Why does the sun shine?
A few weeks back, Jag and I listened to an episode of the always-great Radiolab podcast that featured a new science-for-kids album from They Might Be Giants. One of the songs they featured, “Why Does the Sun Shine?” is STILL stuck in my head.
During the podcast, it’s revealed that TMBG got some of the science wrong in the above song: the sun consists of plasma, not gas. So they wrote a rebuttal song to their own song, correcting the terminology. 😀
The episode of Radiolab in question can be found here. Radiolab is probably the most consistently fascinating podcast I listen to; give it a try!
(I’d also like to note here that I’m still bitter that TMBG’s “Particle Man” was not voted class song for my high school graduating class. I think some Boyz II Men schlock won instead.)
Why Does The Sun Shine is a cover of an old song from 1959. They didn’t write it. They did write Why Does The Sun Really Shine though.
Very interesting! Thanks, the Radiolab interview left quite a different impression about the origins of the song.