I have a 7 month old daughter and, of course, many hours of (admittedly boring to virtually everyone but me and my husband) home video footage and pictures. I use the program Muvee to make photo/video montages that make it significantly less painful for other family members to watch highlights of MacKenzie’s life so far.
The program basically automatically edits your footage into something resembling a music video. It’s pretty neat and really quick. Anyway, here are some songs I’ve used so far as background:
Paul Simon’s “Beautiful” and “Father and Daughter”, both from his new album
“My Girl” by the Temptations
“Avalon of the Heart” (her middle name), “Youth of 1000 Summers” and “Enlightenment” by Van Morrison
“Sweet Child of Mine” by Guns and Roses
Various Christmas songs
I’m running out of ideas for songs to use and I’m looking for some input. I’d prefer not to use children’s songs, because they tend to be irritating, but I am open to all other suggestions.
What songs does she get a kick out of? When she looks at these videos when she’s older, you can tell her that that was her favorite song when she was little.
Signed,
– Kalhoun (who just played Circle Games, which was Kid Kalhoun’s favorite for a while when he was about 4. It took me 10 minutes to compose myself.)
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Israel mumblemumble. Of course, I think this song would work well for just about anything, so much do I love it.
“Loves Me Like a Rock” by Paul Simon
ETA: “Riding in My Car” by a ton of people. I like the Bruce Springsteen version. Lyrics here. Though this might just be better for watching the baby dance to it.
I made a DVD for my daughter’s first 1.5 years as a Christmas gift for relatives and as a big Depeche Mode fan I used New Life and World in My Eyes for the menu screens. I didn’t add any music for the actual recording.
We’ve Only Just Begun, by The Carpenters. Mind you, if I had to listen to that song over and over, I’d blow my brains out, but it would probably make a good song for vids of kids.
“Baby I Love Your Way” by Peter Frampton, Big Mountain, etc…
“Lullaby” by Billy Joel
“Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin, Ugly Kid Joe, etc…
Ok, maybe not that last one.
I do this too, and the best one I ever did was when I took out the sound, aged the video so it looked really old (Windows Movie Maker can do this, not sure about your program), sped the video up to double speed, and set it to “The Entertainer.” It looked just like an old-tyme silent movie. I would suggest doing this with the footage you get when she is learning to walk- it looks hilarious at double speed.
Priscilla Herdman has “I’ll Love You Forever” which is based closely on the book Love You Forever. It makes you cry like the book too.
Mary Chapin Carpenter “Dreamland” for any sleepytime footage.
Oh, and Carly Simon “Love of My Life”
You are the love of my life
From the moment I first saw you
The second that you were born
I knew that you were the love of my life
Quite simply the love of my life
On Futurama, they did a montage of Leela growing up to a song called “Baby Love Child” by Pizzicato Five. The montage works, but some of the lyrics are about a couple rather than parent-child, so you’ll have to be judicious. Still, it’s a good song.
Agreed. This is the song I picked for the bridal party’s entrance during my wedding. It might have been a little strange in some settings, but we were on the beach and I thought it was really beautiful.
I think it would be nice background music for a baby video too, even if the words aren’t necessarily applicable.
