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The last creator of "Schoolhouse Rock" has passed.

auntiehill

auntiehill

The Blooness
Premium Member
Ars Technica had this great article to pay tribute to George Newall, the former ad executive who helped create the series.
Newall was a creative director at McCaffrey and McCall advertising agency in the early 1970s. One day, agency President David McCall bemoaned the fact that his young sons couldn't multiply, yet somehow they remembered all the lyrics to hit songs by the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. He asked Newall if it was possible to set the multiplication tables to music. Newall happened to know a musician named Ben Tucker who played bass at a venue Newall frequented and mentioned the challenge to him. Tucker said his friend Bob Dorough could "put anything to music"—in fact, he'd once written a song about the mattress tag admonishing new owners not to remove it under penalty of law.

Two weeks later, Dorough presented Newall with "Three is a Magic Number," the song featured in the pilot episode of Schoolhouse Rock! Everyone at the agency loved the tune, including art director and cartoonist Tom Yohe, who made a few doodles to accompany the song. That one song—meant to be part of an educational record album—turned into a series of short three-minute videos.
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It's amazing how much I learned from this series--things that helped with me with math, with English, with American History and Civics. I will always remember my stodgy old history teacher assigning us to learn the preamble to the constitution--he had no idea it was on Schoolhouse Rock, and got very annoyed that we were all singing it. :lol: Hey, it was a very catchy tune!

Of course, now, with media spread out to a million different sources, we probably won't see the same impact with this type of educational programming in the future, so Schoolhouse Rock may have been unique in its general influence.

I am, 53 years old, and Hubby and I were singing "Conjunction Junction" together just a few minutes ago.

Which ones were your favorites?

As mentioned, I loved "Conjunction Junction." That tune is swinging.
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The Preamble
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Hubby loves this one:
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What are your favorites?
 
auntiehill said:
It's amazing how much I learned from this series--things that helped with me with math, with English, with American History and Civics. I will always remember my stodgy old history teacher assigning us to learn the preamble to the constitution--he had no idea it was on Schoolhouse Rock, and got very annoyed that we were all singing it. :lol: Hey, it was a very catchy tune!
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I had a Social Studies teacher give our class the same assignment, but I'm pretty sure he knew about the SHR song and was trying to see if we would at least do that much studying at home.
What are your favorites?
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My top three:
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Like the ones presented so far but Zero My Hero and Electricity are other favorites...
RIP

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Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here! (this will be stuck in your head all day)
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auntiehill said:
Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here! (this will be stuck in your head all day)
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I'll see your Lollys and raise you Verb! That's whats happening!
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I also like Interplanet Janet, the Preamble, Figure 8, and Interjection... and this one:
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@J.T.B. , thank you for that Figure 8. Love Blossom Dearie, a unique voice literally and figuratively (fine piano player too), and Bob Dorough a genius. Jack Sheldon who sang I’m Just a Bill died within a year or two ago.
 
Some may not remember that Bill originally stated that school buses had to stop at railroad crossings. And, of course, he became a law. I still think of Bill as I drive up to a crossing.
 
Sometimes I question that one.

A moving bus has momentum to perhaps carry it over the tracks even if the engine dies. Stop Look and Listen is best…but how many times have we seen a stopped vehicle go dead right as it starts moving and stall’s out just there…
 
We definitely stop, look, and listen. School buses are outfitted with a silencing device that that kills the radio, heater, and bus's CB system, meant to be used on railroad tracks.

Unfortunately, said button does not silence our passengers.
 
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