought it was a truly magnanimous gesture.

I had heard that he said that he stopped making music when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, saying 'There's nothing left to parody.' I don't know if that's true.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/27/entertainment/tom-lehrer-death

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/07/27/2347205/tom-lehrer-satirical-songwriter-and-mathematician-dies-at-age-97

Comments

[moonhare]

>> I had heard that he said that he stopped making music when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, saying 'There's nothing left to parody.' <<

I had heard that said of The Onion, in 2016, only they kept going ;o)

[warriorsavant]

I think he actually said that, not just from The Onion. I usually don't care about celebrity deaths (I roll my eyes at the "we've lost..."), but he will be missed.

[ndrosen]

He said that when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, political satire became impossible. I don’t know whether he actually stopped making music then. Besides, leaving aside his song about silent E for the Electric Company, not all of his humorous songs were political.

[disneydream06]

Sad how many we are losing and could possibly be losing any time.
So many big Stars are getting to around that age. :o
Hugs, Jon

[devilc]

Twice again the grim reaper misunderstood the assignment

[thewayne]

Yeah, his work orders sure are getting messed up!

[silveradept]

It seems to be a cluster of people in music this time around. Or, music and one mathematics professor who also was well-known for music that he had done earlier. Good satirists are always missed when they're no longer around.