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Tom Lehrer's Elements (overly complete and unabridged)

from An Album Of Unnecessary Detail by Helen Arney

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A version of the song heard in the APOUD episode "TABLE" it's 118 elements of the periodic table, set to a tune by Arthur Sullivan by the inimitable Tom Lehrer.

Listen to the whole episode by searching for "Unnecessary Detail" wherever you get your podcasts, or head to:
festivalofthespokennerd.com/podcast/episode-05-table/

This version includes all 16 elements discovered (or, more accurately, synthesised in a laboratory) since the song was first written.

Unfortunately I don't have the rights to add the full Brass Band version to this album, but you can watch it on the Royal Society of Chemistry's YouTube channel:
youtu.be/viDYl-qfq7M

This audio is taken from the version I recorded in my bedroom, the day that IUPAC announced official names for the latest 4 elements to be officially discovered:
youtu.be/UzvjB5hC2qc

You can also find my favourite version - performed with a live and cheering audience - taken from our comedy special "You Can't Polish A Nerd" - available now on DVD and download:
youtu.be/hzvVLK9Y048

lyrics

There's 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, protactinium and indium and gallium,
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.

There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium,
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium,
There's strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium, and barium.

There's 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.

There's 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.

Update!

We've got lawrencium, meitnerium, darmstadtium, seaborgium,
Roentgenium and dubnium, flerovium and bohrium,
Copernicium, livermorium and hassium, rutherfordium,
Oganesson and tenessine, moscovium, nihonium.

Those last four elements confirmed now by the chemistry consortium

credits

from An Album Of Unnecessary Detail, released September 1, 2020
Song by Tom Lehrer, vocals and ukulele by Helen Arney

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Helen Arney London, UK

"Geek Songstress" Helen Arney is the UK's finest purveyor of comedy songs with a scientifically verified twist.

"Champion of musical whims" Evening Standard
**** ”Harnesses the spirit of Ben Folds & the Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon… delightful” (Chortle)

Also one third of Festival of the Spoken Nerd and author of "The Element In The Room"
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