Title: Three is a Magic Number
Music & Lyrics by: Bob Dorough
Performed by: Bob Dorough
First aired: 1973
My rank: #3

How fitting, right? “Three is a Magic Number” comes in at, what else, #3 on my top ten Schoolhouse Rocks.

Who knew that when Bob Dorough put together this first episode in the series that it would go on to be the first of over seventy vignettes produced for the Schoolhouse Rock universe.

Dorough’s mastery of lyrics and melodies comes through emphatically on this track. The beginning has always put me in a very peaceful, loving mood. In a word, it’s “sweet” as he describes all the threes that we see all around us. The beat changes rapidly when he breaks down how to multiply by three, compliments of the jersey numbers on a team of running football players. We’re even treated to a reversal of the numbers from thirty down to three just to make sure everyone is on the same page. Could something this short — the pre-requisite three minutes — actually work to teach a child how to master his or her times tables? Yes.

Last year my daughter was having trouble with her threes in school. Her mother had tried everything but Gwen was still unable to commit them to memory, which surprised both of us. After dinner one night at IHOP (mmm, mmm, breakfast for dinner) I decided that I ought to call upon the very thing that helped me master my threes, “Three is a Magic Number”. We sat in the parking lot and I fired up the tune on my iPod. She immediately took to the tune and after two listenings I began to quiz her. On the drive home I had her repeat, in musical form, the song verbatim. By the time we made it back so I could drop her off she was ready to be quizzed by her mother. With each question she’d close her eyes and I could see her replaying the song in her head. She answered each and every equation correctly including one that went beyond what the song teaches. Needless to say I had to tip my hat once again to Schoolhouse Rock.

Combining the music, the cleverness and its obvious practicality, “Three is a Magic Number”’s spot as my #3 favorite episode is well deserved.

Favorite lines – The count up from 3 to thirty as well as “A man and a woman had a little baby / Yes, they did / They had three in the family / And that’s a magic number.”

The lyrics:

Three is a magic number,
Yes it is, it’s a magic number.
Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity
You get three as a magic number.

The past and the present and the future.
Faith and Hope and Charity,
The heart and the brain and the body
Give you three as a magic number.

It takes three legs to make a tri-pod
Or to make a table stand.
It takes three wheels to make a ve-hicle
Called a tricycle.

Every triangle has three corners,
Every triangle has three sides,
No more, no less.
You don’t have to guess.
When it’s three you can see
It’s a magic number.

A man and a woman had a little baby,
Yes, they did.
They had three in the family,
And that’s a magic number.

3-6-9, 12-15-18, 21-24-27, 30.
3-6-9, 12-15-18, 21-24-27, 30.
Multiply backwards from three times ten:

Three time ten is (30), three times nine is (27),
Three times eight is (24), three times seven is (21),
Three times six is (18), three times five is (15),
Three times four is twelve,
And three times three is nine, and three times two is six,
And three times one is three of course.

Now take the pattern once more:
Three! . . .3-6-9
Twelve! . . .12-15-18
Twenty-one!. . .21-24-27. . .30

Now multiply from 10 backwards:
Three time ten is (30 – Keep going), three times nine is (27),
Three times eight is (24), three times seven is (21),
Three times six is (18), three times five is (15),
Three times four is twelve,
And three times three is nine, and three times two is six,
And three times one…
What is it?!
Three!
Yeah, That’s a magic number.

A man and a woman had a little baby.
Yes, they did.
They had three in the family.
That’s a magic number.