The song was Lehrer's earliest—and for a while his only—musical work and was included on
Songs by Tom Lehrer, a debut album recorded at Trans Radio Studios,
Boston, on January 22, 1953. Starting with a
press run of 400 copies of the then-novel
10" LP record format produced by Lehrer at his own expense, these records were sold in stores around
Harvard Square. In speaking about "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" and the rest of his satirical repertoire that brought him a certain level of fame as an
undergraduate, Lehrer says he did not write to gain popularity but rather: I mostly thought these songs weren’t of interest to anyone! I wrote ‘Fight Fiercely, Harvard’ in 1945. That’s the earliest song on any of my records. The others were written a little later. I wrote a lot of songs for special occasions ... silly songs, songs about math, and so on, but nothing else that would be recordable until 1948. Lehrer has also said of his undergraduate
songwriting: The only one of those songs that eventually made it into my repertoire was 'Fight Fiercely, Harvard,' which was written in 1945 and shows it. I started singing these songs at parties, but never with the intention of their becoming commercial. Lehrer later responded to rumors that he had stopped performing because the displeasure of Harvard University's administration over the satirical lyrics of "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" threatened to ruin his career, by saying: ...my stimulus came from humor however grim the humor may have been at the base. I wasn't burning when I wrote these songs...it amazes me that anyone would think a song making fun of the football team was grounds for expulsion. and was included on their 75th anniversary album released in 1995. The song remains fairly well known in the Harvard community. On visiting Harvard for the first time in decades, Lehrer was pleased to find that his song had been performed at every home football game for many years. ==Theme==