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From 1973 to 1985, a generation of kids watching Saturday morning television learned the function of conjunctions and the preamble to the U.S. Constitution with the help of an animated series called
Schoolhouse Rock! The brainchild of executives at McCaffrey and McCall Advertising, the three-minute segments combined whimsical cartoons with catchy music (rock was only one of the styles) to help kids learn seemingly dry topics as easily as they could learn popular songs.
Multiplication Rock tackles the multiplication tables, covering numbers 0 through 12 (but not 1 or 10), and chances are few people who grew up watching can multiply by 3 or 5 without hearing the familiar voice of
composer-singer Bob Dorough. Other underlying talent included
jazz drummer Grady Tate ("I Got Six," "Naughty Number Nine") and
jazz pianist Blossom Dearie ("Figure Eight"), who contributed vocals. (Subsequent installments would feature many other jazz musicians and songs written by
jazz pianist-composer Dave Frishberg and
future Broadway composer Lynn Ahrens, who at the time was a fledgling secretary for McCaffrey and McCall.) Years later, the series was considered so hip that now-grown-up rock stars rerecorded the songs, and
Multiplication Rock includes a music video of "Electricity, Electricity" by Goodness.
--David Horiuchi
