“King of Spain” by Moxy Fruvous. Great fun!
Old Time Rock-n-roll by Bob Seger?
The Twist
Twist and Shout
Shout!
Disco Duck?
(ducks and runs)
My daughter is 14 months old, a little younger than your target audience, but I have never, ever seen anything even remotely like the reaction she has to “Godzilla” by Blue Öyster Cult. Honest to God, she rocks the hell out when she hears “go, go, Godzilla!” even in the Auto Trader commercial.
I have to ask: Who is Velociraptor?
You know what else might be lots of fun? Introduce the kiddies to what is normally a flirtatious game for the grown-ups: Twister! (If there’s a mini-sized version tailored to kids, that’d be perfect, but I have no idea if such a version has ever been produced, and that article doesn’t say.)
It’s all about the pretty circles in bold colors, and planting your hands and feet… although for such young ones, I’d deemphasize the formal rules re. elimination and winning; just pull some kids out when they get stuck and let others play for a while. (I’d also have an adult be responsible for spinning the wheel, assigning turns, and regulating things. )
Mostof Shonen Knife’s songs would probably fit your bill admirably, being very bouncy and peppy and fun, with (mostly) harmless lyrics, or ones that few English-speaking toddlers would be able to absorb. Specifically:
“Flying Jelly Attack”
“Elephant Pao Pao”
“Burning Farm”
“Cycling Is Fun”
“Miracle Woman”
“Banana Fish”
“Twist Barbie” would be fun musically, but the lyrics might not be entirely what you’re looking for…
Man, I gotta say, that song has been stuck in my head for 2 days… very infectious.
In case anyone else cares (or searches for something like this in the future), here are some other tunes that I put together that are kid friendly:
Yael Naim - New Soul
Beach Boys - Barbara Ann
Beach Boys - Surfing USA
Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls Of Fire
Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On
The Monkees - Day Dream Believer
The Monkees - Hey Hey We_re The Monkeys
The Monkees - I’m a Believer
Huey Lewis and The News - Hip To Be Square
The Bangles- Walk Like an Egyptian
Cindy Lauper - Girls just want to have fun
The Lion King - The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Bare Naked Ladies - Be My Yoko Ono
Bare Naked Ladies - If I Had a Million Dollars
Bare Naked Ladies - One Week
Blues Brothers - Soul Man
Ray Charles & the Blues Brothers - Shake Your Tailfeathers
Tan Shoes and Pink Shoelaces
Who Put the Bop in the Bop-She-Bop
Do-Wa-Diddy-Diddy
Won’t vouch for lyrics but toddlers would really rock out to B-52s & Devo hits.
seriously They might be Giants is perfect for this kind of thing, quirky and fun stuff grown ups like (well some of us) and kids love, think nerd rock.
some tracks
Hotel Detective
Minimum Wage (play this one 3 or 4 times the whole song is like 15 seconds long if that)
the Sun Song (aka the sun is a mass of incandescent gas)
more that were already posted.
I would say violent femmes but, you could go with Fat or maybe American Music
Cake Cake Cake, damnit I cant thing of the song name but part of it is when they say “He is calling you DUDE!” kids love that part.
My nieces love anything by Jordy (the Euro kid novelty act from the 90s).
Also try downloading the instrumentals to dance songs that have otherwise questionable lyrics. We thought it would be cute to have 50 Cent’s “Go Shorty, it’s your birthday” song at a 1 year old’s party but the lyrics left a little to be desired.