The Top 50 Kids Songs of All Time: Songs 26-30

We are finally completing the "Others Receiving Votes" section of The Top 50 Kids Songs of All Time. Except, of course, unless Top 25 college rankings, we actually rank items 26 on down. (Somewhere 'round here I actually have an "others receiving votes" listing for song #s 51+.)

A few mid-majors with strong performances, a few songs close to not quite at the top of the major conference standings...

In case you're tuning in late, here are the previous entries:

Songs 31 through 35
Songs 36 through 40
Songs 41 through 45
Songs 46 through 50

There is still time (but not so much) to enter the contest to guess the Top 5. Winner gets one million dollars a free CD.

30. "Buckeye Jim" - traditional: This is just such a delightfully weird song. "Way up yonder in the sky / A blue bird lived in a jaybird's eye" the song starts off, and the meaning gets no clearer. Wonderful imagery, though I'm not sure the original songwriter was in a completely happy place when writing. (Elizabeth Mitchell and Dan Zanes do the song; so do The Hollow Trees -- click on track 17.)

29. "Marvelous Toy" - Tom Paxton: This is one of the few songs on this list that's old but not traditional -- Tom Paxton wrote it but Peter, Paul and Mary made it famous. John Denver recorded it, too. (And apparently it was the Chad Mitchell Trio's biggest hit, but, uh, I've never heard of them.) I like the mystery about the toy -- "It went "Zip" when it moved and "Pop" when it stopped / "Whirrr" when it stood still / I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will." Indeed. (Listen to Amazon's miserly 30-second clip here.)

28. "All the Pretty Little Horses" - traditional: Oooooh. A lullaby that's not in a major key! Despite that the fact that the narrator's basically bribing the baby to go to sleep ("Hushabye, don't you cry / Go to sleep, little baby / When you wake, you'll cake / And all the pretty little horses"), I sing this quite a lot. (Did you know Olivia Netwon-John recorded an album of lullabies? I didn't. Anyone care to tell us how good it is? Even just the "All the Pretty Little Horses" sample?)

27. "Hot Potato" - The Wiggles: Yeah, deal. It's simple enough for kids to master, it's got hand motions, and 4 guys from Australia built a freakin' empire on this song. Sorry that this song will now be in your head today while you have that meeting with Terry from marketing. (Ah, YouTube, what would we ever do without you?)

26. "This Old Man" - traditional: Yeah, you're probably bored of singing it, but in the best folk song tradition, change the lyrics. At least the first line... "Britney Spears / She played one..." "John McCain / He played one..." "Shaquille O'Neal / He played one..." (No, I am not going to find a sample for you. If, however, you can find one of the three people listed above singing it...)

Comments

[deb in sf]

Nice list. Loving the wit.

LOVE Buckeye Jim. One of my all time favs.

[Katy L]

My favorite version of "All the Pretty Little Horses" is by Shawn Colvin on her very lovely "Lullabyes and Holiday Songs" CD of a few years back. She dedicated the CD to her daughter Caledonia (which has to be one of the more fabulous names of all time).

[danzel]

Chad Mitchell Trio were a folk group in the '60s. When Chad Mitchell left the band, it retained his name. John Denver was his replacement, so he was already very familiar with the song when he recorded it on his 2nd Christmas album.

More info than you were looking for, right? ;o)

[Stefan]

Danzel, that's awesome. Well, I mean, I don't really have a strong opinion either way on John Denver.

I just love the randomness of the info. Thanks.

[radosh]

There's a good reason All the Pretty Little Horses is in a minor key. The narrator is a female slave who is serving as a nursemaid for the master's child. She is not bribing the child, but observing how good its life is while her own baby -- the poor little lamby of verse 2 -- cries for attention she can't provide.

On a lighter note, are you going to create an iTunes imix of this list when it's done?

[Scott]

When will the list continue?