Anyone have any music for young children that you enjoy listening to? I love Raffi as much as the next person, I just thought maybe there is someone new or a little less known that you can recommend. Suggestions?
What about kids listening to "adult" music?
From the time they were babies, my kids listened to everything from Vivaldi to the O'Jays.
As a result, my kids have a pretty diverse musical palette.
From the time they were very young, they had an ear for piano, strings, percussion, wind instruments, (especially saxophone).....
Expand their horizons.
In my opinion, it doesn't have to be "kid music" for the entire family to enjoy.
Philadelphia Chickens by Sandra Boynton. It's her books set to music! There are several different styles of music on the CD and the songs are sung by well known people. It's such a fun album!
In addition to some of the suggestions already made here, like the Beatles and show tunes, we have always loved Dan Zanes. Fun, happy music!
They Might Be Giants have been my favorite band for almost two decades, and they are, for the most part, extremely family friendly. They've come out with several "children's" albums, but I never saw the need...why a special album for children, when some of their songs are "Dr. Worm," "The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas" and "Particle Man."
Honestly, I think everyone could love TMBG if they gave them a chance. They are most known in pop culture these days for doing the theme song to both "Malcolm in the Middle" and "The Oblongs," but I was listening to them long before that, and to me, those are their "sell out" songs.
Some of MY personal favorites of theirs are "Mr. Me," "Nightgown of the Sullen Moon," "They'll Need a Crane," and "Ana Ng." Check them out on youtube, see if you like them...I think that's a good mix of what they sound like. My children love their songs.
Other than that, Disney puts out a "Children's Favorite" series...I think there are 4 volumes...and Vol. 4 happens to be one of my favorite CDs. :) It's got songs like "Reuben and Rachel," "Jimmy Crack Corn," "Bicycle Built for Two," "Dan Tucker" and other folk songs.
My children also like Smoky Robinson, most oldies from the 50s, Arron Neville (sp?), Neil Diamond, Paul Simon, Marty Robbins (check out the song "Big Iron" while you're on youtube, we LOVE it!) and a lot of other old music.
***I had to edit, because someone above mentioned Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. They are an awesome ska band from my youth and they are excellent!!! If you like a punk feel and some brass, check them out. :)
We listened to a lot of The Beatles, VERY kid friendly, and show tunes :)
Our most favorite is Barenaked Ladies, "Snack Time." Hilarious, intelligent and almost no high-pitched squeaky voices (I'm sorry, but the sound of all those tiny kids singing softly is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Am I alone in this?!?).
I see some great suggestions below from "Kindie" artists like Dan Zanes, Caspar Babypants, and Elizabeth Mitchell. They're terrific and just the tip of the iceberg in that genre! Our favorites are Recess Monkey, Rocknoceros, and Joanie Leeds. There are a couple of podcasts you can check out that will really let you listen to lots more if you like that type of music. Check out Spare The Rock Spoil The Child and The Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl, both available free on iTunes.
Also, we love the Putumayo CD's. Both the kids' and regular ones are great for all ages!
Caspar Babypants (any of the four currently available albums) and Ellis Paul's "Dragonfly Races". For what it's worth - my 4-yr-old also likes Cat Stevens Greatest Hits. :)
I have no clue what kind of music you like, so these ideas may not help you.
My kids love a lot of the classics...Peter, Paul and Mary, Credance Clearwater Revival, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, The Supremes. They also like a lot of poppy 80's stuff. Sarah Hickman is another one they both love. They Might Be Giants, but just the kid stuff.
There is also a band called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. They only do covers and each album has a theme. One is classics from the 60's and 70's. Another is country songs. One record is old R&B. They give everything a rock/punk twist. Our whole family likes them.
There was a piece on NPR last week on a related topic... actually it was GROWN-UP music kids can enjoy too. They had some great suggestions of actually good music that is appropriate for kids in terms of theme and also accessible in terms of melody, rhythm, content etc. See if you can find it on the NPR website.
That said... In addition to Raffi...
Dan Zane
Laurie Berkner
Trout Fishing in America
They Might be Giants
The soundtrack to ANY of the old Broadway musicals
Old movie musical soundtracks (Singing in the Rain etc.)
HTH
My daycare kids LOVE disco! LOL "Boogie shoes" & "We are family"...always get them dancing hard!
We do alot of Elizabeth Mitchell....nice calmer folk type music to sing along with or just listen to as they play.
We have a UK group called Boogie Mites I stumbled across and my kids love it "Bangedy Bang Bang" gets them going with their hands on the floor, slapping their knees or asking for the rhythem sticks and a do over of the song!
Also old Radio Disney CD's of my daughters (shes 17 now). My almost 2 year old daycare girl cries..yes she CRIES....for Queen's "We will rock you" and sings along! Its wonderful!
We do alot of old standards...Michael Buble...Tony Bennets "Duets" Cds are our latest fave (there are 2 of them...like 2006 and a newer version).
As long as it is "clean" I play it and try it out!
ETA~ Thanks for the Sandra Boynton suggestions from posters after my post! I looked them up on my ZUNE library and found several. SOme are silly/fun and others have celebrity singers listed! I LOVE that stuff! Thanks again!
We love The Beatles, and my kids love Led Zeppelin and The Grateful Dead too! We also listen to a lot of Americana music and a lot of bluegrass. Check out Donna the Buffalo -adult music, but kids love it. They also like reggae.
We love Elizabeth Mitchell. The "For the Kids" series is also very good. Another great CD is "Philadelphia Chickens" by Sandra Boynton. It always puts a smile on my face. It comes with a picture book with the lyrics. My son also likes The Wiggles, which isn't as bad as listening to kids singing kids songs all the time.
Christian music is always safe!
K-love rocks!
For straight up kids music, we like the "Snack Time" album by Barenaked Ladies, "Listen and Learn" by Lend a Hand Family (great kid hip-hop!!) and most of the stuff from John Lithgow. Oh and Laurie Berkner stuff doesn't usually make me want to poke a stick in my ears.
Elizabeth Mitchell has some great, pretty kids music that's not as "in your face" as other kids' tunes.
When my kids were young we all LOVED Tom Chapin (brother of Harry Chapin). His songs tell great stories and have wonderful messages about friendship, family, ecology, ethics, etc. -- very musical and singable. His style is folk. One of our favorite's was "Sorry", and really captures the way we make kids apologize even when they don't really mean it:
Mikey took my truck and he broke it,
And he turned to me and said; "So what?"
So I said; "Say you're sorry!"
"No I won't say I'm sorry",
No he won't say I'm sorry
"'Cause I'm not!"
We also enjoyed Linda Arnold and The Banana Slug String Band (great songs that taught about science; check out "Dirt Made My Lunch" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCeyXW64cns). We also listened to "adult" music, which in my household was a mix of classical (I'm a total long hair), and rock , especially Springsteen (DH's favorite), Beatles, and Simon and Garfunkle.
I really like the Barenaked Ladies kids album, and Lisa Loeb's (she might have more than one now, but Catch the Moon is what we have). My son, now 3.5 years old loves soundtracks from adult movies. We have a CD with ET, Back to the Future, Pirates of the Caribbean, Superman, etc, those are enjoyable for all. He also likes classical music a lot (similar enough to soundtrack songs). I really listen to whatever I want in the car, but he will request Star Wars or Star Trek (from the tv shows and older movies) sometimes, those are his two favorite CDs. Other than that, he really only listens to kids music in his room. I think it is important to introduce kids to, older music as well Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra and the gang), Elvis, anything between the 40s and 60s, and sometimes even the 70s, is fun for all.
Hi! Check out Trout Fishing in America www.troutmusic.com/
but please when you find yourself hopelessly addicted to singing "My hair had a party last night, when I laid down everything was alright..." smile. Some of the Youtube videos are better than others though. Peter, Paul, and Mary and Pete Seeger both have little kid albums my kids have always enjoyed too.
Trout Fishing in America is fun for all to listen to. My kids are older now, but still like to listen and sing along.
A fav is Ziggy Marley's "Family Time"
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Time-Ziggy-Marley/dp/B001UREJUY
Justin Roberts is my favorite by far. His songs are funny and upbeat and not annoying to hear over and over. Meltdown is my favorite album, but we have three others and they are all good.
I also like the kids albums by They Might be Giants and Barenaked Ladies.
I wrote a blog post on this once because the question gets asked so often. click here and you can read some of our family's suggestions:
http://www.yourlifevents.com/2010/04/14/kidsfamily-10-kid...
Also, now that we have Pandora, we set one of his favorite songs (the Oogie Boogie man song from A Nightmare Before Christmas) as a station and it picks up all sorts of great 'kid' friendly songs - you'll get jazz-like, sing-a-longs & more. LOVE Pandora.
best,
S.
Pretty much anything that can be appropriate for kids - be it the Beatles or Queen or Dr. Demento. They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies both have kids' CDs. Go to Pandora and type in some of your favorite artists and "children" and see what comes up. We also like Choo Choo Soul. Barrage is another one that's fun and not specifically kid music.
I also like instrumental music like Robert Miles and Bond.
Coal Train Railroad is a jazz group that does kids music. It's actually really good! My husband and I are both musicians and were very impresed with the quality of their musicianship and versatility. Our son loves them!
We love Cedarmont Kids Worship Albums.
How about Kidz Bop music cds? It features favorite hit tunes sung by kids for kids... =) You can find them almost anywhere online and they even have their own website. www.kidzbop.com
Joe Rielly from Ann Arbor has some eco-message songs that are fun! (or it could be Reilly).
My kids listen to my music. I listen to current music. The radio is editted, so I don't worry about foul language. My husband also DJ's for events, and the kids listen to everything he plays. So really they listen to it all. We have some kids CD's too...and I like the Playhouse Disney CD...but we may have outgrown that one now :).
They might be Giants
free to be you and me
Beatles-Yellow submarine
Katie Perry
Green day
Queen
I love the "Fresh Beat Band". My son and I just we to their concert two weeks ago. :)
