THE LEMONHEADS - MY HERO, ZERO

MY HERO ZERO

THE LEMONHEADS

SONGWRITER: BOB DOROUGH

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK! ROCKS

LABEL: ATLANTIC RECORDS

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1996

 

          Robert Lrod Dorough (December 12, 1923 – April 23, 2018) was an American bebop and cool jazz vocalist, pianist, composer, songwriter, arranger, and producer. Dorough became famous as the composer and performer of songs in the series Schoolhouse Rock! as well as for his work with Miles Davis, Blossom Dearie, and others.

       Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks is a tribute album based on the Emmy Award-winning animated TV series, Schoolhouse Rock!. It was released by Atlantic/Hollywood Records in 1996 and contains 15 tracks, the original "Schoolhouse Rocky" theme and covers of 14 songs from the series performed by popular music artists. There was also a promo-only 7" single distributed to promote this album featuring the Man or Astro-man? track and the Pavement track. This single was pressed on yellow vinyl. "Three Is a Magic Number" was one of the last recordings made by Blind Melon's Shannon Hoon, who died of a drug overdose in October 1995.

          A portion of the sales of the album went to the Children's Defense Fund.

[Intro: Girl & Narrator]

Zero?

Yeah, zero is a wonderful thing. In fact, Zero is my hero!

How can zero be a hero?

Well, there are all kinds of heroes, you know. A man can get to be a hero for a famous battle he fought or by studying very hard and becoming a weightless astronaut

Wow

And then there are heroes of other sorts, like the heroes we know from watching sports

Oh

But a hero doesn't have to be a grown up person, you know a hero can be a very big dog who comes to your rescue or a very little boy who’s smart enough to know what to do. But let me tell you about my favorite hero

 

[Verse 1]

My hero, Zero, such a funny little hero

But 'til you came along, we counted on our fingers and toes

 

Now, you're here to stay, and nobody really knows

How wonderful you are, why we could never reach a star

Without you, Zero, my hero, how wonderful you are

 

[Bridge 1: Girl & Narrator]

What’s so wonderful about a zero? It's nothing, isn't it?

Sure, it represents nothing alone

 

[Chorus 1]

But place a zero after one, and you've got yourself a ten

See how important that is?

When you run out of digits, you can start all over again

See how convenient that is?

That's why with only ten digits including zero

You can count as high as you could ever go

Forever, towards infinity

No one ever gets there, but you could try

 

[Verse 2]

Ten billion zeros, from the cavemen to the weirdos

Who invented you, they counted on their fingers and toes

Or maybe some sticks and stones (rocks and bones)

Their neighbors' toes?

 

Yeah yeah, and nobody really knows

How wonderful you are, why we could never reach the star

Without you, Zero, my hero, Zero, how wonderful you are

 

[Chorus 2]

Place one zero after any number

And you've multiplied that number by ten

See how easy that is?

Place two zeros after any number

And you've multiplied that number by one hundred

See how simple that is?

Place three zeros after any number

And you’ve multiplied that number by one thousand

 

[Outro]

Et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum

Ad astra, forever and ever

With Zero, my hero, how wonderful you are.