Why is it Called Daisy?
April 27, 2026 - Danny Turner
At first glance, Electrosmith’s Daisy platform seems worlds away from a whimsical Victorian parlor tune about a bicycle built for two. However, dig a little deeper and you’ll come to discover how the Daisy platform carries forward the legacy of Max Mathews’ famous IBM 7094-singing “Daisy Bell” tune.
Just as the simple, familiar melody once demonstrated that computers could create music and opened the door to decades of innovation in digital audio, Daisy Seed empowers modern creators to turn code, hardware, and sensors into expressive sound. But first, let’s rewind the tape and explain why we chose “Daisy Bell” as our namesake.
“Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)”
Harry Dacre on his bicycle.
Written in 1892 by British songwriter Harry Dacre, the song “Daisy Bell” is a familiar-sounding blend of catchy melody and historical significance that has endured throughout modern media in parodies, cartoons, movies, TV shows, and even video games! The song itself was suggested to be inspired by Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick - one of the many mistresses of King Edward VII. However, the unquestionable spark for the tune was ignited when Dacre arrived in the United States for the first time and was instructed to pay import duty on his bicycle.
When a friend remarked that it was lucky he didn’t bring ‘a bicycle built for two’ as it would have meant paying double the duty, Dacre was so taken by the comment that he decided to use it in a song. “Daisy Bell” was originally recorded and released by Dan W. Quinn the following year, and first became successful following a London music hall performance by vocalist Katie Lawrence. Since being introduced into the musical vernacular, the song has been endlessly revived, recorded, and parodied.
Max Mathews
Max Mathews performing his radio baton.
Fast forward to 1961, when electronic music pioneer Max Mathews was busy turning sound into numbers at the famed industrial research and scientific development organization, Bell Labs. Fascinated by the idea of converting analog information into digital form, the pioneer developed the MUSIC-N family of programming languages, designed specifically for creating music with computers.
Mathews had studied electrical engineering at the California Institute of Technology and earned his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining Bell Labs in 1955. Mentored by John R. Pierce and working alongside computer programmers John L. Kelly Jr. and Carol Lochbaum, he experimented by connecting his violin to an IBM 704 mainframe computer, capturing and synthesizing live sound for playback - an unprecedented achievement at the time.
In 1961, however, Mathews and Kelly went further and programmed an IBM 7094 to perform Dacre’s Daisy Bell song. Choosing it due to its simple, well-known melody, it famously became the first computer-synthesized vocal performance - a foundational moment in computer-generated audio, laying the groundwork for a host of breakthroughs, both mechanical and musical.
Daisy Bell in Technology and Pop Culture
Since Max Mathews’ groundbreaking work, Daisy Bell has continued to inspire in key moments throughout tech and pop culture. Researchers used it in 1974 to study dichotic listening – an experiment whereby the brain is forced to process conflicting information, and in 1975, an Altair 8800 computer was programmed to play the song using radio interference.
During the early ‘80s, Digital Equipment Corporation used the song to demo its innovative DECtalk text-to-speech technology, while Christopher C. Capon created a program for the Commodore 64 home computer that enabled its floppy disk drive to “sing” Daisy Bell. Other usages include the computer “office assistant” BonziBUDDY - depicted in the form of a purple monkey on your computer screen, which could be made to sing Daisy Bell upon instruction.
Perhaps most famously, however, having witnessed a demonstration of the IBM 7094 during a trip to Bell Labs, science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke took note and incorporated Daisy Bell into his screenplay for the 1968 sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which the HAL 9000 computer sings the tune as the power ebbs out of its circuits during deactivation.
Ever since the aforementioned Dan W. Quinn produced a wax cylinder recording of Daisy Bell in 1893, pop music culture has also referenced the song, with cover versions recorded by the likes of Nat King Cole and Britpop band Blur. In 2014, in conjunction with Mark Ryden’s exhibit "The Gay 90s," an album of Daisy Bell reinterpretations was released featuring contributions by artists from a diverse range of genres, including Katy Perry, Nick Cave, Metallica, and Tyler, The Creator.
The Daisy Seed
Today, Electrosmith’s Daisy platform carries forward the spirit of Daisy Bell, with the song’s vivid history reflecting the platform's goal: making it easier to "teach computers to sing" by making advanced digital sound synthesis accessible to creators in the same way that Mathews made computers sing for the first time.
Just as Daisy Bell bridged the gap between melody and machine, the Daisy Seed microcontroller platform allows musicians, sound designers, and hobbyists to turn code, hardware, and sensors into expressive audio in real time, proving how a simple tune about a bicycle built for two can still inspire innovation more than a century later.