The Rolling Stones Helped Inspire “Schoolhouse Rock!”
Long before Schoolhouse Rock! became a Saturday morning staple, it started with a frustrated dad and his Rolling Stones–loving kid. David McCall, an ad executive, noticed his son could belt out rock lyrics with no problem, but couldn’t remember multiplication tables. His idea? Put math to music.
McCall enlisted jazz pianist Bob Dorough to give it a shot. The instructions: “Don’t write down to the kids.” Inspired, Dorough composed “Three Is a Magic Number”, a tune as catchy as it was educational. Illustrator Tom Yohe added visuals, and ABC greenlit the project. In January 1973, Schoolhouse Rock! hit the airwaves, teaching math through song. Before long, it expanded into grammar (Conjunction Junction), civics (I’m Just a Bill), and science (Interplanet Janet), turning tricky lessons into earworms for generations.
And the series didn’t just help kids, it won major awards. Schoolhouse Rock! earned four Daytime Emmy Awards (1976, 1978, 1979, and 1980) for Outstanding Children’s Programming. In 1993, it made the leap to stage with Schoolhouse Rock Live!, which picked up two After Dark Awards. And in 2018, the Library of Congress inducted the music into its National Recording Registry, recognizing it as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
What started as one dad’s brainstorm became a multi-Emmy-winning, history-making franchise. Proof that with the right beat and a little music, you can teach kids anything.
Doug O’Brien
