Rolling Children's Music Thread

It's worth mentioning the St Etienne children's album - that came with Tales from Turnpike House. Let's Build a Zoo is great.

Other than that, the modern things I've heard are all a bit crap. My son is still young enough (18 months) that he seems to like anything. He pogos to techno for some reason, and does funny little hand-jives to disco.

My little one likes disco, bluegrass and any version of "The Wheels On The Bus" that's available.

And she likes Raffi too. I've gone off him since I found out he refuses to play "Shake Your Sillies Out" anymore. Thinks he's like the Lou Reed of children's music or something.

Raffi's all right. Didn't even know he was still touring -- haven't seen him come around my way. Dan Zanes is in San Francisco every year, so we've seen him a few times; otherwise we mostly see folks at the Temescal Street Fair in our old neighborhood in Oakland.

Raffi lives near here so maybe that's why he plays occasionally. As far as I can gather, he's principally involved with environmental issues these days. He cut a single with David Suzuki this year (also a local resident).

I just gave my copy of They Might Be Giants "No" to my boss for his 4-year-old. "I Am Not Your Broom" and the title track are reported to be hits. I've got "Don't Cross the Street in the Middle" stuck in my head.

Speaking as someone who owns about 7 TMBGs albums, I hate their children's stuff. I think my children just prefer their first four regular albums.

The Los Lobos children's album is done along the same lines as the Buckwheat Zydeco one; it's not as good, but nothing else is, really.

We didn't play our kids any kind of damn folk music, but some people like that stuff. My advice is: Sesame Street themed comps.

Re: St Etienne. "Let's Build A Zoo" is a cute song if you like that kinda twee side of St Etienne, but way too busy for children to pay attention to.

This topic is dear to my heart but let me start by contributing my Raffi anecdote. A friend of a friend used to work for him (yes that's right, you have just witnessed the lamest name-drop ever) right when he got radicalized and started to refuse to play his older stuff because he no longer wanted to be pigeonholed. He'd sit in the wings refusing to go on stage because "there's no one but kids out there!" Apparently what changed his life was reading the Zinn People's History, which he'd sometimes carry around in order to corner people and recite to them paragraph after paragraph of information that those around him had usually managed to discover independently. Choice quote, iirc: "Did you realize that the original colonies were built by SLAVES???"

What, no Bill Harley?
Seek out the albums "There's a Pea on My Plate," "Down in the Backpack" or, if you want to get to the goods right away, "Play It Again: Favorite Songs (& One New Story)."
He's also a contributor to NPR's "All Things Considered" and finally won a Grammy this year after years of being nominated. Harley's music, like Zanes's, is the polar opposite of Raffi's, which seems to have been designed specifically to annoy parents.
Speaking of Raffi, I interviewed him at a swank waterfront hotel in Boston several years ago. He's got micromanaging PR people and an entourage that would rival some rock stars.

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of kid-friendly music: Yo La Tengo's Fakebook, NRBQ, the TMBG best of, Jonathan Richman, Sally Timms' Twilight Laments, the Mekons' Bob Wills tribute. And select songs: Hey Ya, Surfin' Bird, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, and Wooly Bully come to mind right now. But Dan Zanes and Laurie Berkner are still the king and queen as far as our son's concerned.

I made my own Jonathan Richman disc of all the greatest child-friendly moments, but "Back In Your Life", "Jonathan Goes Country", "Rockin' and Romance" and "Modern Lovers Live" are all particularly rich with choice material.

Gotta echo the TMBG, Mekons/Langford/Timms, Jonathan Richman recommendations. Also love Bloodshot's _The Bottle Let Me Down_ and _Wee Hairy Beasties_ comps.

My kids (4.5, 2.5 and 3 months) listen to what I listen to - punk, post-punk, 80s, alt country, indie/NZ/AU rock, James Brown, Louis Prima, yadda yadda yadda. I often forget about a bad word in something and have to jump to hit skip. And the 4 year old tells me how much he likes my music. But I do them a disservice because I rarely play the same thing twice in a month and kids NEED repitition.

Nora does not, on the whole, listen to what I listen to, and I find this very unsurprising -- musically, lyrically, as sound scape, why would she care about Sleater-Kinney or Bob Dylan or De La Soul or Otis Redding at age four? I encourage her to have her own tastes and preferences, and she does.

For all that, it makes it all the more interesting to see what of my music she actually likes. Mostly, it's dance stuff: we romp around the house singing "Tutti Fruiti, aw Rudy, wamp bomp a lou bop a wamp bam boom" all the time, and from there selected Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, and KC & the Sunshine Band follow. (I actually hate KC & the Sunshine Band, but she thought "Shake Your Booty" was the funniest thing ever on the radio and the next thing I knew I was downloading it and a few others for her.) She's also way into Bob Marley.

Other miscellaneous songs she loves include

Sheena Is A Punk Rocker -- admittedly, since our Cat is named Sheena, there was a special hook to this one
Jackie Wilson Said
Why Can't We Be Friends?
Shiny Happy People
I Ain't Got No Home
Hit the Road Jack

While these are all favorites of mine, too, it's pretty obvious that they are a particular kind of thing -- dancy without a hard beat, highly melodic, full of nonsense words, gimmicky. If all I ever heard was this stuff I'd go crazy.

Kid's Corner in Philly on XPN has a lot of great children's music, though a bit more nasally clever-dude acoustic tunes than I can imagine even a toddler being able to stand without some relief...but one staple is "What Kind of Cat Are You" by Billy Jonas, which might be fun for kids and parents alike.

If you're not opposed to Disney product and/or teenpop thread crossovers, the Disneymania comps of Disney tunes sung by current teenpop stars tend to be pretty good. Also recommend Devo 2.0, though that might be more for slightly older kids (I think the Go-Gos are next in the 2.0 series).

My boys are welcome to have their own tastes - except we rarely play the radio and the only thing they've ever requested is The Triplets Of Bellville soundtrack. So, really, the only music they're exposed to is what I listen to and the occasional classical station their mother listens to. Otherwise, silence is fine by them.

I think the main difference is that from the beginning I was consciously combatting the collections with Three Blind Mice and Hot Cross Buns that my mother-in-law was plying her with . . .

We did get a handful of kids CDs that almost immediately went to the give-away pile. Most of my friends and family know that handling the musical education of my kids is my job. :-)

Having said that, I know that some or all of them will dislike everything I love and only listen to (pick one: hair metal, 60s rock, hip-hop, classic rock, the latest top 40).

I don't have any kids, but I was one once. And when I was, I repped Barry Louis Polisar. He came to my elementary school a few times back in the 80s and is apparently still quite active on that circuit. I'm still pretty big on "One Day My Best Friend Barbara Turned Into A Frog" and "My Brother Threw Up on My Stuffed Toy Bunny", among others.

Hip Hop Harry -- Jammy Jams

I can't find hardouthereforahoos.jpg : (

I love that TMBG song "I am not your broom" :D

Hey KK vs G: Barry Louis Polisar is God. OK< maybe not, but if they held an election for God, I'd vote for him. What a lucky kid you were! How old were you when you saw him?

My kids, aged 7 and 2, seem happy if I just put on upbeat electronic stuff they can swirl around and dance to. Nothing too spooky or frantic. The blippier the better. Booka Shade, Casino vs Japan were hits. Seven year old adores 80s styled synthpop. Madonna especially. She became inexplicably attached to a Madness cutout she found in our stacks, the one with the runners on the cover. Was very excited to meet our hometown synthpop band Gerty, aka The Ex Members.

Emma as a youngster loved Pizzicato Five and Bis (I've told the story before about how busted I was when she memorized the chorus to "I'm a Slut" and sang it at dinner).

Forgot about this one: Micky Dolenz Puts You To Sleep - lullaby covers of old pop chestnuts, lots of Beatles and Nilsson, closing with The Porpoise Song. Completely great.

What I'm looking for now are children's DVDs with great music. Favorites so far are The Point, 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, Van Dyke Parks' Harold and the Purple Crayon, and a Maurice Sendak Where The Wild Things Are set with PDQ Bach and Carole King. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

BED BED BED by They Might Be Giants is brilliant!

My kids have had a wide range of musical tastes, of which I have expanded often on here. I shall try and paint a larger picture here.

(shortly)

I remember getting a cheap copy of "Rock and roll High School" mailorder, and wanting to play it right then. Alice (three, then) was into the Tweenies, and wasn't best pleased at this being interrupted. 90 mins later, she wanted the whole film played again. This, I think, was a turning point in her musical tastes.

She loves DeLaSoul (for a whole year, "three is a magic number" was her fav, until she turned four, and said she was sad as 3 would no longer be her magic number. To which we replied "but you were born on the third day of the third month, so three will always be your magic number". Which cheered her, and it still is.

Amber liked a variety of kids music, but on seeing Kate Bush doing Wuthering Heights at age three (again), said it was "the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life!"

I tried them on that StEt kids CD, to absolutely no interest at all. They did like the first Captain Beefheart album though.

Alice is a fully developed Rock Chick. She's not 24/7 obviously, but did love all the goth gear she saw in Camden. She'd like all the "Emily" stuff, and she's found some ripoff similar stuff under the brand name of "Bad Alice" which she loves for obvious reasons. Right now, she looks like Cat Power.

Amber is more into Girly things, but likes most of the stuff Alice does. They both go for Girls Aloud, Green Day (Alice more), Kate Nash, Razorlight, and the videos you see on Freeserve channel 18 when they go back..back.. (aha, Culture Club, so many things). Amber looks a cross between LLohan and NKidman.

I had to remind them about songs from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the other day, just to get them to stop singing "Fish Heads". Oh, and their favourite for a while was "I don't like your face" by Furious Pig.

The moral to all this is basically that they have very little preconceptions about what makes up good or bad, it's all about what it sounds like.

NON-CREEPY TEENPOP THREAD

haha, just kiddin'. when i were a nipper, the 'Hello Children Everywhere' compilations were awesome! Champion the Wonder Horse! Two Little Boys! Ernie who drove the fastest milk-cart in the West! Gillygillyossenfefferka...erm, maybe not ALL good, then, but still pretty stirring stuff.

and we can't be forgetting the legendary, the unbelievable, the monument of music "I'm A Pink Toothbrush", can we?

God I remember my cover of that "in the style of Sailor's "Girls Girls Girls"

The Putamayo cd French Playground is great. No! is classic for the song about Edison's museum.

My wife recently brought home a book/cd called Humpty Who?.

People -- I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH I HATE THIS! Good sweet fucking Christ, I'd rather listen to endless rotations of a Beyonce Sings The Scout Niblett Songbook Backed By Steely Dan. It's really making me want to fucking leap out the window.

Now, of course, it's not about me. My daughter ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT! I suppose I should be thankful -- at least it's better than the Dora/Diego shit she absolutely adores, but IT'S DRIVING ME AROUND THE BEND!

I want to find the vocalists responsible for this and hit them with big sticks.

Why must "children's music" so often equal shit?

Why must music in general so often equal shit, for that matter? The law of averages I guess.

Just discovered the Schoolhouse Rock phenomenon - we never got the programmes in Britain and with songs like "No More Kings" it's perhaps not hard to understand why but the songs themselves are fab and the Schoolhouse Rock Rocks! compilation from the nineties with Pavement, Ween, the Lemonheads etc. is superb, though I'm not sure how many children would listen to the latter.

My 2-year-old adores TMBG's "Here come the ABCs." His favorite "real song" is "Here Comes Your Man," by a mile.

While there certainly is loads of "regular" music that i've seen young kids enjoy -- I've done quite a bit of digging in the strictly defined "Children's Music" category. Here are a few observations:

Pregnancy/delivery/infancy -- Mickey Hart's Music to Be Born By can be a bit repetitive, but its fetal drone could put just about anybody into a coma.

Sesame Street -- they've got LOADS of good titles; my fave is The Year of (or also, My Name is..) Roosevelt Franklin - in fact, "The Skin i'm In is one of the coolest tracks you'll ever hear.

Laurie Berkner is simple and sing-songy, and even possibly enjoyable on the first couple listens -- after that, get ready to pull your hair out (you can also place The Wiggles in this same category).

Pirate Shanties (like "Blow the Man Down", or "What Do you Do with a Drunken Sailor") are always welcome, especially when peppered into a mix.

As mentioned upthread, i can confirm that Jonathan Richmond, TMBG, and Bob Wills can be tons of fun for all ages -- you can also include sugary stuff along the lines of Herman's Hermits, The Turtles, and even The Apples in Stereo.

Traditional Bluegrass almost always gets the kids moving and has become almost standard equipment at kiddie shindigs (Ska, too).

Another album i should mention is Baby Loves Jazz: Go Baby Go! - pretty cool stuff

The single best album i've encountered that just about everybody enjoys is Not For Kids Only by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, a total gem in my book.

My 2-year-old adores TMBG's "Here come the ABCs." His favorite "real song" is "Here Comes Your Man," by a mile.

-- Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, December 10, 2007 4:45 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

I'M betting this kid will rush a fraternity in 2023.

Also, I don't have kids, but I'm strangely drawn to Laurie Berkner

http://www.razorandtiemedia.com/photos/Laurie%20Berkner1_72dpi.jpg

I work in an environment where I have to hear these CDs constantly, so believe me when I say that the creators of Bad Mood Mom should be shot into the sun. It's incredibly irritating, condescending, and impossible to ignore.

I like Elizabeth Mitchell, though - nice folky tunes, without the "I am singing to children" voice that's so common with these albums. And the Mary Had a Little Amp CD is fun.

I want to push Laurie Berkner off of a cliff.

Wish I saw this a week earlier! I've been volunteering a kids music column for Rainbowrumpus.org, and just filed my year-end favorite songs and decade's-end album recommendations. Disclaimer: I don't have kids, so I haven't been exposed to these at the usual parent-level doses!

10 Great Kids Songs from 2009 (a mix)

1. "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles, from Yellow Submarine [original soundtrack remastered]
2. "Velveeta Girl and Squatsy" by Bunny Clogs, from More! More! More! (Princess Records) (actually late 2008)
3. "One Love"/"People Get Ready" by Bob Marley & the Wailers, from B Is for Bob (Tuff Gong/Island/UMe)
4. "Don't I Fit in My Daddy's Shoes" by Sarah Lee Guthrie & Family, Go Waggaloo (Smithsonian Folkways)
5. "Over the Rainbow" sung by Judy Garland, from The Wizard of Oz: The Deluxe Edition (Rhino digital download)
6. "Cells" by They Might Be Giants, from Here Comes Science (Idlewild/Disney Sound)
7. "Imagination" by Peter Himmelman, from My Trampoline (MiniVan/Frinny)
8. "That's Not My Name" [U.S. radio edit] by the Ting Tings, from various artists, Now That's What I Call Music 31 (Sony/EMI/Universal/Zomba) (though this contains the barely audible word "hell")
9. "Creepy Crawly Love" by Noah Riemer, from various artists, House of Mercy Kids' Album, Volume 1 (House of Mercy Recordings)
10. "New River Train" by Cathy & Marcy with special guest Christylez Bacon, Banjo to Beatbox (Cathymarcy.com/Community Music)

10 Excellent Kids Albums from the 2000s[/b]

1. They Might Be Giants, Here Come the 123s (Walt Disney), 2008
2. Marlo Thomas and Friends, Free to Be You and Me [original recording remastered] (Arista), 2006
3. Various artists, The Bottle Let Me Down: Songs for Bumpy Wagon Rides (Bloodshot), 2002
4. Various artists, African Playground (Putamayo Kids), 2003
5. Dan Zanes and Friends, The Welcome Table! Songs of Inspiration, Mystery & Good Times (Festival Five), 2008
6. Ralph's World, Welcome to Ralph's World (Disney Sound), 2006
7. Various artists, Baby Loves Hip Hop presents the Dino 5 (Baby Loves Everything), 2008
8. Various artists, Songs for the Car (Universal Music Family), 2008
9. The Jimmies, Make Your Own Someday: Silly Songs for the Shorter Set (The Jimmies), 2006
10. Various artists, Madagascar: Motion Picture Soundtrack (Geffen), 2005

What other regular old pop songs or rap songs from the last decade would make good kids songs?

Ting Tings is well called.

I've got a few scrappy and badly organised suggestions.

* Alvin and the Chipmunks seem to have infallible little snouts for the kind of track that translates well into a kids' song.

* Plus I don't think you can go wrong investigating anything that has a reggae/dancehall flavour, as kids seem to always love this stuff.

* Blackout Crew - 'Put A Donk On It'

* Mantronix - 'Who Is It?'

Last one is not from last decade I just realised. Sorry.

the Mekons have a children's album under the name Wee Hairy Beasties

The original songs from Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein/The Wolfman animated features were pretty good, but I had to rip them straight out of the movie. Actually, a lot of our listening are tv theme songs that I've copied to mp3. "The Future Is Wild" from Discovery Kids is a big hit these days.

I bought him the TMBG science album, but we have not listened yet.

Here Comes Science doesn't seem to have that spark of anthropomorphic inspiration that made Here Come the 123s so silly and moving--but it's admittedly a much tougher project. It makes me appreciate Python's "The Galaxy Song" all over again.

my one-year old doesn't really know what to make of Flipper, but he enjoys Throbbing Gristle alright.

yeah, I was really looking forward to Here Comes Science but it's not quite as fun

guess now that I have a baby I should really start looking at this thread more often

We'll have to isolate some other child from ever hearing Flipper as the "control."

Marlo Thomas put out another kid's record this decade--who knew?
http://www.amazon.com/Thanks-Giving-Year-Long-Companion/dp/B000641Z54

I have been listening to the old 1962 Disney Halloween sound effects record and the end of the Chinese Water Torture section is amazingly racist. Not that I find that too surprising.

Anyway, I've been Djing it a lot lately.

my wife and I recorded an album for our baby (and our soon-to-be niece). we finally got around to making a page for it, you can stream it or download it for free here:

http://scarequotes.net/heykid.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl35iuZUh3I&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIUbbaZMSb8&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2RIHHippIw&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzVmxWQOPBQ&feature=related

I realize this may have limited appeal, but I have been discovering some really great classic Israeli children's music. This is from a sort of concept album about childhood in which several big-name singers/poets collaborated. The song is called "the prettiest girl in the kindergarten" and is sung from the point of view of another girl who admires that girl and can't understand why such a girl would ever be sad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu2uORJVJFQ

This one is by Arik Einstein, a sort of Leonard Cohen-esque singer who had a child late in life and made a kids album. It's about a man named Mr. Chocolate Milk who decides to go visit his friend whose name is also Mr. Chocolate Milk. When they get together, they talk about what they want to do, they decided they should visit their friend, Mr. Chocolate Milk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ij1CaPrQio&list=PLDmvsBA8kQmowMDumDeGyqhGK2t8S5glq

it has neat guitar licks