"I'm just a bill. Yes I am only a bill. And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill."

"Conjunction Junction, what's your function." "My hero, zero." "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly get your adverbs here."

These are some of the lyrics that live on 40 years after they premiered on Saturday mornings on ABC television as part of "Schoolhouse Rock."

They were animated videos and songs invented by a jazz musician who wanted to help children learn math.

Kids never really had any idea they were learning how a bill becomes a law or proper grammar while watching the three-minute shorts between cartoons.

Jazz pianist and vocalist Bob Dorough was approached in 1971 by a New York advertising executive whose sons could not multiply. He asked him to set the multiplication tables to music.

Dorough ended up writing "Three's a Magic Number" and other well known videos. He also voiced many of them.

Dorough, who is 89 and still performs, said he gets requests from adults to sing some of the bits because they grew up on them -- often times recognizing his voice.

"Schoolhouse Rock" premiered on Jan. 13, 1973, and ran on ABC from 1973-1985. It came back in the 1990s for five more years. More than 30 million people have now watched some of them on YouTube, showing that Dorough's work still resonates.

It is not just the catchy words that connected with kids. They were combined with interesting visuals.