The Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll: #s 25-11

Here's a list of album numbers 11 through 25 of the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll. For a few more comments on the methodology, go here, but you may as well just dig in... because it's gonna take a little while.

25. Family Dance - Dan Zanes
Points: 136
Ballots: 6
Release date: 2001
Zanes' second foray into music for families. Unlike its predecessor Rocket Ship Beach, this album to me feels like his first real "age-desegregated" album, with less of the more kid-focused stuff on the first disk.

24. Easy - Secret Agent 23 Skidoo
Points: 137
Ballots: 6
Release date: 2008 (released in 2009)
I'm not the only person to have said it -- it's the first great kids hip-hop album, but saying so makes it sound like its appeal would be limited. It's not.

23. Rocket Ship Beach - Dan Zanes
Points: 140
Ballots: 6
Release date: 2000
Sure, Laurie Berkner and Justin Roberts released albums before this one came out, but if there was an album that first made people in the world at large aware of a resurgent genre, it was this one.

22. On a Flying Guitar - SteveSongs
Points: 144
Ballots: 6
Release date: 2000
The second SteveSongs disk, and the first after Steve Roslonek left his job as a business consultant to perform music for kids full-time. It's worked out well for him, I think.

21. Singable Songs for the Very Young - Raffi
Points: 146
Ballots: 6
Release date: 1976
It's been said (though by whom has been lost to the mists of time and the internet) that this album, Raffi's first, basically created the kids' music genre from a sales perspective. Seeing as the album has gone platinum, that's not entirely surprising.
20. Singin' with Susan - Susan Shane-Linder
Points: 155
Ballots: 6
Release date: 1995
This is the first of three kids album from the Florida-based Shane-Linder.

17. (tie) Silly Reflection - Lunch Money
Points: 160
Ballots: 7
Release date: 2004
Some of these albums are well-loved because they're popular. Others are well-loved because they get passed around as a secret. This is an example of the latter.

17. (tie) Songs to Grow On For Mother and Child - Woody Guthrie
Points: 160
Ballots: 7
Release date: 1956 (recorded in 1947, re-released by Smithsonian Folkways in 1991)
Is this the first great children's music album? I think it is...

17. (tie) You Are My Sunshine - Elizabeth Mitchell
Points: 160
Ballots: 7
Release date: 2002
I find it appropriate that Woody Guthrie and Elizabeth Mitchell are tied in this poll because there isn't a single contemporary kids musician who is as indebted to Guthrie as Mitchell, who covers Guthrie's "Car Car" on this, her second album for families.

16. Little Mermaid Soundtrack - Various Artists
Points: 170
Ballots: 8
Release date: 1988
There were several movie soundtracks and Broadway cast albums listed in people's ballots -- appropriately enough, this is from the movie that signaled Disney's resurgence in animated movies for kids. (And, yeah, the songs from Alan Menken and Howard Ashman are pretty good, too. Probably better than the movie itself.)

15. Annie Broadway Cast - Various Artists
Points: 176
Ballots: 8
Release date: 1977
Is Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin's "I Won't Grow Up" the proto-theme song for the kids music genre?

14. Fascinating Creatures - Frances England
Points: 178
Ballots: 8
Release date: 2006
Is there any album on this list whose origins were less likely to have suggested broad popularity than this debut from Frances England? The album was recorded as a preschool fundraiser, and turned into a launching point for a career.

13. Family Tree - Frances England
Points: 179
Ballots: 8
Release date: 2008
Given the close placement of this album to its predecessor, you might think that there was a lot of block voting going on, that people voted for both albums together (and relatively closely in placement). While that was true in some cases, for the most part people had definite favorites, voting for one or the other. Which bodes well for England's future success, too.

12. No! - TMBG
Points: 195
Ballots: 8
Release date: 2002
If Dan Zanes' Rocket Ship Beach was the first shot across the bow letting people know the kids music genre was resurgent, They Might Be Giants' No! was the first landing. In addition to being a great album, it was the first album that suggested to artists in the 21st century that they could make music for families and, if they chose, continue to make music for the adults as well. As the decade rolled, what seemed like a nice option increasingly looked like a survival option.

11. House Party - Dan Zanes
Points: 197
Ballots: 9
Release date: 2003
By 2003, Zanes was really getting going -- House Party was his fourth album for families (fifth if you include Sea Music, and his guest artist list at this point would be the envy of any variety show (Debbie Harry, Angelique Kidjo, Philip Glass make appearances here). While the Grammy-winning Catch That Train! might have been the apotheosis of his "age-desegregated" music, this one comes pretty close.

The Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll: Results Introduction

I'm about to post the first part of results from the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll, and I wanted to start off by thanking everyone who voted lo these many months ago. Nearly 90 folks submitted ballots, which I thought was an excellent response. And I also want to thank everyone for their patience while I compiled these results.

One note on the results I'll be presenting here. The rules I outlined in my original post asked people to vote for 10 albums, with point ratings from 1 to 10, but people could submit fewer than 10 albums with points reduced accordingly. As I received votes, however, I realized a couple things:
1) The disparity between a tenth place vote and a first place vote was far too large
2) By permitting one- or two-vote ballots (albeit at a discounted value), it didn't discourage persons who wanted to specifically promote one artist at the cost of all others.

So, prior to tabulating votes, I decided to change the scoring methodology as follows:
1) Rather than scoring votes from 1 to 10, I scored votes from 18 to 27. (There was a justification for selecting that range, but it's not worth getting into.)
2) I disqualified all ballots with fewer than five votes.

I will be describing the top 25 albums using the revised methodology, but will publish (after the full results are revealed) both sets of results.

So I hope you enjoy the results. There are a lot of familiar faces, a few (relatively) unfamiliar ones, and a lot of time both in the voting and in the compiling. Enjoy.

Vote Today in the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll

I don't ask much of you, my readers, but today I'm asking that if you haven't already, please please please with sugar on top vote in the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll. Tonight at 8:59 PM west coast (11:59 PM east coast). You don't have to be like Bill or Jeff (thanks for the shout-out) or Kathy or Phil and do this as a hobby or career. You just have to have made music for kids and families part of your life. Go to the link above to read all the voting directions. Remember that lobbying for votes for yourself or others is bad, but that spreading the word is A-OK.

Don't overthink it -- just vote! Thanks!

The Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll -- The Deadline Approaches

Time is running out, folks, to vote in the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll. That's right, you have until just before the stroke of midnight east coast time on Wednesday, October 7th to vote. Go to the link above to read all the voting directions. And remember:

Encouraging folks to vote in the poll = OK.
Soliciting votes for a particular album = FAIL.

Thanks!

You Have Less Than Two Weeks to Vote for the Best Kids Music Albums of All Time

Well, not all of you. A fair number of you have already voted in the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll, but a bunch of you (yes, you) haven't, and the deadline is now just less than two weeks away. I appreciate the continued number of shout-outs from across the web, and I encourage you to spread the word (but not too much so), but more importantly, I want you to vote. It'll be awesome.