Making Radium (On the Radio - Donna Summer)

(Because, many historical anachronisms notwithstanding, I like to believe that Marie and Pierre Curie celebrated their Nobel Prize in Physics with a Donna Summer dance party. And yes, I know the prize wasn't technically for making radium, but more for the discovery of and work with radiation and that the Radium Girls weren't happening around that time. Don't think I don't care and obsess over scientific accuracy; I do, but sometimes a little bit of inaccuracy fits the song better.)


Someone won the Nobel Prize for making radium

And they'll get a medal made of gold

They must have overlooked my contributions and experiments

They said the laureates

were Pierre and Becquerel


Whoa You were mad, complained to them, and so they added me

Now I'll get a Nobel medal too

We can't go there in person; we're too busy working here in Pare-ee

But they're celebrating us, in Sweden for


making Radium

Whoa, oh, oh

making Radium

Whoa oh oh oh

making Radium

Whoa, oh, oh

making Radium

Whoa, oh, oh


Now, now

Don't it kinda strike you sad when you hear our work

is being used to make all the watch faces glow

The girls who paint them ingest the radium, and they get sick

It causes pain and anemia, death and woe


Whoa, oh, yeah, yeah

And it made me feel proud when I heard you say

You couldn't find the elements by yourself

And now in my heart I know radiation's making me sick

But they're celebrating us, in Sweden for


making Radium

Whoa, oh, oh

making Radium

Whoa, oh, oh

making Radium

Whoa, oh, oh

making Radium

Whoa oh oh

making Radium


If you think that love can't be found making radium

Well come right in you may find an isotope

'Cause now I'm sitting here with my daughter and her Nobel Prize

They're celebrating us, in Sweden for


making Radium

Whoa, oh, oh

making Radium

Whoa, oh, oh

making Radium

Whoa, oh, oh

making Radium

Whoa oh oh

making Radium