Thomas Starks Kids MusicChildren's Music Reviews & Lyrics

This soundtrack is perfect to download music off of for children aged from the years one to seven. It tells the tale of our favorite little monkey Curious George in the most exciting time of the year, Christmas. The Man in the Yellow Hat has been woken up by George at five in the morning since Thanksgiving. He is keen to know how many days left until Christmas day.

A chart is set up to help our young friend count down the days during which together they enjoy all the festivities associated with the time. They decide which gifts to give each other and select and decorate the tree.

This is wonderful lesson for both young and old, on the joy of giving and the time spent together as the best things of the season. There is plenty of fun in store for little ones and some big ones that are still young at heart.

Here is a video with some of the music from the soundtrack:

The third installment of the Disney’s Greatest series shows no sign of wear with numerous great songs that you and your children will get many hours of pleasure from. Jonathan Brooke sings the lovely ballad I’ll Try (Return to Neverland) to begin. The wonderful Sarah McLachlan takes us back to magic of Toy Story 2 with When She Loved Me.

The catalog that is available to Disney is broad and extensive and volume 3 lacks nothing with Can You Feel the Love Tonight (The Lion King), A Spoonful of Sugar (Mary Poppins), and Part of Your World (The Little Mermaid) showing the quality that should see this series continuing for many years to come.

For the older children Tim Burton’s main man Danny Elfman is on board for What’s This? (The Nightmare before Christmas). Lovers of classic Disney are catered for further with Give a Little Whistle (Pinocchio).

Disney has many critics and competitors these days but their longevity is down to their ability to please their audience time after time and Disney Volume 3 is no different. The selected artists are fine musicians in their own right and most tracks stand alone as enjoyable and safe listening for the family to enjoy. It made me realize there are so many songs from Disney movies that I want to add to my music downloads!

Below is the video to When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2:

Brother Bear Soundtrack

I’ve wanted to find an excuse to review Phil Collins for children’s music for ages. My son loves Phil Collins. He’s listened to all his albums; and he has watched the video of the final tour more than he’s seen the Wiggles. In fact after about a year of hearing him almost all day, almost every day (that must have been several thousand times) I did have to temporarily direct his attention to other things to save my sanity.

I found a free music download of an album in the kids genre created by Phil Collins and composer Mark Mancina. It is the soundtrack for the 2003 Disney film Brother Bear. They have previously collaborated in 1999 and won an Academy award for the Disney animated Tarzan film soundtrack. Some critics panned the pair’s effort in Brother Bear as being too similar to the Tarzan soundtrack. Well I have only heard one Tarzan song You’ll be in My Heart sung live by Phil on tour; and I’d assumed it was from the 1984 movie Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. Ok, I was wrong there. But at least I’m listening to this album with no preconceptions.

To me, some of Brother Bear, the score and symphony tracks, remind me of music from Avatar, with its Native American sounding flutes and chanting. The album feels very tender and moving. The score – Three Brothers goes from fragile and delicate, to aggressive and relentless, like an enemy is coming; and then the third part is filled with the song of heart-wrenching tribal voices slowly fading away.

No Way Out sung by Collins appears on the album in two versions; the track called Transformation also appears in two versions. Transformation could easily have been on any of his pop albums. It has that fusion of world music and pop that both Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel do so well. Both versions of the track however are incredibly short, just over two minutes. Phil’s track Look Through My Eyes is a dramatic lovely song with an unusual chord arrangement. I know the track No Way Out because I’ve heard it sung by Collins live in the past. I’m not sure if I prefer the theme version or the Phil version better as they are so similar. On My Way is the most toddler-friendly song. It is a really upbeat, sing a long song with a nice repetitive chorus and simple lyrics. To give you a taste of the album, I’ve included a video of Phil Collins and his band performing it live:

My child rating for the album is, for a three year old, not high. My kid was not paying it much attention, instead clambering on the couch, turning lights on and off and throwing cushions at me. Normally with Phil Collins, the boy plays his bongo drums for hours. I think it would be a good album to play to a pregnant belly and to an infant as part of that classical music is good for a baby’s brain theory; and also for older kids for music appreciation. It’s just not something a child will be likely to sing along to and therefore not the best for an energetic preschooler.

History

The nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory, Dock is thought to have originated in North West England. Shepherds in Westmoreland in the 1800s used the numbers ‘Hevera’, ‘Devera’, & ‘Dick’ (8, 9 & 10) to count – hence “Hickory, Dickory, Dock”.

The nursery rhyme is thought to have started as a counting-out rhyme. A counting-out rhyme or game is a short game used to pick someone to be “it” for another longer game (e.g. using rock, paper, scissors to pick someone to be up for tag). (Imagine one child pointing around a circle of children as each word is said; the child pointed to at the end of the rhyme is it.)

It’s believed the rhyme was adapted to help teach children to tell the time.

Hickory, Dickory Dock was first published in Thommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book in London around 1744. More than 265 years later, we now can get every nursery rhyme from across the world and over centuries of time with free music downloads. Times sure have changed.

Lyrics

Here are lyrics for Hickory, Dickory, Dock:

Hickory, dickory, dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock.

This Pretty Planet is a children’s contemporary folk album with an earth-aware theme. The album talks about looking after the planet in an entertaining and fun way. It also speaks about the cycles of nature and the changing seasons. The Pretty Planet is aimed at age four to twelve.

When I picked out this album out of possible music downloads for free, I suspected there might be some relation to the late Harry Chapin whose biggest hit was Cats in the Cradle. After I turned it on I was certain. The similarities are in the lyrical storytelling style, amusing ideas intermingled with accurate observations and catchy music.

It turns out that Tom Chapin is Harry’s brother, and most of the family are musicians too. Tom has been making music for decades. He also hosted an award winning  children’s show called Make a Wish between 1971 and 1976. This Pretty Planet was nominated for a Grammy in 2001 and Publisher’s Weekly said:

Clever lyrics deliver Earth-friendly messages with style and fun, and a stellar line-up of guest performers ensures a memorable listening adventure. A special treat for tree-huggers and a great listen for everyone else, Chapin’s latest proves he’s still in top form.

The Year 3000 has a popping bass line. It’s got a mix of funk and rock in it. Did I mention that Tom Chapin makes music for grown-ups too? This track will have you grooving even when you are sitting down, and it had my kid holding on to my head and jumping up and down on my lap.

In the song Two Kinds of Seagulls Chapin explains that there are he-gulls and she-gulls, and for wombats there are mom-bats and dad-bats. It’s a very funny duet with a female singer that sounds like an elderly Austrian scientist and I find it amusing even if my toddler doesn’t get it yet.

My son got Charlie Bird Counts to the Beat for his last birthday.  It’s a CD and picture book from Baby Loves Jazz. The style fits quite nicely in the endless repetition doesn’t drive mama mad category of children’s music. It was also the first thing my boy ever sang along to. If a song stirs your kid enough to drag a set of bongos out of their playroom, sit on an upturned bucket in front of the sound system and wield a set of flame-printed hard rock cafe drumsticks, you can say for sure that the music is inspiring them. Isn’t it the same drive that makes us, as adults, continuously enslaved to our music download sites?

Baby Loves Jazz players are all critically acclaimed and most hailing from New York City. The music for Charlie Bird was arranged by John Ellis on saxophones and Aaron Goldberg on piano. There is also Omer Avital on bass, Miles Griffith on vocals, Ari Hoenig on drums and Daniel Sadownick on percussion.

The album follows Charlie Bird, a blue owl who plays saxophone in the tree tops; throughout the day he counts different animals that he can see playing instruments. It is a pretty cool way of learning how to count, involving jazz music and the rhyme and repetition of the chorus. A nice touch is that the characters in the albums have similar names to famous jazz musicians, for example Charlie Bird and Duck Ellington.

My favourite track is Three Happy Hippos Play Harmonicas, which, if my barely trained musical mind is not failing me is in a three beat time signature. I’d also hazard a semi-educated guess that most of the tracks have the time signature relating to the number in the song title. My son particularly likes Five Busy Bees Play Bongos and the final mellow track where Charlie Bird counts from one to ten.

I couldn’t find any videos from Charlie Bird Counts to the Beat, but here’s the video for the song Purple by Baby Loves Jazz:

An almost three-year-old visitor came over to play the other day and she stood entranced for ages staring at the stereo when I played this album. It had stopped the kids from fighting and eventually they all started dancing. Jazz music saved the day. Baby Loves Jazz a good way to enable children and even toddlers to develop an appreciation for quality music at an early age.