My daughter is in a cute phase right now where she wants us to “sing” nursery rhymes together.   Really what she means is that she wants mommy to sing and she just watches me closely and mouths along to the words.   Therein lies my problem.   I’m a bit – okay, a lot – rusty with the words.   Some songs I have down pat like “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” or “Itsy, Bitsy Spider;” others I vaguely remember  such as “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and “On Top Of Spaghetti” and even ones I’ve never heard before like “The Ants Go Marching.”

I suggested to The Hubs that it might be a good idea to get a CD or to download some children’s music so I could learn the songs with our daughter since she seems to enjoy them so much.   He wasn’t too thrilled at the prospect of having to listen to some of the horrible kiddie music being peddled around out there, but when I mentioned Golden Records, he was into it.

Founded in 1948, Golden Records was one of the first and most successful children’s record labels in America.   For a bit of history here, it was one of the first children’s music labels to combine story with melody.  They’re known for their great story telling of nursery rhymes and fairy tales with matching background music and sound effects.   I remember listening to Golden Records that featured Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and even Captain Kangaroo when I was a kid (now don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not THAT old, those albums were a creaky when I heard them growing up).

Now Golden Records is continuing its tradition of using celebrity tie-ins to introduce pre-schoolers to classic songs and stories and is bringing to life classics such as “Muffin Man,” “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,”  “The Little Engine That Could, ” “Hansel and Gretel”  and “The Princess and the Pea” with its CD-release of “Celebrity Series: The Magic Continues, Vol. 1.”   This go around of celebrities seemed sort of hodgepodge to me with Ed Asner, Susan Sarandon, Alicia Silverstone, Busy Philipps, Cheryl Hines, Didi Conn and Constance Marie.

While listening to this CD, I couldn’t help but smile.  The actors do a really great job of interpreting each story or song – it’s clear they were having a good time recording it!  I especially liked Didi Conn, maybe you remember she was the gal on the PBS show “Shining Time Station” or like me as Frenchy from “Grease!”  She has a great voice and apparently has done a bunch of cartoon voices as well, so she certainly knows how to cater to her audience.

The CD is reasonably priced at $9.99 and are available thru online retailers such as Amazon.com or at your local big box store. It would make a fun gift for any preschool kidlet and one that you won’t have to worry about any unsavory language or inappropriate themes.

Since I’m not a technical gal, I’m having The Hubs rip this CD onto the iPod in my daughter’s room so we can start learning, hearing, dance to and enjoy all these fun songs and stories.   I see that Golden Records will also have a Halloween music  CD coming out in early October.  Both my kidlets love singing and dancing to “The Monster Mash” – but it’s the only Halloween song I know, so it would be fun to learn and sing along to a few more!

Now it’s your turn to share. What was your favorite nursery rhyme or storybook as a child?

For full disclosure:  I received a complimentary CD of “Celebrity Series: The Magic Continues, Vol. 1” from Golden Records to listen to and review the product.  As always, the opinions expressed in this post and on The Harried Mom blog are all my very own and are not influenced in any way.  Please do your own research before purchasing any products as your opinion may differ.

The Sing A Song, If Only Mom Knew The Words by The Harried Mom, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.