HAL Sings Daisy

Arthur C. Clarke chose HAL’s 2001 music cuz ’twas the same ditty demo-ed by Bell Labs, turning the IBM 704 into the 1st singing computer. Lots more 20001-Daisy related videos, links, audio, and history at Switched, “‘2001’ Geeks, Rejoice! World Learns Why HAL Sang ‘Daisy’.”

We’ll leave you with “this historic recording was made by D.H. Van Lenten in 1962 as part of a series of experiments at Bell Laboratories to understand the nature of speech and hearing.” From Vintage Computer Music, “Computer Speech Demonstration w/ “Bicycle Built for Two” (2:19 mp3):