Schoolchildren Singing Particle Man
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Schoolchildren Singing Particle Man |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Dial-A-Song, Then: The Earlier Years, Selections From Then, Podcast 22A |
| year | 1990 |
| run time | 2:05 |
| sung by | Schoolchildren |
Trivia/Info
- From a 1996 interview with ICE Magazine by John Flansburgh:
Given to us in 1990 by a fan who taught music at an elementary school. He taught these children how to sing 'Particle Man'. It has that out-of-tune upright piano accompaniment. It's hard not to smile when listening to it.
- Although the identities of the schoolchildren and the music teacher were lost and whereabouts unknown at the time of writing the interview with ICE Magazine and the liner notes for "Then," the schoolchildren were later found out to be Mrs. Belaire's second grade class of 1990, from Ottawa Elementary School in Buchanan, Michigan. The music teacher was Tim McCarthy, who write into the TMBG Info Club to confirm the identities of the youngsters. "Tim taught the song to the kids as part of his rigorous curriculum and thought we might want to check out their interpretation."
- Before this information resurfaced, Flansburgh incorrectly said that they were from Texas in a 1999 interview, saying:
You know, I think we found out who the guy was—I think he contacted the office almost right away, but I wish somebody had actually made a point of making me memorize who it was, because I feel kind of guilty. We did actually find out what the school was, we just never...I just haven't memorized it. They're from Texas, though. But you're the first person to ask about it. People love the song, but nobody's been curious enough to ask who it was.
- When asked about the song and its backstory in a TMBG Info Club Newsletter, Linnell said of the song: "A music teacher sent us that recording of his students performing the song. It's my favorite version."
- The Dial-A-Song version of this track is 5 seconds longer, due to some 'garbage' being trimmed from the Then version.
- Later in 2012, another group of schoolchildren, this time the fifth grade class of Kingsley Montessori School in Boston, Massachusetts, sent a performance of Particle Man along with a music video animated by the kids.
Song Themes
Children, Heads, Non-John Vocals, People (Imaginary), Questions, School, Science, Shapes, Size, Songs With Handclaps, Super-Human Qualities, Time, Water
Videos
- Watch it on
(Static upload of the song) - Watch it on (Dial-A-Song version)
- Watch it on (Performed by the class of Kingsley Montessori School)
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