Sometimes I sing to my baby girl to get her to calm down when she's crying. But I've found that I have a limited repertoire of songs that I know completely by heart. I'm really not a musical person. So I just sing what I know all the way through, which is Edelweiss, La Marseillaise, Skullcrusher Mountain, and Vaiyo A-O. Of course, I'm working on learning something more appropriate for a baby. Certainly not "Rock-a-Bye Baby", which has really creepy lyrics.
What lullabies do you/did you like to sing to your babies, if any?
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11 comments:
I'm not a parent myself, but an uncle many times over (my brother,my wife's oldest brother,one of her younger sisters, and her cousin, have all had their babies in the last 3 months) and my wife has 17 siblings, all but two of which, are younger than her. So I've heard (and sung) my fair share of lullabies, some of which may seem strange :
Danny Boy :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Boy
The entirety of James Brown's album, In the Jungle Groove (playing it, singing it, and or dancing to it w/ holding the baby) :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Jungle_Groove
Gerswin's Summertime :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lullaby#Summertime
Queensryche's Silent Lucidity (both the original song w/vocals, and an instrumental version) :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Lucidity
Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah :
http://matthewakins.blogspot.com/2008/12/ohyeah-thats-it.html
Mah Nà Mah Nà (the Sesame/Muppet version) :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah_N%C3%A0_Mah_N%C3%A0
Down to the River to Pray (the version from the "O Brother, Where Art Thou" is my favorite - sung by Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, and Emmylou Harris; The version from Allison Kraus & Union Station from their "Live" album is decent)
Baby Mine, by Allison Krauss (the one from Dumbo is good as well) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mo5qxZcVfQ
Tijuana Jail and What Do you Do with a Drunken Sailor - thanks to Kingston Trio
This was one i used to sing to my kids -- it was a hit by the Aussie 60s group "The Seekers"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YP7GCXqdqU
It's a nice, snuggly comforting song for small people
When my son was a baby we got a CD of lullabies. I listened to it several times and learned as many as I could, then sang them to him. I'm pretty sure Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was on there, and Little Boy Blue, and Mockingbird (Hush Little Baby). Sometimes I just took a tune and made up words, whether they rhymed or not.
But you should definitely also learn that Klingon Victory song. Just remember to sing it sweetly.
I really liked Lexx -- until they went weird with that last season. Like they weren't weird B4.
I like "I'm a Lumberjack" from Monty Python.
The words probably don't matter so much as the voice; my father once put his toddler niece soundly to sleep with a dramatic reading from a calculus book.
(Come to think of it, calculus books sometimes have that effect on adults too, but I think in this case it was the voice.)
"You've got a friend" James Taylor
"I Will Never Forget You" (a 1970s catholic liturgical music piece. It sounds like a lullaby from God to us).
My youngest will be 14 on Thursday,her older brother used to beg me to sing her "the dead cowboy song" ( to the rest of the world that was Marty Robbin's classic "El Paso") I sang what I knew.
Try 'Sweet and Low' by Tennyson and 'Lullaby and Goodnight' by J. Brahms
Will send entire words via email
When my first son was a toddler, I quit listening to Led Zepplin when he started learning lyrics like "Where's that confounded bridge". It just wasn't cute to me at all to hear it from a baby. So I cut out secular music altogether for a good long while.
We loved the Raffi songs and sang them all the time- something about flying cows. When Pooh Bear, my youngest, came along, we began to listen to Laurie Berkner. I really still like Wildflowers, We are the Dinosaurs, Olie, Olie, Anna,
and Let's go Swimming by Laurie Berkner's Band.
Now that the kids are much older, we've returned to secular music. In fact, every last child of mine are huge Coldplay fans.
Since my 2 year old daughter's nickname from me is "Sunshine," my wife and I often sing "You are my sunshine" as a lullaby. She will request with her own little code words "Twinkle, twinkle," "Row, row, row your boat," and "Jesus Loves Me" if we ask her.
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