Unorthodox lullabies.

Cafe Society
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I am aged for a new father; my daughter is eight months and I’m creeping up on forty.

Given how many years I had to prepare myself for being a daddy. I found myself ill-equipped in the lullaby department when the need arouse to bust ‘em out. The closest I got to tradition is the Bugs Bunny version of Brahms’.

Instead, when baby needs soothing, I fall back on whatever happens to be rattling around in my head, so long as the tone is approximately sleepy soothy. This has led to some minor ironies.

One favourite: Over at the Frankenstein Place, from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Small irony given the themes of the movie.

Also in the running, Summertime, from Porgie and Bess. Funny thing about this, the only lyrics that set in my memory were:

Summertime,
and the living is easy
Fish are jumpin’
The grass is high
Your daddy’s rich
and your momma’s good lookin’…
…and so I would improvise the rest in a variety of ways. Usually, “Good times are cookin’, in the summertime.”

I was fishin’ this summer, and Nina Simone’s version came on the radio, and I listened intently to catch the lyrics that I had forgotten. :smack:, when it turned out to be “hush now baby, don’t you cry…” since the only time I sang this was when I was trying to get her to stop crying.

I sometimes give her Hank Williams’ I’m So Lonesome, I Could Cry. She likes this, but the line “It’s 'cause he’s lost the will to live” makes me glad that she hasn’t got the whole language-acquisition thing down yet.

Her number one, absolute, unquestionably favourite “lullaby,” though - it’s…

…In Heaven (The Radiator Lady Song,) from Eraserhead.

I always fall back on this, and find that it’ll settle her right down. Sometimes, the repetition of it gets a bit much for me, and I’ll switch to something else… and then she’ll start crying until I switch back. It is her favourite soothing song.

It is a nice, soothing song. I can’t help but thinking that it’s a little weird, given the subject of Eraserhead.
I’m not alone in this, right? Please tell me how you settle/d your baby down without the use of traditional baby songs.

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I always tend to fall back on the Beatles’ songs: Blackbird, Across the Universe, Let it Be. Nice melodies and I can remember the words.

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Let it Be! – totally stolen.

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The first two verses and the chorus of Every Rose Has Its Thorn.

Don’t ask me why but when he was born it was the ONLY song I could think of to sing to him (I was tired of Christmas carols which were all over the radio, it being Christmas day) and for some reason it stuck. I didn’t sing him lullabies often but at about 4 he started to ask for one from time to time before bed and that was, again, usually the song that popped into my head.

So now when he asks for a lullaby I ask him what he wants and it’s always ‘the cowboy who sings a sad song’ and I can hear him singing softly along with me as I sing to him.

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My favourite lullaby song has always been the Mammas and the Pappas “Dream a Little Dream of Me”

*Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave your worries behind you
But in your dreams, whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me
*

A bit Oedipal may be, but I love that song.

Winner of the “most innapropriate” contest - “Me and My Baby” from Chicago.

(for those who don’t know the movie … “inappropriate” due to the fact that the baby of the song doesn’t actually exist, being a device to help the singer escape the noose after murdering her lover. Cool song though :cool:)

But you know what we most often used to settle down our eldest daughter when she was a baby?

Well, there’s a theory that you should play nice soothing music to your kids in the womb, and then when they’re born they’ll recognise and remember that, and it will help to calm and relax them.

Bearing that in mind, I have absolutely NO idea why the background music to Star Craft would have helped our daughter to sleep. Nope, none whatsoever…

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Conan O’Brien takes this to an art form, singing disturbing lyrics to “sleepy soothy” music.

But I’m sure most of y’all knew that.

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The best lullaby ever: Everything Possible.

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I relied on Peter, Paul, and Mary, and other folk singers. Puff, Lemon Tree, Blowin’ in the Wind, they are all great lullaby songs. In fact, most of those type of songs are good for lullaby stuff. A lot of the “real” lullabies out there are really creepy. “Rock-a-bye baby, in the TREETOP” and they talk about it falling? That’s mommy therapy, not a good lullaby.

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When my daughter was a baby the only two songs I could sing that would calm her down were “You Don’t Own Me” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”. I have no idea why, it’s not like I listened to the oldies station when I was pregnant.

My son was born in 1990 during my “headbanger” phase (hey, I was only 17) so he was treated to my horrible renditions of 80s powerhair ballads. We both got better. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I don’t have children, but I remember hearing a friend singing “House of the Rising Sun” to soothe her 3-month-old a few years ago.

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I used that song as a lullaby all the time, for all three of my babies. Also, John Denver’s “For Baby”:
I’ll walk in the rain by your side
I’ll cling to the warmth of your tiny hand
I’ll do anything to keep you satisfied
And I’ll love you more than anybody can

Another one I like to sing that they seemed to like to hear was “The Glory of Love” a la Bette Middler.

Basically, any slow paced love song/folk song will work. Traditional lullabies are not necessary. Your baby doesn’t know what is or is not traditional. They want to hear you sing (might as well do it while they still want to hear it!), and your voice and the melody of the song soothes them. That’s the important thing.

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When it came to my little cousin, I couldn’t think of any lyrics to songs to sing to her that were more than a verse or two. So I just started humming the rhythm guitar section to “Smoke on the Water” with an occasional chorus thrown in- and she seems to like it!

Can’t really go wrong with that repetitive one, and you can just mix up the sounds and keep the rhythm just fine.

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U.S. Marine Corps Hymn. It is the only song I know all the lyrics to. She did fall asleep.

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Skye Boat Song. PiperCub especially seems to like the closing verses:

Many’s the lad fought on that day
Well the claymore could wield
When the night came, silently lay
Dead on Culloden’s field

Burned are our homes, exile and death
Scatter the loyal men
Yet, e’er the sword cool in the sheath,
Charlie will come again.
Never too early to get him used to the “Return of the King” motif. :smiley:

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For the ones that go to sleep slowly, there’s American Pie.

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Tom Dooley, Frog Went a Courtin’ and A Rovin’ Gambler always worked with my kids.

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I too use Summertime. Also power ballads by 70s and 80s hard rock bands. The kids also really like Candle on the Water, Bridge Over Troubled Water and Into the West from The Return of the King.

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The Philosopher’s Drinking Song, by Monty Python. It’s not so much a lullaby as it is a good distraction song during diaper changes. Harvey the Wonder Hampster by Weird Al Yankovic is the same.

However, for my little darling (now 16), bagpipes were a SURE lullaby. Put in a tape/CD of the Royal Highland Guard, and poof she was out. Amazing.

It explains a lot, though… :smiley:

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When I was little, I stole a popular lullaby and… improved it:

Go to sleep
You little creep
I’ll buy you a jeep
That goes beep-beep
If you’ll only GO TO SLEEP!

The opening lines came from another kid goofing around, but the whole exasperarted rest of it was mine.

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I’m going to move this over to Cafe Society.

Then go take a nap.

twickster, MPSIMS moderator