Songs For Libraries and Librarians and the People Who Love Them

As part of National Library Week, I thought I'd start a list of library-related songs for your perusal. Now our hard drive crashed a couple weeks back and all the kids' CDs I'd ripped to that drive were lost. (Lesson here, folks -- get a backup hard drive.) Obviously I still have the physical copies, but searching through the hard drive would have been a lot easier. So consider this comparatively short list a work in progress, and if you have more items to add, please leave 'em in the comments.

"I Love My Library" - Lunch Money (from Dizzy)
"Take Me To Your Library" - Monty Harper (from the album of the same title)
"Blast Into Books" - Monty Harper
"Get A Clue" - Monty Harper
"The Great Green Squishy Mean Bibliovore" - Monty Harper
"Hanging Out With the Heroes at the Library" - Monty Harper
"Paws Claws Scales & Tales" - Monty Harper (sensing a trend here? Harper writes a lot of songs for libraries, and a lot of them are quite tuneful)
"The Books I Like To Read" - Frances England (from Fascinating Creatures)
“Rockin’ The Library” - Jim Cosgrove
“Library Ann” - Jim Cosgrove

Baseball Songs (Redux)

Tonight my University of North Carolina Tar Heels will attempt to win another national championship in NCAA Division I men's basketball. Today is also the first full day of Major League Baseball. As sports days go, I can't think of too many better days.

Because the number of kids songs about college basketball is pretty short, however, I've provided this slightly updated list of baseball songs. (Read last year's list here.) Enjoy, and may all your teams have a great season. Except if you're in the National League West, because, you know, I'm a Diamondbacks fan.

If any of you have more suggestions, leave me a comment.

-- "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (well, duh) -- try Wiggleworms Love You, from the Old Town School of Folk Music (nicely bipartisan, cheering for both the Cubs and White Sox), or also the Hold Steady's version.
-- "Baseball Dreams" -- off At the Bottom of the Sea, by Ralph's World (Cubs all the way in this one)
-- "I'm Gonna Catch You" -- off Under a Shady Tree, by Laurie Berkner (it has one relevant line -- "So I jumped into Saturday / And I had a baseball batter-day" -- yeah, I'm really reachin' here)
-- "Pop Fly" -- off Justin Roberts' album by the same name, about a daydreaming boy playing the outfield...
-- "Centerfield" -- off Centerfield, by John Fogerty (not kids' music, but a great song anyway). See also Visqueen's rendition on the forthcoming Desoto Records kidscomp Play!
-- "Talkin' Baseball -- off countless albums by Steve Cashman, who just re-records and updates his song -- baseball history lesson in 3 minutes
-- "Big Train" -- off the RTT's Turn It Up Mommy!. About Walter "Big Train" Johnson. I'd probably disagree that he's the best pitcher ever, but that's another blog. Good song.
-- "Right Field" -- Peter, Paul and Mary.
-- "Cryin' in the Dugout" -- off Daddy-A-Go-Go's Eat Every Bean and Pea on Your Plate album. A humorous song -- "Baseball Dreams" played for laughs instead of nostalgia.
-- "The Greatest" -- Kenny Rogers.
-- "Roll Around" -- Peter Himmelman, off of his My Lemonade Stand CD. A fun, rollicking song about a baseball who retires, then comes back to his calling.
-- "Baseball Tips with Professor Buckley -- Peter Himmelman, My Green Kite, an amusing little spoken-word piece.
-- "Baseball" -- Milkshake, off Play!. Guest-starring Cal Ripkin, Jr.
-- "The Challenger Baseball Song" -- Ben Rudnick and Friends. All about the Challenger Division of Little League, for kids with mental and physical disabilities.
-- "Baseball, Baseball" -- Stephen Cohen, off Here Comes the Band.
-- "Hey! Batter!" -- Hank Cooper, from Playground Fortune Teller -- all about the language of baseball...
-- "High Five" -- They Might Be Giants (at least in part anyway, and the video features some baseball players)
-- "Bruce Springstone's" version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
-- Kathy Kallick's "brilliant refashioning" of Count Basie's "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball"
-- "Bring 'Em In" -- the Deedle Deedle Dees (off their forthcoming album)
-- "I Love Baseball" -- Jim Cosgrove (off Ooey Gooey, reworked for re-release this summer)

And finally, an artist reviewed here on this very site wrote me a while back to suggest four more songs, including at least one I'm miffed I forgot... the comments in quotes are the artist's, not mine.
-- "Catfish" -- off Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series. I am unfamiliar with this one. But it's Dylan.
-- "Joe DiMaggio’s Done it Again" -– Wilco and Billy Bragg, from their Mermaid Ave Vol. 2
-- "A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request" –- Steve Goodman – "Classic, and very funny." See "Talkin' Baseball," above.
-- "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" -- Brave Combo - "two very cool versions... wacky and fun." It's Brave Combo, how could it not be fun?

My Favorite Kids and Family Songs of 2008

I know, I know -- it's April 2009. What in the world am I doing publishing a list of my favorite kids and family songs of 2008? Because I'm compelled to. (It's on my to-do list and has been for 4 months, darn it!) The time frame here is pretty much exactly 2008 -- so some songs which were from albums left off my list of favorite albums from 2008 because they didn't meet the Nov. 1 - Oct. 31 time frame are added here.

Not sure how this would work as a mix CD, but it's still a fine collection of music for the whole family.

So, without further ado, in no particular order (all links are to sites with the complete track as of this week in early April 2009)...

Barenaked Ladies - "Crazy ABCs" (listen here)
Laurie Berkner - "Mouse in My Toolbox"
Johnny Bregar - "Two Thumbs Up"
Central Services Board of Education - "The Lonely Tomato" (listen here)
Frances England - "Spring Has Sprung"
Tom Freund - "Hug Trees" (listen here)
Kay Hanley - "Chim Chim Cher-ee" (Disney Music Block Party compilation)
Jenny Lewis - "Barking at the Moon" (Bolt soundtrack -- listen here)
Me 3 - "Apple" (listen here)
Medeski, Martin & Wood - "Where's The Music?"
The Nields - "Who Are You Not To Shine?"
Recess Monkey - "Monster Boogie" (listen here)
Justin Roberts - "Fruit Jar"
The Roots - "Lovely, Love My Family" (listen here)
Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could - "Road Trip"
Scribblemonster - "Doing the Right Thing Isn't Always Easy, Doing the Easy Thing Isn't Always Right"
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "Hot Lava"
The Terrible Twos - "Old Man Miller" (listen here)
They Might Be Giants - "Seven" (listen/watch here)
David Tobocman - "Home" (listen/watch here)

Songs For Recess

You know, I miss recess. I miss taking a 15-minute break two hours into the day and playing on the monkey bars or getting on the swingset. My office totally needs to get a playground.

I'm a little sad that it appears National Recess Week is a corporately-sponsored event, because it seems like recess is one of those public goods that should be more than just a tie-in. Play is an important thing, both indoors and out. So I thought I'd put together a list of a few songs celebrating play in the great outdoors especially.

And if you've got more to add, list 'em in the comments. Here we go...

"Rainbow Road" - Recess Monkey
"Monkey Bars" - Recess Monkey
"Pedal Power" - Recess Monkey
"The Sandbox Song" - Recess Monkey (I mean, c'mon, look at the name!)
"Swingset" - Ralph's World
"Playground" - Ralph's World
"All I Want To Do Is Play" - Ralph's World
"I Chalk" - Justin Roberts
"Kickboard, Baby, Yeah" - Justin Roberts
"Playground" - The Terrible Twos (admittedly not the most uplifting of playground songs)
"Digging in the Dirt" - Frances England
"Run Around" - John Carlin

Readers Who Need Readers: St. Patrick's Day Songs

A reader sent me this request recently:

I am a children's librarian... I am getting together a music/movement/story program for toddlers and preschoolers for St. Patrick's Day and am stumped on finding great music. Any suggestions?

Well, I'll admit to being a little stumped, but here's what I suggested...

I'd probably go with an Irish theme -- "Wild Mountain Thyme" perhaps (the Dan Zanes and Nields recordings are excellent). There's a kids album by Kathy Ludlow and Mary Coogan, who sing with traditional Irish groups. The album is called The Big Ship Sails and while it's not really Irish-specific, it has a definite Irish sound. For quiet time, you could always try Putumayo's Celtic Dreamland disk. The American-Irish duo Sunflow has an album called Under the Stars, which is another non-Irish specific quiet time disk.

Or you could always play songs featuring Patrick... from Spongebob Squarepants.

(I'm here all week, folks.)

Anyways, those are my suggestions -- how about yours?