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As long as my baby likes Tom Waits, we’ll be cool.

Jill

This is the 16th-most-common song sung to babies in the UK (not work-safe):

The rest of them seem more appropriate for a Euro karaoke bar than for a nursery, but I suppose that makes sense — parents sing songs they know, right? My grandma was a song-writer and a singer, and she used to sing us her own songs; my mom sung us her songs, too. My dad, who was apparently not all that creative, sang the ABC song on repeat.

I do find it entertaining that “Sweet Child O’Mine” is on the list. “Angel,” “Nothing Compares to You,” and that stupid James Blunt song seem logical enough, though I’m not sure where “I Kissed a Girl” comes in.

What do you sing to your kids? Or what ridiculous songs did your parents sing to you?

51 thoughts on As long as my baby likes Tom Waits, we’ll be cool.

  1. I was going through a No Doubt thing in 2005, when I had my youngest, and of course the bossa nova singer I named her after.

  2. Actually, I think “Wonderwall” is a great choice for a lullaby. I often listen to it on my iPod when I’m falling asleep. “I Kissed a Girl” though…

    My dad is from South America, so he would sing me Chilean nursery rhymes, which are rather less morbid than the tails of mice being chopped off and so on. When I was old enough to express my own musical preferences, at about 18 months, my favorite song was “La Bamba” by Ritchie Valens.

  3. my dad grew up in singapore and managed to adopt australian lullabies (i have no idea why). so he used to sing “kookaburra sits in the old gum tree” to me when i was a wee young thang. he recently passed away and i have, since then, promised myself that if i ever have children i’m going to sing that to them. even though i had no idea what a kookaburra was until about…oh…three months ago.

    my mom was/is obsessed with the cat stevens because she grew up in london. so she would just put on the cat stevens cassette tape and play that stuff all night long, whilst she danced around and me and my three siblings sat in our beds, totally stunned. 🙂

  4. with cat stevens, sorry. no “the” before this name. although, he kind of is an awesome entity so perhaps i should commence calling him “the cat stevens” from now on.

  5. When they were young enough not to care and I was desperate enough to reach beyond the nursery songs, REM’s “Swan Swan H” and K. McCarty’s version of Daniel Johnston’s “Golly Gee.” Then there were the times my son would only fall asleep during repeated playings of Beth Orton’s “Stolen Car.”

  6. My parents primarily sang me disturbingly militant religious music. The sort of music with lines like “We are the army of the lord most high.” In retrospect it is rather worrying.

    The idea of playing Tom Waits to a baby fascinates me — you may have stumbled on the secret to making sure children grow up to be awesome.

  7. My dad really singing to me when I was little, although I don’t know if his intent was to amuse me or to amuse himself (probably mostly the latter). He used to sing “Li’l Red Riding Hood” by Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs when giving me a bath, which is totally creepy. He also used to sing the Sesame Street theme song but would change one of the lines to “drinking my cares away”, which is how I always remember it now.

  8. Scottish traditionals, especially Loch Lomond and The Skye Boat Song; also Flower of Scotland and Wild Mountain Thyme. When I need more material, I do some Steely Dan, some James Taylor, some Jim Croche, some Harry Chapin, some Jimmy Buffett.

  9. My son freaks out for The Flaming Lips, so Do You Realize was a big hit. Any early Beatles songs are good for the little ones as well. My daughter on the other hand responds best to Wilco for some odd reason. I think she finds it soothing.

  11. My father is a rowdy hippie musician who grew up on Chicago’s South Side and started sneaking into shady blues bars when he was 14 (something my grandfather still complains about from time to time). The songs I heard growing up have forever altered my idea of what “children’s music” is. To this day I remember my father singing Robert Johnson’s “Hellhound On My Trail” and Lennon’s “Working Class Hero.” I guess looking back it does seem kind of odd, but when I was young they were just pretty songs that came out of my dad and a guitar.

  12. My fifth grade teacher used to play guitar and sing “Rocky Raccoon” to us every Friday before the buses came to pick us up. She was pretty awesome.

  13. My mother sang me “Bushel and a Peck” from Guys & Dolls.

    I sang “Sweet Baby James” and “Close Your Eyes” (both James Taylor) and the lullaby from Mary Poppins (“Stay Awake”) among others.

  14. Why Katy Perry? I could go on about my dislike for “I Kissed A Girl” and how her other songs come into make me angry.

    My mom just sang normal songs. Mainly “Twinkle Twinkle”. However, when I babysit, anything goes. One time it was “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”.

  15. Oh, I’m glad you asked! My friends have recently spawned in large numbers and I do a lot of babysitting. And for some reason, my default song to sing them as I walk/bounce them on my hip is the old Woody Guthrie song “Union Maid.” No idea why, but it’s always the one that comes into my head. Maybe I’m trying to turn them into red diaper babies. 😉

  16. The Grateful Dead’s “Ripple” was a foolproof lullaby. Scarborough Faire. Broadway show tunes, just like my mother sang to me… except shifted by a generation. “Everything Possible” by Fred Small.

    WHat was more entertaining was when, at nine years old, she decided that her favorite band was the Smiths.

  17. i always wanted, when i have a baby, to sing ‘Time’ by Tom Waits, actually! i don’t really like Tom Waits, i just like that one song. and i think it’d make a great lullaby!

  18. anyway i actually have a whole list of songs for when i had PTSD episodes/trouble going to sleep that i’d sing to myself and i plan on singing to my kids (Time being #1). the other songs are:

    ‘River Waltz,’ Cowboy Junkies
    ‘Famous Blue Raincoat,’ Leonard Cohen
    ‘Twinkle,’ Tori Amos (this one and the Cohen song I’ve sang to my boyfriend when he was really upset and they’re really calming!)
    ‘Wish You Were Here,’ (I prefer Rasputina’s version but hey)
    ‘Wicked Game,’ Chris Isaak (lmao I think I’m the only person in the world who likes this song! but i find it very comforting to listen to, also)

    there’s more but i don’t have to playlist in front of me.

  19. My dad used to play his guitar and sing Puff the Magic Dragon to me. And when I was learning guitar a few years ago, he taught me how to play it! My mum sang traditional British songs.

  20. Dad used to sing “Sixteen Tons”, “The Socialist ABC” and “William Brown (Keep That Wheel A-Turning)”

    Oddly, I don’t remember Mum singing songs to us, even though she’s the musical side of the pairing – she did sing, but it tended to be little ditties that she made up on the spot, describing what she was doing, at least, that’s what I remember.

  21. red diaper babies

    Hey, those could be my kids. My five-year-olds and I sing solidarity songs and talk about what the songs mean and why mama is in the union. They know who Joe Hill was and what he was fighting for (and why “fighting” is okay in this context).

    We sing songs about what the Buddha taught during children’s dharma school at the Zen center. These are wonderful and we find many opportunities to return to their themes during the week.

    We sing a lot of traditionals together as well (or at least the parts of them I can remember). I need to buy a copy of the Rise Up Singing songbook.

    For popular music, Richard Thompson (Beeswing is a current favorite), Shawn Colvin, Greg Brown, and Dolly Parton are popular right now, as are all the CDs we buy from buskers at the farmers market. We’re big patrons of the buskers. Pete Seeger was big last spring. Oh, it goes on and on. Our kids are as eclectic as we are.

  22. I sing “The Lady of Shalot” to my little sister.

    When I was a kid I got sung Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Marley,the Beatles and Led Zepplin by my mom and… well… Enter Sandman got played by my dad.

    You can so see why I’m fucked up…

  24. My mom used to sing the Beatles’ “Good Night” from the White Album to put me to sleep. I plan to sing it to my children too <3

  25. My guy’s nephew listens to the radio with his mother, who then sings her favorite songs to him. As a result, he only knows three songs: Damaged by Danity Kane, that annoying “you see me, hi hater” song, and the wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round. (Can you guess which one his mother did not teach him??)

  26. Last night my husband played Bruce Springsteen’s “For You” for our unborn daughter. Sample lyrics “Crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
    reveal yourself all now to me girl while you’ve got the strength to speak
    Cause they’re waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks”

    I gave him a questioning look and he said, “She doesn’t know what he saying, just that the music is nice.”

    My music indoctrination will include lots of Michael Franti & Spearhead.

  28. I sing Itsy Bitsy Spider to my (turning two this Saturday) nephew. Because I can’t carry a tune, and genuine kids’ songs are better than grown-up stuff. when you have that particular deficit.

    If I could sing, I’d sing Nick Cave’s ‘Into my arms’

  29. j.ds ours wants twinkle twinkle too. It’s extra special because he has a book that plays the song and the cover lights up with twinkling stars. Did you know there are multilple verses? Neither did I, but now I could sing them to you.

    Other traditional favorites are Wheels on the bus, Hokey-Pokey, and Itsy-bitsy Spider, which all feature hand/body movements. and the ABC song.

    When he and his sister were littler, I’d sing traditionals, mainly because I can’t remember enough of the words to popular songs. So my kids were hearing songs about 100 year old murders like Stagger Lee (The Clash version usually) at 6 months.

  30. I was raised on Christian pop in the ’70s, so we don’t reproduce that.

    Some Spearhead songs, lots of Greg Brown. Hobo’s Lullabye, Hard Traveling, lots of folk music. A little bit of church music – my grandma always sang I Come to the Garden Alone, and I sing that to my little guy. The Day Of Jubilee Has Come, Down By the Riverside, Dump the Bosses Off Your Back.

    One night this summer we were walking home from the park, singing Goodnight, Irene, and another family with a little kid walking about a block away started singing it too. It made me really happy. (We sanitize the lyrics, though – if Irene turns her back on me, I’ll just lay down and cry. No heroin or drowning for the preschooler.)

  31. My mom used to sing the Beatles’ “Good Night” from the White Album to put me to sleep. I plan to sing it to my children too <3

    My wife and I sing that one to our son all the time. Most nights, we alternate between “Good Night” and Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)”.

  32. My first son was a high strung, demanding baby, and I used to sing Tom Petty’s “Breakdown” to him when he was up at all hours of the night, crying:

    It’s alright if you love me,
    It’s alright if you don’t
    I’m not afraid of you runnin’ away honey,
    Iv’e got this feeling you won’t

    Say there ain’t no use in pretending,
    Your eyes give you away
    Something inside you is feeling like I do,
    We said all there is to say

    Breakdown, go ahead and give it to me
    Breakdown, take me through the night
    Breakdown, go ahead give it to me,
    Breakdown, it’s alright,

  33. My mother refused to sing for us when we were little. She always said it was because she couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket and didn’t want to ruin our chances to be musical. But when she’d listen to the radio, I memorized the songs and used to run around the house singing AC/DC, Metallica, Air Supply, the Eagles and Jefferson Starship. I remember the look of horror on my grandfather’s face when I’d wail out either ridiculous metal lyrics or sappy love songs at the top of my lungs. Maybe because she didn’t sing to me, I can hardly function without music now, either listening to it or humming a song myself.

  34. I sing some traditional stuff to my daughter like Frere Jacques and You Are My Sunshine but also All Together Now by The Beatles, John Denver’s Annie’s Song and Everything’s Alright from the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack.

  35. When my son was a baby I used to sing him Blackbird by the Beatles and Shine On by The House of Love. Now he is 3 we mainly sing the theme song to Thomas the Tank Engine. Sigh….

  36. My mom used to sit me on her knee and play a game. First she’d sing
    “This is how the baby rides, walk walk walk walk” and bump me gently up and down, then…
    “This is how the gentleman rides, , trot trot trot trot” and bump her knee a little higher…
    “This is how the cowboy rides, run run run run” A little higher…
    “This is how the lady rides – Gallopy Gallopy Gallopy Gallopy!” And throw me up into the air.

    Sure explains a lot about me…

  37. Kids songs, of course, but also folk songs like “John Henry,” or anything the New Christy Minstrels would sing, and a lot of The Mamas and The Papas’ catalog. Mom made up a lot of doggerel songs to popular/folk tunes, too. Now I do that, even though I don’t have kids.

  38. Does anyone else remember this one?

    Down in the meadow in an itty bitty pool
    Swam three little fishies and a mama fishy too.
    Swim, said the mama fishy, swim if you can,
    and they swam, and they swam, right over the dam.

    Beep boop diddum daddum waddem chew
    beep boop diddum daddum waddem chew
    beep boop diddum daddum waddem chew
    and they swam and they swam right over than dam!

    I’d sing it for you but don’t know how to upload that. 🙂

    My parents were the same age as my friends’ grandparents, and I had a brother and sister 20 and 18 years (respectively) older than me, so I grew up with a really interesting bunch of music in the house. Tunes from the ’30s and ’40s right along with the Beatles and the Grateful Dead. No Sinatra — ma wasn’t fond of him although I got to like his stuff later — but Perry Como and the Moody Blues (of whom I guess I was rather fond when I was young). The Andrews Sisters and Joan Baez. (Hmmmmmm… I may have just figured out where all the bizarity in my life comes from! 🙂 As well as the usual kid stuff — the soundtrack from Disney’s “Robin Hood” was on my favorites list for YEARS. Roger Miller was a hoot, and I had pretty much the whole thing, even the narration memorized. Ahhhh, the days BEFORE vcrs! *grin*

    Anyway, I’d love to hear if someone else remembers the song I quoted up top. I don’t think it was made up by my dad, but it may very well have been.

    Apologies for what might be some odd formatting. The preview looks oddly bolded…

  39. My mother sang mostly regular lullabies, not all of which I know the names of (is the one about “all the pretty little horses, blacks and bays, dapples and greys” called “Brahm’s Lullaby”, or am I making that up?). My dad is not so musical, so he would put on The Cars “Just What I Needed” and dance with me. It’s like the song is in my blood now, I love it to pieces even though I don’t remember hearing it as a tiny baby.

  41. Laurie @ 38 I grew up in NZ in the 70s and 80’s and I remember that song!!! Although I have a feeling that there should be two extra syllables in the chorus – another “waddem”?

    Can’t remember where I first learnt it, though, primary school most likely.

  42. Our baby (7 months) loves Waits’ Chocolate Jesus.

    We are going through a folky period with her. John Henry and Erie Canal from Bruce, Man of Constant Sorrow, but Beatles work well too. Esp Yellow Submarine.

    Worst thing now for weeks I can not get the Addams Family theme out of my head. She was fascinated by snapping fingers so it was a natural. My wife who grew up in the Soviet Union and has no idea what the Addams Family is constantly hums it also.

  43. Book Girl!

    OMG, someone else who knows that one!! Mostly people just look at me funny…. 😉 And the fact that you are from NZ and know it — makes me wonder if my dad picked it up during WW2 when he was overseas, or what.

    I’ve sung it through several times (much to the consternation of my cats! 😉 and I’m pretty sure I have the “chorus” written down the way my dad used to sing it. Doesn’t mean there couldn’t be variations. 🙂

    And my dad used to sing “Bushel and a Peck” to me, too. Never knew it was from “Guys and Dolls”, so it was a little strange the first time I saw that show. *grin* Then again, my ma and I used to clean the living room to “The Stripper”. 😀

  44. My da used to sing “Carve that Possum” by Southern Culture on the Skids.

    I think it partially explains why there are so many things wrong with me.

    Otherwise, my ma used to sing a lot of musicals and Sinead o’Connor and Natalie Merchant and Tracy Chapman.

  45. Ha! My mum used to sing Greensleeves to me (yes, I know there are no lyrics – it was more of a ‘Da da da’ thing) when I was a lad. And like everyone else my age in the western world, the two albums on the stereo were Born In The USA and Brothers In Arms.

    Ah, the mid-eighties.

  46. Hey, Rockit:
    Greensleeves does in fact have lyrics. Not that I can remember them. *sigh* I believe the origin is English and it’s rather old, and I do believe the lyrics have been around for a long, long time, not added recently.

    It’s one of my favorite carols, actually. Ooooh! I remember! The lyrical version is usually referred to as “What Child Is This?” Someone please, please correct me if I’m wrong in thinking that the lyrics are quite old.

  47. My parents never really sang to me, but whenever any of my friends have a baby, they get a copy of a lullaby mix CD that has always gone over well. Otis Redding, “Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay”; Elvis, “Can’t Help Falling in Love”; Jump, Little Children, “Cathedrals”; REM, “Nightswimming”; the Beatles, “Hey Jude”; and so on. I’ve got those and other similar ones on a playlist I play for my dog when he’s in his crate during the day; they keep him calm, and he seems to be developing an appreciation for Sarah Vaughan.

  48. Oh, and when I was volunteering with special-needs kids, one of them would cry when overstimulated, and the only things that would calm him down were “You Are My Sunshine” and “Mr. Golden Sun,” which I think is from Barney. For the entire hour. Made him happy, though.

  50. My kids – when I get them (later in life) – will absolutely be brought up with Tom Waits on the stereo. They’ll either become alpha-male Romeos or deep-thinking nighthawks at some diner.

    On the subject, I’ll introduce them to Leonard Cohen as well.

  51. As long as you’re on a Tom Waits theme, I used to sing Innocent When You Dream as a lullaby to my babies. I had to cut it out when they hit their fear of death phase, but the song isn’t much worse then rock a bye baby. Picture in a Frame also nice. And for some reason our twin month-old babies wouldn’t calm down unless we played “Crazy About My Baby” by Louis Armstrong. Not a mellow song, but it cured the fussiness. I suggest you try and find the Waits version of that too.

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