Songs that have to do with science:
The universe (trio from the Mikado) .
Oh it snows / Mexican hat dance
Now, you may be wondering, how did much of this stuff come to be written? 10 years ago I was asked to give a public talk about Comet Halley and it occurred to me to give the talk AS Edmund Halley. I ended up travelling around Hawaii giving talks about the comet dressed up as the well-known 17th century astronomer. This led to the first astronomy/theatrical extravaganza at the Univ. of Hawaii at Hilo, Edmund Halley Rides Again (Feb 28, 1986).
On November 20, 1987, a large group of us performed the Hilo All Star Revue, part lecture, part song, part dance. Much of the songs listed above were video taped as part of that show. The constellation song has been sung (kind of, sort of) on a BBC radio program about stellar evolution that was broadcast in March of 1988. It made its American debut in Episode 1 of the PBS series The Astronomers, which was first broadcast in April of 1991.
Our biggest effort to date was a full fledged comic opera called Total Eclipse, which was performed on June 28 and 29, 1991, shortly before we had a real solar eclipse visible in Hawaii. This play was written by Margaret Lynn Harshbarger (a one-time professional opera singer) and myself. A picture from that show can be found on p. 606 of the December, 1991, issue of Sky and Telescope magazine. We managed to get a sound bite on the NBC national news. For some imagery of our comic opera and the script, click here .
You might also like to check out The Physics Chanteuse by clicking here .
You can email me at: kevin@astro.washington.edu