This recording was made in March of 1959 at the Sanders Theater, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was originally released on Mr. Lehrer's own label. It was reissued in 1966 on the Reprise label. The following is quoted, with slight amendments, from the notes of the original LP.

This recording was made in Tom Lehrer's living room one evening when a few friends had dropped in and conversation was becoming strained. In a desperate attempt to save the evening (an attempt which failed, by the way), Mr. Lehrer rushed to the piano and performed the program heard here, making up the songs as he went along. Thanks to a quick-thinking engineer, who had happened by with his pockets full of recording tape, the whole fiasco has been preserved for posterity (if any).

In the hope of making the record slightly less wearisome, a certain number of coughs, hisses, snores, impacts etc., have been edited out (together with some applause and laughter, which were deleted over Mr. Lehrer's dead body). If the demand should warrant it, all this excised matter may some day be issued separately.

Presumably the spoken commentary on the record itself precludes the need for footnotes here, but one remark is perhaps in order, namely, that the tune of The Elements is that of the Major-General's song from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan, and that the words of its last line were true as of the date of the recording, but are so no longer.