Chloe is six months old, and I’ve developed a weird hodgepodge of musical numbers for her entertainment, mostly guided by what I happened to remember all the lyrics to. You think you know the lyrics to a song, until you try to sing it a cappella at 1:00 am, and wind up singing the chorus, then, “something something, da da da . . .”
So, my repertoire pretty much consists of:
Birdhouse in Your Soul
Bushel and a Peck (from Guys N Dolls)
Obladi Oblada
You Can’t Take the Sky from Me
All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)
Dream a Little Dream
Toora Loora Loora
Didn’t Leave Nobody But the Baby
We also listen to Free to Be You and Me, and I’m slowly learning/remembering the lyrics to those songs.
I’m looking for some other good (non-Barney) kid songs that are relatively easy to remember. So what do you serenade your children with?
Turtledove Song (also called “fare thee well,” also called 10,000 miles)
Whistle Down the Wind
Summertime (from Porgy and Bess)
A You’re Adorable
Angel Of Music
I Remember (from “Evening Primrose”-- pretty obscure)
Linger (a camp song)
What A Wonderful World
Coventry Carol 9I know it’s a Christmas song… but it’s pretty all year long)
Never-Never land
Eidelweiss
It Might As Well be Spring
and of course the ever-popular
Somewhere Over The Rainbow
a few of those are a bit obscure, and most of them have nothing to do with babies or anything… just nice tunes I like. The Turtledove song is one of my favorites. It’s the song at the beginning of the movie “Fly Away Home” it’s kind of sad and it’s hard to find a recording… but it’s so beautiful.
My 18 month old loves They Might Be Giants. His favorites are “Cowtown” and the heavy metal version of “Robot Parade”
We used to sing Ramones songs to him when he was a baby. Mainly because we knew all the words, but mostly because Ramones songs are fun to sing.
I found out the other night that he LOVES the original versions of “Surfin’ Bird” and “The Crusher”.
He sings along with (sort of ) and bangs his head to the That 70s Show theme whenever it comes on, and at the end he sticks his fist in the air and yells “Allright!!!” My boy’s so cool
Oh, I’d sing my babies anything that popped into my mind when they were that young! Lots of John Denver, some Barry Manilow, Mamas and Papas, whatever. As they got a little older, I’d compose songs about them, personally, to bouncy tunes I already knew. Ferinstance, my youngest, Mariah, had a song to the tune of “O Christmas Tree”:
Mariah Jane, Mariah Jane
I love my girl Mariah Jane
(repeat)
I love my girl Mariah Jane
In sunshine or in pouring rain
(repeat first two lines).
This little ditty had several verses.
She is four now, and has an affinity for songs that have lots of verses that build on each other (i.e. The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly, and Hole In The Bottom of The Sea).
I’m no Wayne Brady, but I’m actually not too bad at improv lyrics, and the kids get a kick out of it (well, not my 16-year-old who now thinks everything I do is lame).
I mostly do made up songs, too, because I can’t ever remember any lyrics (norinew - I do one to Christmas Tree, too…Oh William, oh William, you are my little boy).
Songs that I do remember and sing are
Yankee Doodle
Edelweiss
You Are My Sunshine (just the first verse, because the others are kind of sad)
Down in the Swamp (the frogs are hopping and they hop hop hop all day…you get to do different frog voices on this one!) - this is my son’s favorite
Camptown Races
Old McDonald (my baby looooves animal noises)
I’ve been singing Better far to live and die from The Pirates of Penzance to my daughter since she was in utero. Now she’s a five year-old Gilbert and Sullivan nut – my revenge upon my family and the rest of the world. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Her other favorite (non operatic) songs included:
I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly
Waltzing Matilda
Bushel And A Peck
What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?
Sigh No More, Ladies (Much Ado About Nothing)
Great Green Globs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts
Purple People Eater
Witch Doctor
Tim Finnegan’s Wake
The Happy Wanderer
Istambul (not Constantinople)
Mr. Rogers songs are always, always great. The melodies are always sweet, and when she gets older, they’ll be meaningful.
I don’t have a kid but I sing to my dog I sing Mr. Rogers songs…uhm I don’t know the titles but there’s the one about everybody being fancy (everybody’s fine - your body’s fancy and so is mine), what to do when you’re mad (I can stop when I want to, I can stop when I wish, I can stop stop stop any time), the one about being special (you are my friend you are special, you are my friend, you’re special to me).
I could go on. Check out the Mr. Rogers SONG LIST. I’m such a sap, I went and listened to them all when he died…
Props for remembering “Free To Be You And Me.” Classic album and very uplifting. Check out the video sometime, it’s a total hippie hoot.
Sesame Street also has good tunes, like “I’d Like To Live On The Moon”, “Rubber Ducky”, “Clean Up Time” (seriously), “Lunchtime”, “Everybody Eats/Sleeps”…I was addicted to my Sesame Street records as a kid and yes, I still sing these songs to my dog.
And if you’re religious, those silly sunday school songs are still good.
Also if you’re not worried about your kid listening to some melancholy lyrics (she’s too young to comprehend anyway), the Scottish pop band Belle & Sebastian has some amazingly relaxing tunes. I’d think a little kid would dig the singer(s)'s voice. Very soothing! Now, if only her folks could croon like that…
I have no kids and am not likely to any time soon, but if I ever do, they’ll undoubtedly be hearing lots of G&S.
My parents used to sing “Yellow Submarine” to me, and any number of disco songs. Apparently, I was very fond of “Hot Stuff” when I was two. According to my friends, this explains a great deal.
Ooh, lots of good ideas! I don’t know why I didn’t think of G&S. Of course, now I have Better Far to Live and Die in my head, so the kid is definitely going to hear that one today.
Zipper, thanks for the links - I’m listening to Ernie singing right now (though I don’t think I can take much Elmo - yikes!).
Our bathtime song was “Space Oddity” (sic). Our son had two little bathtime toys, a Sailing Captain and a Fisherman on a little boat. Their names became “Ground Control” and “Major Tom”.
Rocking-chair time prior to bed was Pink Floyd: “Momma loves her baby, and Daddy loves you too . . . etc. etc. . . . oooh, oooh, oooh, baby blue.”
And, since I could never remember the right words, Brahm’s lullaby got a workover too.
Our poor kids never did get very many “traditional” songs from us!
“There she was just a’walkin’ down the street,
singin’ ‘do-a-didee-didee-dum-didee-do’.
Snappin’ her fingers and shufflin’ her feet,
singin’ ‘do-a-didee-didee-dum-didee-do’.”
Except sometimes, the last “do” was a razzberry. You had to be there. It was hilarious.
I was picking my daughter up from daycare once, and I found her sitting in a circle with several other kids, and she was saying, “okay, you be Iolanthe, and you be Strephon, and I’ll be Phyllis!” The other kids looked very confused. I was so proud.
My G&S company is doing Pinafore this summer, and five year old Kizarvexilla already has her heart set on playing Josephine. I’ve definitely got a miniature diva on my hands.
) and bangs his head to the That 70s Show theme whenever it comes on, and at the end he sticks his fist in the air and yells “Allright!!!” My boy’s so cool 
I sing Mr. Rogers songs…uhm I don’t know the titles but there’s the one about everybody being fancy (everybody’s fine - your body’s fancy and so is mine), what to do when you’re mad (I can stop when I want to, I can stop when I wish, I can stop stop stop any time), the one about being special (you are my friend you are special, you are my friend, you’re special to me).
