March is "Sing with Your Child Month." In preparation, we asked our staff and patrons, "What are your favorite songs for children?" These could be songs we enjoy sharing with the little ones in our lives or they could be songs that we remember loving when we were children.
We met online on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at noon to share and discuss these songs in our monthly music discussion group, Music Talk. The full Music Talk: Family Favorites playlist is now up on Spotify and you can follow Alachua County Library District's account for more playlists to come. You can find many of the music CDs with these songs in our catalog or on our streaming service, hoopla.
Don't forget to mark your calendar for the next Music Talk! We'll meet on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at noon on Zoom for Music Talk: One-Hit Wonders. Sometimes the brightest flames burn the quickest. We'd like to know what are your favorite "one-hit wonders," those songs by artists who struck gold once before fading into obscurity. Email librarian Cameron with your song choice, along with a sentence or two about why you chose it. He’ll add it to the ACLD Music Talk: One-Hit Wonders playlist on Spotify and have it queued up to play during the live program. If you don’t have a song in mind, come to the program anyway to hear some great tunes and join in on the conversation.
These are our favorite songs for children:
“Baby Beluga” by Raffi
“I loved singing along to the song while showing my son the pictures in the matching board book. Just thinking about that cute, catchy song is making it get stuck in my head. 😊” – Lynda P.
“Baby Shark” by Pinkfong
“I read yesterday that the YouTube video of ‘Baby Shark’ is the most-watched video. It’s had 10 billion views which is more than the population of the earth. Amazing!” – Susan W.
“Bananaphone” by Raffi
“It’s a fun and silly song.” – Martha S.
“My grandma used to sing it to me all the time as a kid, and it’s still what she quotes to me when we’ve been apart for a while. It evokes lots of warm fuzzy feels, but I can’t say I have a favorite version because she always just sang it to me a cappella.” - Mercedes G.
“My grandmother used to sing this song to me when I was a young child and when my eldest niece was born, it became the song that I always sang to get her to sleep. Now, I love sharing this childhood favorite during Baby Time.” – Sammi H.
“'Johnny McAdoo’: It’s fun to try to keep up with them as the song speeds up! If you can do it without getting tongue twisted it’s a real achievement. ‘Father’s Grave’: Very silly, and very short.” – Olive O.
“You can spin it out to utterly ridiculous rhyming silliness way beyond the lyrics given. For instance, in Raffi’s Singable Songs for the Very Young. Did you ever see a: ‘fish making a wish, a snake eating a cake, a monkey riding a donkey!’ Your six and seven-year-olds can go on forever with this one, and younger kids get to flex their budding rhyming skills as well.” – Meredith H.
“Elvira” by Oak Ridge Boys
“This is the first song I remember loving as a child. Richard Sterban’s bass vocal solo was my preschooler jam. ‘Giddy-up, oom-poppa, oom-poppa, mow mow, hi-yo Silver, away!’" – Cameron B.
“My siblings and I loved all the Woody Guthrie songs as kids. My dad plays guitar and was our preschool music teacher, and songs like ‘Pick it Up’ and ‘Why, Oh Why’ were silly and easy to sing along to and we loved them.” – Olive O.
“'Hush Little Baby’ is another perennial treasure, with the ultimate message that even if things don’t sing, shine, or go: if stuff gets broken, or something doesn’t work out, the child you are singing to (or with) is still “the sweetest little baby in town.” Reassuring and hug-worthy, for sure. Could not find a version I liked better than Laurie Berkner’s, on her Favorite Classic Kid Songs—that album has so many of my own all-time favorites. Love also ‘Great Big Dog’ (your grownup will always keep you safe,) and ‘There’s a Little Wheel a-Turning in My Heart’ (fun stuff lives in that heart…a dog barking! A horn blasting! Yikes!) are all in that collection. ‘All the Pretty Little Horses’ is another: I find that often young children pay special attention to a melody in a minor key, and this one’s especially beautiful.” – Meredith H.
“If I Had a Hammer” by Trini Lopez
“I was about seven years old when I first heard the song. I was becoming aware of problems in the world like hatred and injustice, and I was disturbed by that knowledge. The lyrics made me feel that even as a young child, I could fight against bad things by doing the right things and being a good person.”
“I’m My Own Grandpaw” by Ray Stevens
“We would listen to this on repeat trying to work out exactly how he was his own grandpa. We’d figure it out, but it was so complicated that usually by the next time we listened we’d have to start from scratch!” – Olive O.
“The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Mary Mack”
“I like these songs because of the repetition, they allow for hand movements, and when I sing them, they make me laugh. Also like ‘Che, Che Kule.’” - Phillis F.
“The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by The Tokens
"This song was one I enjoyed in my youth with my mom (it would come on the car radio), and again with my kid during the resurgence in popularity when The Lion King movie came out. Years later, I’d play The Lion King soundtrack for my grandkid and we’d sing the chorus together. Still makes me smile when I hear it.” – Odette H.
"When my niece was little, we’d go on adventures and as we rode around in the car, we’d sing songs that I learned as a children’s librarian. The song she asked for most often was ‘Little Bunny Foo Foo.’ She liked bopping the mice on the head and loved at the end when I would reach a hand in the backseat and scream that I was turning her into a goon." – Beth N.
“It is so fun to have Mary wearing her dress, hat, gloves, socks, shoes… ‘BECauuuuuuuse:…Mary is a red bird, a red bird, a red bird, Mary is a red bird, all day loooooong!’ At least, that’s how we always sing it! A fine, if not so exaggerated version, is on the Raffi album Everything Grows.” – Meredith H.
“Mississippi Squirrel Revival” by Ray Stevens
“My dad played this song all of the time and he always wanted me to sing along with the tape. He’d say ‘I’m gonna make a star of you, yet, and you’re gonna buy me a house!’” – Sally F.
“On a darker note, my absolute favorite song as a kid was ‘Omie Wise.’ Doc Watson has the best version outside of the version I knew. A traditional murder ballad…I think, as a kid, I loved the minor chords and was fascinated by the sad and tragic story it told.” – Olive O.
“Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul, and Mary
“It’s a tearjerker, but beloved.” – Martha S.
“As a kid, I loved listening to ‘Puff the Magic Dragon' by Peter, Paul, and Mary on my parents’ record player. Trying to put the arm down in just the right spot to start at the beginning of the song was hard to learn. I also enjoyed other recordings by them like, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind,’ ‘If I Had a Hammer,’ and ‘This Land is Your Land.’” – Beth N.
“Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley
“In summer daycare, I was one of the oldest (11 years old), so I got to help in the younger classes. I had fun playing and singing with them and one of my favorite songs was the ‘Purple People Eater.’ I’d pop in the cassette, pretend to be a people-eating monster, and chase the kids around the playroom.” – Beth N.
“A great source for songs that children will like. He always addressed the kids he was singing to as if they were adults, and no one can lead an audience along to participation like he could. ‘If I Had a Hammer’: You can pretend to hammer stuff, it’s a great excuse to hit things together for kids. ‘Abiyoyo’: When done right it’s a little bit scary.” – Olive O.
“My brother’s favorite when he was going through his train phase. Our dad would play it on the banjo and speed it up to make it more exciting.” – Olive O.
“Wave of Democracy” by Raffi
“My 10-year-old child and the rest of us love singing ‘Wave of Democracy’ by Raffi. It has a fun tune and great lyrics. Another by him that is just fantastic is ‘Thanks A Lot,’ which reminds us to be grateful for the many things that impact our lives on a daily basis." – Jes H.
Some other childhood favorites:
“Abraham, Martin, and John,” “Grandfather’s Clock,” “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” “Jump (For My Love),” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”