REPLAY: Kids’ Music A Parent Can Love
don’t give in to radio, make your own choices
2007-08-22
By Kevin Gibbs

This summer, my wife and I did not want to discover just how difficult it can be to entertain small children on long trips.   We finally took them on a long promised drive from Dallas to Phoenix – 15 hours if we decided to make it a marathon.   We packed all the necessities; games, books, dolls, Spiderman, DVDs, and music.  In the end (and trust me, it was an eternity to the “end”), the music is what really saved us from close to 20 hours of, “Are we there yet, Mommy, are we there? “

Once we traveled out of the range of Radio Disney, I vowed not to torture myself with another cycle of the same old songs or any thing that sounded like them.  Disney (recordings, radio, and television) has the new “tween” music territory on lock.  Their Hanna Montana, Cheetah Girls, and High School Musical titles are selling like hotcakes.  So important is this new movement, other record companies are rushing to cash in on this record buying demographic by signing younger and younger talent.  While we like the idea that our kids enjoy the wholesome nature of these artists, we want them to listen through a culturally wider set of speakers. 

Our house consciously avoids most of popular radio music – they can hear that anytime and everywhere.  We encourage diverse, eclectic, and open-minded listening.  And while we do not believe in the censoring of ideas, we are even stronger proponents of responsible parenting.

 So instead of letting the radio babysit our children’s ears for the next many hours, we opted for music we thought might be entertaining as well as mildly educational to our six year-old daughter, “Boogie” and soon-to-be four year-old son, “Bear.”  Daddy is the “DJ” in MY car.  I was resolute to turn them on to the world outside of MTV so I reached for my secret weapons: my homemade CDs. 

It was really easy to put together my “safe” CD compilation of kids’ tunes.  I thought first of the lyrics in the songs and how I did not want to have to explain them –for inappropriateness or complexity.  I also wanted them to gain an appreciation for different rhythms, instruments, voices, languages, and arrangements.  We moved from cartoon themes to jazz to novelty tunes to country to classic salsa and traditional spirituals.  I did not stick to their generation’s music either.  The songs I chose were from just about every genre imaginable and from every era since the turn of the century.

The contemporary stuff was a cinch – some of it they were already familiar with and what I didn’t play they wouldn’t miss.  I am always playing Cee-Lo’s “Live Right Now” for them so that was an easy choice.  They also love his “Getting’ Grown,” Celia Cruz’s “Melao De Cana” and the sweet, childlike voices of Billie Lawrence (“Happiness”), Blossom Dearie (“I Wish You Love” and “Put On A Happy Face”), Ella Fitzgerald (“A-Tisket, A-Tasket”), Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band’s Corey Day (“Sunshower”), and Susan Cagle (“Happiness Is Overrated”). 

Picking songs with the words “silly,” “happy,” or “baby” were easy to come up with.  Michael Franks’ “I Don’t Know Why I’m So Happy I’m Sad,” Frankie Beverly & Maze’s “Happy Feelings,” and Edwin Hawkins’ “Oh, Happy Day” evoked mood as well as simplicity of ideas.  Surprisingly, Louis Jordan’s, “I’ll Die Happy” was their favorite of the “happy” songs. 

I gambled big by adding Al Green’s “Love And Happiness,” Dusty Springfield’s “Silly, Silly, Fool,” Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things”, and King Pleasure’s “Symphony Sid”.  I was slightly disappointed that they did not like them as much as I had hoped.  I now believe I included those songs because I enjoy them more than they are ready to.

I yielded to the obvious urge to include children’s songs I loved: “The Chipmunk Song,” “Theme From The Jetsons,” “The Paddywack Song,” “Theme From Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids,” and Frank Sinatra’s, “High Hopes.”  And I would have been terribly remiss if I did not include The Wizard Of Oz Soundtrack. 

What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! /What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! /What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot? What have they got that I ain't got? Courage!

Bert Lahr’s cartoon voice and Strothart’s lyrics to “Courage (If I Were King Of The Forest)” appealed to them on many levels: musicality, rhythm, and humor. 

Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips (Pts. 1 & 2),” The Miracle’s, “Mickey’s Monkey,” Bob Marley’s, “Is This Love,” and Leon Redbone’s “Ain’t Gonna Give You None Of My Jelly Roll,” were also big winners as was Al Jarreau’s “Better Than Anything.”  Songs with backdrops of youth and the things young people do, went over big, too.  They include Johnny Cash’s, “Straight A’s In Love,” The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’”, and Chuck Berry’s “School Days.”

I believe my greatest thrill was hearing them request songs again.  While “The Candy Man” was Sammy Davis Jr.’s biggest record, it was “That Old Black Magic” with its circus themed intro, staccato delivery, Sammy’s wicked chops, and clichéd ending that they asked to hear over and over.  What Boogie and Bear requested the most, however, was a most welcomed surprise – they love spirituals and blues songs.

Mahalia Jackson’s countrified, “Walk Over God’s Heaven,”  John Lee Hooker’s Funk Brother’s backed, “Boom Boom” and “Dimples,” Randy Travis,’ rustic and harmonic, “I’m Gonna Have A Little Talk With Jesus,” and Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s piano and banjo bounce, “There Are Strange Things Happening Every Day,” were in heavy rotation in our truck.

The favorite song on the trip was a song I almost didn’t include because I was afraid it would be just too “folksy” for them.  “John Saw That Number” by the effervescent and beatific-voiced, Neko Case was the song they wanted to hear the most.  Her song, an abbreviated history of the great Bible personality, with its soft piano, whispered backing vocals, rock drums, references to locusts, frogs, and honey and the refrain, “Holy, Holy To The Lord…” under Case’s high-octave delivery was so loved that they learned the words on the trip.   It all proved just enough to mount interest beyond the beat.

On our vacation our children learned a few new songs and (optimistically) a greater appreciation for the music that I love.  I learned something even more valuable – Just as Kevin Costner’s character was told in Field Of Dreams, “If you build it they will come,” I discovered that if you feed them, they just might eat it.  In fact, they might even learn to fix it for themselves and share it with others. 

Old John the Baptist, old John divine/Leather harness round his line/His meat was locust and honey/Wild honey lord, wild honey.

Kevin "Chixo" Gibbs is a veteran music executive and critic. He covers classic music and throwback culture for EbonyJet.com. He can be reached at kgibbs@centurytel.net

Photo credit: Cee-Lo/Getty

Listen to clips and buy Kevin Gibbs’ recommended iTunes Mixes of kids’ music

Ebonyjet.com Presents "Real Music Mix" for Kids - Part I

Ebonyjet.com Presents "Real Music Mix" for Kids - Part II