Another vote for Boynton. She’s got some great ones. Her music is also useful for weaning over-eager toddlers off of grown-up pirate shanties.
You know how kids always pick up exactly what you’d prefer they didn’t? We went to the Renaissance Festival a few months ago and, in part thanks to Sandra Boynton’s music, we’ve finally gotten him to stop singing a song that he heard there, part of which goes, “I wound up with me trousers down and smelling like a fish! Give me two shots of whiskey and a half pint of rum!! A whole yard of beer and, just to have some fun, some of me pappy’s corn liquor…” That’s what I get for walking by the pirates, I guess.
Also, if you can stand to listen to enough of the Wiggles, you sometimes find some gems, too. My son’s still hooked on Captain Feathersword (has a bit of a pirate fetish). Though getting to the good stuff might force you to listen to songs where you’re convinced you’re high.
I second TMBG, Laurie Berkener and Sandra Boynton.
But the most underrated children’s CD is Songs from the Old School by Ivan Ulz. Great mix of original songs and classic kid songs. His signature song, “Fire Truck,” is one of the greatest kids songs of all time, IMHO. It was turned into a book on CD (here it is on Youtube). The original is faster and has much more energy, but you can get the idea.
He lives in NYC now but he lived here for a while so he comes back every year to do free concerts for the local kiddos. The toddler and preschool set goes wild for him.
For traditional songs I would highly recommend Wee Sing. We have Wee Sing in the Car, Wee Sing Dinosaurs, Wee Sing Around the World, and Wee Sing America. There are no tricks or gimmicks to these - just song with simple orchestrations sung mostly by children. My kids love them.
Anne Murray’s “There’s a Hippo in My Tub” (available at Amazon) is a wonderful album. My kids listened to it endlessly in the early 80s and I’m planning on picking it up for my granddaughter.
Harry Connick Jr. has a fun album called Songs I Heard. It has lots of stuff from Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka, The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins, and it’s fun to listen to and sing along.
Maybe a little more advanced than what you’re looking for, but it’s fun in the car.
Not quite what you’re looking for (traditional toddler tunes) but Kenny Loggins recorded two albums with a lot of sweet stuff that’s suitable for lullaby time. Return to Pooh Corner and More Songs from Pooh Corner are the two we have. Admittedly a fair bit of it is from movies (e.g. Rainbow Connection, You’ll Be In My Heart) but if you don’t mind that, it’s a nice pair of albums.
Get a copy of New York Ska Jazz Ensemble’s Get Thisand play Moby Dick. The kid will love it. The entire album is excellent so your money will be well spent.
Not exactly traditional toddler tunes either, but at our house we can’t get enough of African Playground in the Putumayo Kids series. We have a couple of their other CDs, but we all like this one the best. It is very upbeat and my 15 month old loves dancing to it. Also, the CDs come with a booklet that gives a lot of information about the various countries represented in the songs, and about the artists performing the songs.
Also, I could be totally off base, but I think when I was a kid, Disney put out albums with the traditional songs. I don’t know if they do anymore or not.
Oooh - I just remembered some tapes we had when the kids were young, by Nancy Cassidy. They were Klutz books - came with the tape attached to the book. There’s a 2-CD compilation available now:
Lots of traditional stuff, including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, as well as some lesser-known stuff.