I have one first cousin, and two first cousins once removed, all under the age of ten. For Christmas, I plan to make them a mix CD of children’s music with an illustrated sing-along book to go with it. Obviously, the first step is to come up with a good track list, so I’ve been skimming through Amazon’s and iTunes’s digital download shops to see what I can find.
I’m looking for some fun, singable family-friendly songs that aren’t cloying or condescending. Any songs written or sung by a woman would be especially appreciated, since all three of my cousins are girls and the majority of the children’s music I’ve found has been done by men.
So far all I’ve got nailed down is a couple of TMBG songs and Jonathan Coulton’s “The Princess Who Saved Herself.” What else have you got, Dopers?
Actually, all of the TMBG children’s albums are great. I listen to them on my own without the kids on a regular basis. They’ve got “Here Come the ABCs,” “Here come the 123s,” and “Here Comes Science,” which is my personal favorite. Also “No!” which is a little older.
I’m well aware of their children’s albums, but I’d like a bit more variety in the mix CD, or I might as well just get lazy and buy 'em each a copy of Here Come the ABCs.
About 13 years ago, I had a fail-safe CD called For Our Children. It was classic/contemporary artists singing kid-friendly songs. I once had to listen to it for 9 hours straight (Autistic toddler, long car ride), and didn’t even commit homicide afterwards.
Bette Midler, Pat Benetar, Sting, Springsteen, John Lennon… Lots of good stuff. Bonus: proceeds from the sales of the CD went to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Both of mine are somewhaty standard lyrics-wise but musically they’re not:
Lunch Money – musically they’re pretty close to TMBG, except the singer is more of a female 90s-alt-singer like the Sundays or Bjork.
Justin Roberts – Okay, his singing voiceis your standard clowny Weird Al-ish voice, but the music and the phrasing of the singing are straight from 2000s pop-punk.
Well… this may all depend of course on your definitions of “fun” and “family-friendly”… but quite a few of JoCo’s songs appeal to my under-10 son (just turned 9 and has been enjoying Coulton for a couple of years).
High amongst these are Code Monkey, The Future Soon, Skullcrusher Mountain, and re. Your Brains (especially that last one, which involves leaping around playing air-guitar).
He’s also a fan of Paul and Storm’s *Live *and Cruel, Cruel Moon. I’d avoid however The Captain’s Wife’s Lament… despite being a rollicking good sea shanty… at some point I’m going to have to explain the double entendre to him…
(Paul and Storm’s, and Jonathan Coulton’s music all also has the advantage of begin released under a Creative Commons license… though naturally I’d of course encourage anyone to pay the artists if they enjoy them).
Tom Chapin. He’s Harry Chapin’s brother, and a very good songwriter in his own right. I especially like Moonboat. The songs hold up very well for adults, too.
Sandra Boyton’s Philadelphia Chickens. My kids at 15 and 12 and we still have fun singing the songs. Great music, great vocalists and excellent lyrics.
The Old Town School of Folk in Chicago has a music program for kids called the Wiggleworms and Wigglegrads. They put out a couple of CDs (1 & 2), which I find myself listening to even when my little one isn’t in the car.
These are folk songs done by professionals, so it’s not some studio-produced crap done on a Casio.
