So, last fall, my daughter’s music teacher gave everyone in the class a CD of fall-related songs to listen to. So, next road-trip, we tossed them into the cd player. They are absolutely god-awful. Patronizing, bad grammar, factually incorrect (“The wind blows the sunshine right through the town”?!? WTF is that about?), and grating as all get out. Problem was, my daughter loved the fact that this was ‘her music’ and insisted on it every chance she got.
To combat this affront on all that is good, I put together my own CD to give to her. Now that we have been listening to it for a couple of months, she has picked some songs as her favourites, and rejected others. Version 2.0 of the CD is coming out for her 4th birthday in a week or two, and I need help filling it up some more. This is the feedback I received so far on her musical tastes…
Favourites…
Fish Heads - Dr. Demento
Eric The Half a Bee - Monty Python
My Beloved Monster - Eels
Yellow Submarine - The Beatles
Four of Two - TMBG
TubThumper - Chumbawumba
Whip It - Devo
Fur Elise - Beethoven
I’m Henry the 8th - Herman’s Hermits
Most Hated…
Love You 'Til Tuesday - David Bowie
Why Does the Sun Shine - TMBG
Octopus’s Garden - The Beatles
I am making a very deliberate attempt to steer clear of typical children’s music, since most it sucks. Can anyone suggest some decent tunes to round out the next iteration?
A lot of the old pop/rock songs from the '60’s-'70’s are good. My oldest daughter liked Everyday People by Sly and the Family Stone. If you want newer, Drops of Jupiter by Train is sing alongable. (It’s a word now dangit!)
I loved the Mozart tune which is apparantly called The Birdcatcher am I in english. It’s from The Magic Flute. Come to think of it, I loved everything from The Magic Flute. Since the text is irrelevant to the music, try using the original german, maybe you can sneak in extra language while she’s young enough to “sponge” it.
How about adding to Eric the Half-a Bee with Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, The Galaxy Song, Finland and The Accountancy Shanty?
Unless musical songs drive you batty, try some of the silly songs from Cats, or the do-re-mi song from Sound of Music.
I also had a recording of Luciano Pavarotti singing La Donna e Mobile, that I played over and over, at that age and older. Come to think of it, I miss that tape.
Almost all Ramones (hey, if they can handle “pissing the night away” in Tubthumping, as you list, they can handle stuff like Blitzkreig Bop - right? Mine love it)
Dancing With Myself by Billy Idol
Tons of 50’s stuff, like Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran
My Sharona
What I Like About You by The Romantics
You get the picture. I never allow kiddie music in the house - eww; and besides, the kids love this stuff and so do we…
My kids like “Country Songs for Children” by Tom T. Hall
Their Grandpa would play it for them all the time. They are 8 & almost 11 (on the 18th) and they still love it!
My friend’s kids (4 and 2) both love Weezer, the older one sings along to the blue album frequently. There’s some fun, danceable songs with pretty clean lyrics.
They Might Be Giants, of course! Flood is mostly great for kids, and they also have a cool kids’ CD, “No!”
We also have a “just for Chloe” tape in the car, but it is bona fide kids’ music. Laurie Berkner, the Muppets, Sesame Street, and yeah, some Wiggles. But I edited it down to stuff I somewhat like (hey, Capt. Feathersword is kind of cute). And honestly, it’s hard not to groove along with the classic blues style of “I Know a Chicken,” or sing along with “Doodlebugs,” which features doodlebugs named after the Seinfeld characters.
I’ve been doing mix cd’s for my kids since they were 3. We have 3 volumes now that they absolutely love. I will list the songs I’ve included on each volume for your reference. I hope this helps.
Volume 1:
A 1950’s recording of a reading of “Sam I Am” by Dr. Seuss.
“Hamster Dance” dance remix (the song from this video)
“Mah Na Mah Na” by the Muppets
Theme from the original “Batman” TV series
“The Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte
“Tequila” by The Champs
“Wipe Out” as performed by the Muppets
“The Lion Sleeps Tonight”
“Popcorn” by Hot Butter
“Polkamon” by Weird Al
Volume II:
“Tubby the Tuba” as told by Danny Kaye
“Roadrunner” Theme Song from the “Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show”
“Joshua Giraffe” by Raffi
“Your’re Bugg’n” from the “Space Jam” Soundtrack
“Hawaiian War Chant” by Spike Jones
“The Unicorn Song” by the Irish Rovers
“Down by the Bay” by Raffi
“You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch” from the “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” TV special
The Loony Tunes version of “Jail House Rock”
“Zip-A-Dee Do Dah” from Disney’s “Song of the South”
“The Chicken Dance” polka
“I Know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly” by an unknown singer
“Tounge Twister Song” by Danny Kaye
“Squirrels” the parody of “Girls”
“The Cat Came Back” as sung by Garrison Keeler
Volume III:
“So Long and Thanks for All the fish” from the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” Soundtrack
“All Star” by Smash Mouth
“Oh Yeah” by Yello
“Charlie Brown” by The Coasters
“C is for Cookie” sung by Cookie Monster
“I Like to Move it Move it” as sung by King Julian from the movie, “Madagascar”
The title theme from “Star Wars”
“Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” by Rolf Harris
The Sesame Street “Classic Rhyming Song”
“Wallace and Gromit” Theme Song
“Daffy Duck Rhapsody” by Mel Blanc
Sesame Street’s “People in your Neighborhood”
“Tip Toe Through the Tulips” by Tiny Tim
I definitely support the idea of exposing kids to serious music (I was hearing Beatles, Yes and bebop jazz at about 4 or 5, which was a good musical education.) I mean, if I had little kids, I’d play them the same exact music that I listen to, obscure, edgy or not.
But you should definitely not write off Raffi just because he’s kid music. His songs are fundamentally very high quality, and quite listenable for all ages. I also listened to Wee Sing and Sharon, Lois and Brom when I was little. I have fond memories of a lot of kiddie music, so there’s no reason not to play that too.
She likes Yellow Submarine but not Octopus’s Garden? :dubious:
As a kid I loved most Beatles songs (O-bla-di O-bla-da and When I’m 64 were two favorites). Herman’s Hermits was also a favorite, and so were the Beach Boys, as someone has already suggested. I LOVED The Beach Boys, now that I think about it - my brother and I would put on the CD and dance around the living room like we were possessed.
In the “children’s music” genre, they like Laurie Berkner’s CDs and zillions of playings have not driven my sister nuts. I’d personally recommend “Not for Kids Only,” by Jerry Garcia (really!) and David Grisman.
The Kingston Trio and Burl Ives are probably safe bets.
From my own childhood, on or about your kid’s age, I remember hearing a lot of…
•The abovementioned artists
•The Music Man soundtrack
•Marine Corps Running Cadences (Nothing funnier than a little kid joining Teddy Ruxpin in singing My Grandaddy was a horse marine!/Ev’ry thing he wore was Marine Corps Green!)
•Soundtrack to The Point
•The soundtrack to You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
•And misc. Sesame Street albums
If you give me a little time, I can probably dig some more gems out of my iTunes collection.
