My Hero, Zero

My Hero, Zero
General information
Feature films	Multiplication Rock
Shows	Schoolhouse Rock!
Composer	Bob Dorough
Lyrics	Bob Dorough
Performers	Bob Dorough The Lemonheads (Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks)
Video

"My Hero, Zero" is a song in Schoolhouse Rock!, which can be seen in Multiplication Rock. The song teaches us the importance of the number zero and how much of a hero it is.

Lyrics

Girl: Zero?

Narrator: Yeah, Zero is a wonderful thing. In fact, Zero is my hero!

Girl: How can Zero be a hero?

Narrator: Well, there are all kinds of heroes, you know.
A man can get to be a hero for a famous battle he fought...
Or by studying very hard and becoming a weightless astronaut.

And then there are heroes of other sorts,
Like the heroes we know from watching sports.
But a hero doesn't have to be a grown up person, you know.
A hero can be a very big dog who comes to your rescue,
Or a very little boy who's smart enough to know what to do.

But let me tell you about my favorite hero.

[Soundtrack includes this extra bit of dialogue]

Did you ever stop to think about zero? Zero is fantastic. Why, without the concept of zero, we'd never be able to multiply, divide, add, subtract, or even to count very high.

My hero, Zero, such a funny little hero,
But till you came along,
We counted on our fingers and toes.
Now you're here to stay.
And nobody really knows
How wonderful you are.
Why, we could never reach a star
Without you, Zero, my hero,
How wonderful you are.

Girl: What's so wonderful about a zero? It's nothing, isn't it?

Narrator: Sure, it represents nothing alone.

But place a zero after one,
And you've got yourself a 10.
See how important that is?
When you run out of digits,
You can start all over again.
See how convenient that is?

That's why with only ten digits including zero,
You can count as high as you could ever go...
Forever, towards infinity...
No one ever gets there, but you could try.

With 10 billion zeroes,
From the cavemen till the heroes, who invented you,
They counted on their fingers and toes.
And maybe some sticks and stones.

Girl: Or rocks and bones.

Narrator: Or their neighbors' toes.
And nobody really knows
How wonderful you are.
Why, we could never reach the star
Without you, Zero, my hero,
Zero, how wonderful you are.

Place one zero after any number,
And you've multiplied that number by 10.
See how easy that is.
Place two zeroes after any number,
And you've multiplied that number by 100.
See how simple that is.
Place three zeroes after any number,
And you've multiplied that number by 1,000.

Et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad astra, forever and ever,
With zero, my hero, how wonderful you are.

Trivia

• Bob Dorough's child, Aralee Dorough, voices the girl in the song.
• Zero's outfit resembles the suit worn by Superman.
• Voted #11 of the top 25 favorite Schoolhouse Rock! songs.

v - e - d

Media Schoolhouse Rock! • Schoolhouse Rock Live! • Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong Songs Schoolhouse Rocky Multiplication: My Hero, Zero • Elementary, My Dear • Three is a Magic Number • The Four-Legged Zoo • Ready or Not, Here I Come • I Got Six • Lucky Seven Sampson • Figure Eight • Naughty Number Nine • The Good Eleven • Little Twelvetoes Grammar: Unpack Your Adjectives • Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here • Conjunction Junction • Interjections! • Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla • Verb: That's What's Happening • A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing • Busy Prepositions • The Tale of Mr. Morton America: No More Kings • Fireworks • The Shot Heard 'Round the World • The Preamble • Elbow Room • The Great American Melting Pot • Mother Necessity • Sufferin' Till Suffrage • I'm Just a Bill • Three Ring Government • I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College • Presidential Minute Science: The Body Machine • Do the Circulation • Electricity, Electricity • The Energy Blues • Interplanet Janet • Telegraph Line • Them Not-So-Dry Bones • A Victim of Gravity • The Weather Show Money: Dollars and Sense • $7.50 Once a Week • Where the Money Goes • Tax Man Max • Walkin' on Wall Street • This for That • Tyrannosaurus Debt • The Check's in the Mail Earth: Report from the North Pole • The Little Things We Do • The Trash Can Band • You Oughta Be Saving Water • The Rainforest • Save the Ocean • Fat Cat Blue: The Clean Rivers Song • A Tiny Urban Zoo • Solar Power to the People • Windy and the Windmills • Don't Be a Carbon Sasquatch • The Three R's Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips Theme • Hardware • Software • Number Cruncher Characters Schoolhouse Rocky • Bill