Children’s musicians Erin Lee and Marci bring us today’s guest post, the second of their regular posts with thematic recommendations for kid-friendly music. Look for them on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.
I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to iTunes for those who want only these singles. You can also get all of the below singles at once as an iTunes Mix.
Finding good Halloween tunes for school-age kids who have outgrown the cats and pumpkins themes can be tricky. But Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, so we have learned a large repertoire of creepy crawly songs. If we had our way we would be singing these spooky songs year round.
Interestingly, both our favorite Halloween tunes are by mid-western men tormented by the things that go bump in the night! Each song is great fun, and offers interesting ways of dealing with fears.
“Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet”: Monty Harper (The Great Green Squishy Mean Concert CD
We are on the Board of Directors of the Children’s Music Network and at one of their National Conferences, we walked through the door and heard a man singing a super-deluxe version of the chant we used to sing as kids. The man is a singer songwriter from Oklahoma named Monty Harper, and we subsequently learned that he is very gifted, very funny, and a little bit crazy. We love him! This song is still one of our favorites: Late one Halloween, the exhausted Narrator, who has run out of candy hours ago, is tormented incessantly by a troll who won’t give up until he gets his candy. Monty has a six-year-old daughter who helps shape his very sound approach to music for kids who have outgrown the preschool songs, but aren’t quite ready for Britney’s comeback album.
“Thought it was a Monster”: Justin Roberts (Yellow Bus
This isn’t precisely a Halloween tune, but it does provide an original way of dealing with those scary sounds in the night. The Narrator hears some spooky thumps, squeaks, and groans. After eliminating the possibility that it might be his brother, the Narrator decides that it MUST be a monster—and decides to sing along with the sounds so they won’t be so scary. This song features one parent, a Dad, who interrupts with the classic “What’s Going on in Here?!” When the father realizes that he doesn’t know what the sounds are either and he joins in the singing, it makes for a very charming parenting moment. And the song grooves — we know some 30 year-olds who play it when the kids aren’t around!
Our tune, “The Moonlight Wolfbite Batjuice Jamboree” (Snowdance