If The Groundhog Can't Watch His Video on YouTube, What Does That Mean?

Eagle-eyed Mrs. Davis has noticed that Steve Burns' and Steven Drozd's "I Hog The Ground (Groundhog Song)" is no longer on YouTube. (So ignore my post, too.)

Never fear, however, dear readers, as Viacom hasn't completed gone over the edge -- the video is now available on their main webpage for Jack's Big Music Show. Huzzah! (I still prefer the YouTube version, though, because it had manic Jack comments interspersed throughout the video.)

What's that? You want more? Lyrics, perhaps? Well, Jack is obliging in this regard, providing two songbooks, including one with the lyrics for "I Hog". Steve's raised eyebrow when he sings "herbivore" is, sadly, not included.

Songs For Groundhog Day

A last-minute collection of songs for Groundhog Day, a short-but-sweet list:

"I Hog the Ground (Groundhog Song)" - Steve Burns / Steven Drozd: view the YouTube video for this awesome song here
"Oh Groundhog" - Elizabeth Mitchell / Lisa Loeb: Off their Catch the Moon album, this is a pleasant and mellow little ditty
"How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck?" - Danny Adlerman and Friends: It's not really a groundhog song, but this is a fun little ditty off their One Size Fits All disk that at least mentions groundhogs...

KidVid: I Hog (the Ground) - Steve Burns with Steven Drozd

[Edit: Copyright infringements everywhere... just go here to watch.

I know Mrs. Davis already posted this, but I've been waiting for somebody to get Steve Burns' and Steven Drozd's "I Hog (The Ground)" to YouTube, because, hey, this might be the kids' music song of the year, and it's only January.

So I don't care that I was time-crunched and didn't get around to posting this until tonight (like Amy, I searched for this daily), and this rocks.

Steve Burns: I Hog the Ground

michelle | MySpace Video

The version below is even better than the version on the Jack's preview disk, because it includes the occasional pop-up comment from Jack. The only thing better than seeing kids jump around playing air guitar is having Jack pop-up and shout "Air guitar!" [Ed: It's worse because it's, er, been removed.]

The song sounds like a Dinosaur Jr. cut, and it'll send the parents into air guitar and (in my case) air drumming fits just like the kids.

Kinda funny that Burns spends all this time breaking free of kids television, and with this one cut, he's created a song that's an instant kids music classic.

KidVid: "Farm Song" - Laurie Berkner

If it doesn't quite have the propulsive energy of last year's "Walk Along the River," Laurie Berkner's new song "Farm Song" does have farm animal noises and Berkner's sweet voice.

Not at the same time, luckily.

It's 2 minutes and 30 seconds of animal noises, mad bongo conga drum skillz, and tons of kids' animal costumes. (Jack evidently has a very large costuming budget.) An appealing enough video and a song that'll probably end up on a Laurie "greatest hits" CD someday in the future.

View the video here. Read a profile in the New York Times here. (Who knew therapy could produce a popular kids' tune?)

KidVid: "Polar Bear" - The Quiet Two

Opening lines aren't quite so big a deal in songs as they are in novels, but the opening line in "Polar Bear," by The Quiet Two, is pretty cool:

"Straight to the point, I wanna be a polar bear."

Direct enough for kids, odd enough to pull in the parents.

And now that the song has its own video on the debut Season Two episode of Jack's Big Music Show, it's about to go huge. Just like the song itself, the video is direct enough for kids (kids jumping around in polar bear outfits) and odd enough for the parents (the goofy animal masks and facial expressions).

To see the video, go to the videoplayer at Jack's page. Want the lyrics or to singalong, karaoke-style? Go here. Want a snippet of the regular track? Go here.

(And if you're not familiar with Make Some Noise, their debut album, you really, really should be.)