'Schoolhouse Rock' composer and musician Bob Dorough dies at 94

Jayme Deerwester | USA TODAY

Go ahead, Generation X and Millennials, pour one out for Bob Dorough. The musician and composer, 94, died Monday of natural causes at his home in Mount Bethel, Pa., his son told the Associated Press.

You may not know Dorough's name but if you were parked in front of your TV on Saturday mornings growing up in the 1970s or '80s (or your teachers did), you can probably still recite the lyrics he wrote for Schoolhouse Rock. And the lessons he imparted may have helped you pass a grammar or math test along the way.

He wrote all of the music and lyrics for the Multiplication Rock math series and two of the best-known Grammar Rock numbers, Conjunction Junction and Lolly, Lolly Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here.

Dorough also wrote the song Devil May Care, which jazz great Miles Davis recorded as an instrumental version.

Dorough was born in Arkansas and raised in Texas. After arranging music and playing multiple instruments for army bands during World War II, he studied composition and piano at the University of North Texas, graduating in 1949.

He also did stints in Paris jazz clubs and Los Angeles, where he played between comedy sets by Lenny Bruce. But it was his knack for teaching math through music that would lead to his best-known job as musical director for Schoolhouse Rock, ABC's series of educational videos, conceived by advertising executive David McCall, whose son couldn't remember his multiplication tables but could rattle off lyrics to rock songs.

"Dave was very pointed in telling Bob (recruited from a New York jazz club) not to talk down to kids as had been the case in most attempts to educate children through music. Bob then promised to return in a couple of weeks with a demo," recalled Schoolhouse Rock co-creator George Newall in a 2014 interview with the website Noblemania.com.

"When Bob came back with Three Is a Magic Number, we were astonished," Newall said. "He had put the three times table into a context, based on the role of three in mathematics, religion, and even furniture-making."

Newall noted that Three Is a Magic Number remains his personal favorite. "That was the song in which Bob Dorough created the conceptual approach that steered us away from the mere repetition of numbers and facts."

He added, "By the grace of Bob, every recording session was fun to be a part of."

Dorough eventually settled in Pennsylvania, and worked into his early 80s, collaborating with Nellie McKay and writing songs that accompanied author Maureen Sullivan's children's books about Carlos the French bulldog.

His funeral is set for Monday in Mount Bethel, Pa.

Contributing: Associated Press