“Smithsonian Folkways Children's Music Collection”

CD - $17.97
Cassette - $10.97

The song list includes the artist, copyright information, the original recording from which the song came, its release date and record number.

1. Riding In My Car (Car Song) Woody Guthrie 1:49 (Words and Music by Woody Guthrie / TRO-Folkways Music Publishers, Inc., BMI) from "Woody Guthrie, Nursery Days" (1951) SFW 45036

2. Mary Mack Ella Jenkins 1:56 (Traditional Words; Music by Ella Jenkins / Ellbern Pub. Co. ASCAP) from "You¹ll Sing A Song" (1966) SFW 45010

3. All Around The Kitchen Pete Seeger 1:59 from "American Folk Songs For Children" (1953) SFW 45020

4. Ha-Ha This-A-Way Lead Belly 1:33 (Words and Music arranged by Huddie Ledbetter / TRO-Folkways Music, BMI) from "Lead Belly, Where Did You Sleep Last Night" (1942) SFW40043

5. Merrily We Roll Along Lord Invader with The Calypso Orchesta 4:11 (Words and Music by Lord Invador) from "West Indian Folksongs for Children" (1960) Folkways 7744

6. Miwoe Nenyo W. K. Amoaku 2:14 (Dr. W. K. Amoaku / Orff Schulwerk In The African Tradition) from "African Songs & Rhythms for Children" (1990) SFW 45011

7. Pole Pole Ella Jenkins 4:46 (Music and Words by Ella Jenkins / Ellbern Pub. Co., ASCAP) from "Jambo, and Other Call and Responses Songs and Chants" (1974) SFW 45017

8. Dreams and Youth Langston Hughes 0:54 (Words (c) 1959 Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.) from "The Voice of Langston Hughes, Selected Poetry and Prose Read By The Author" (1995) SFW 47001

9. Why, Oh Why Woody Guthrie 3:26 (Words and Music by Woody Guthrie / TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc., BMI) from "Songs to Grow On for Mother and Child" (1956) SFW 45035

10. I Had A Rooster Pete Seeger 3:51 from "Pete Seeger, Birds, Beasts, Bugs and Fishes (Little and Big)" (1955) SFW 45021

11. Oksn Ruth Rubin 1:33 from "Jewish Children's Songs and Games" (1957) Folkways 7224

12. Sur le Pont d'Avignon Alan Mills 1:05 from "French Folks Songs for Children" (1953) Folkways 7208

13. Benjamin Franklin (jump rope rhyme) Illinois school children 0:19 from "Skip Rope Games" (1955) Folkways 7208

14. Los Pollitos/The Chicks Suni Paz 1:12 from "Conciones para el Recreo/Children's Songs for the Playground" (1989) SFW 45013

15. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star 1:13 (Arranged by Ella Jenkins/Ellbern Pub. Co., ASCAP) from "Ella Jenkins, Early, Early Childhood Songs" (1982) SFW 45015

16. ABC's Ella Jenkins 0:55 (Arranged by Ella Jenkins/Ellbern Pub. Co., ASCAP) from "Ella Jenkins, Early, Early Childhood Songs" (1982) SFW 45015

17. Animal Alphabet Song Alan Mills 2:10 (Words and Music by Alan Mills) from "14 Numbers, Letters and Animal Songs" (1972) Folkways 7545

18. Whoopie Ti Yi Yo Cisco Houston 1:31 from "Songs to Grow On, Volume 3: This Land Is My Land: American Work Songs" (1961) Folkways 7027

19. A la vibora de la mar/Serpent of the Sea Mexican children 1:05 from "Latin American Children's Game Songs Recorded in Puerto Rico and Mexico by Henrietta Yurchenco" (1968) Folkways 7851

20. Wolf Song and Turtle Song Irene Poolaw 0:50 from "A Fish That's A Song" (1990) SFW 45037

21. Bedbug Arna Bonremps 0:35 from "An Anthology of African American Poetry for Young People, compiled and read by Arna Bontemps" (1958) SFW 45024

22. Skip To My Lou and Four Pence a Day Pete Seeger 3:36 from "Pete Seeger, Folk Songs for Young People" (1959) SFW 45024

23. Hey, Coal Miner Larry Long & Mrs. Side's 6th Grade Class 4:03 (Words [and Performance] by Larry Long with Mrs. Side's 6th Grade Class of T.W. Martin High School, Goodsprings, Alabama; Music by Larry Long, BMI) from "Larry Long with the Youth and Elders of Rural Alabama, Here I Stand: Elders' Wisdom and Children's Song" (1996) SFW 45050

24. Among the Little White Daisies Jeanne Ritchie 1:27 from "Jean Ritchie Sings Children's Songs from the Southern Mountains" (1957) Folkways 7054

25. Old Bell Cow New Lost City Ramblers 3:05 (Mike Seeger, Tom Paley, and John Cohen [Source: Dixie Crackers]) from "Old Timey Songs for Children" (1959) Folkways 7064

26. One Grain of Sand (excerpt) Pete Seeger 3:06 and fade (Words and Music by Pete Seeger/Ludlow Music Inc., BMI) from "Pete Seeger, Abiyoyo and Other Story Songs for Children" (1958) SFW 45001

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(P) (C) 1998 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

The purpose of this anthology of music for children from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is to give listeners a chance to experience the variety, excitement, and fun of a selection of songs found on many different recordings for children that Folkways and Smithsonian Folkways have issued over the years. We hope this will lead you to other recordings by the same artist, or of the same type. Each song comes from an entire recording. If you like the song or the artist, look for the whole recording and try that. If you want to learn more about Smithsonian Folkways recordings, look on the last page of this booklet. You can send for a catalogue, or look at the contents of each recording on the Internet (http://www.si.edu/folkways). You can also obtain a children's music catalogue from 1-800-410-9815.

Singing together is a wonderful family activity. You can sing almost anywhere Ð riding in the car, skipping down the sidewalk, cleaning up a room, getting ready for bed, or sitting together on the floor. You don't need to buy anything special to do it -- almost everyone is born with a voice. A song never need be the same twice -- you can sing in different voices, or make up special verses for your own family and activities. Try some harmony, too; it gives everyone something different to do.

Singing is fun in school, too. If you are a teacher, you can use singing to bring children together and create a group feeling based on common experience, rather than on exclusion and difference. You can use songs to start off discussions of all kinds of subjects, from numbers to far-away places to historical events. If you have a child, singing is a nice break from school routine -- it's a new way to learn and enjoy it.

Moses Asch started Folkways Records in 1948. He thought children should be exposed to good, authentic music from many different musicians and many cultural backgrounds. His first children's record was of an African American musician named Lead Belly. He asked some of his most popular adult artists to produce children's recordings, too, and from these we have the contributions of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Cicso Houston, and others. Asch also encouraged young performers to make a career out of making music with a for children, among them Ella Jenkins, one of the most important children's musicians of the century. We have gathered a selection of the artists and their songs together on this recording for you to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of Folkways, and to celebrate the continuing power these songs have today. Some of the people who heard them first as children are grandparents today Ð but children's songs can last for centuries.

Children's songs are not like popular music, which charges styles frequently. Some of these songs may have been around for centuries, like "Sur le Pont d'Avignon." Others were written recently, but build on the timelessness of simple rhythm, rhyme, and activities. Often older children teach younger children the songs and games, and they are passed on for decades without adult participation. Other songs and stories have always been taught by older members of a community. Enjoy them; learn them; dance to them; teach them to some friends. Because these songs were recorded over a period of decades and under many different conditions, the sound quality varies from track to track. We have worked from the best sources available, but some of them will sound quite rough compared to studio recordings of the 1990s.

Compared to other musical genres, children's music has received relatively little attention from scholars. These are, however, some important exceptions, among them the two below. Dr. Campbell's 1998 book provides a good bibliography for going further.

Campbell, Patricia S. Songs in Their Heads: Music and Its Meaning in Children's Lives.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Opie, Iona and Peter Opie. The Singing Game. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.

"These traditional songs should never be warpped up and put away. This collection gathers the best of the best from albums recorded by Smithsonian Folkways and dates back as far as 1942 with Lead Belly performing 'Ha-Ha This-a-Way.' There is the joy of listening to Woddy Guthrie making the sounds of an automobile in 'Riding In My Car' and Ella Jenkins' (original version of) 'Miss Mary Ma' Many cultures are represented including a Jewish song, one in the Apache language and the beloved 'Sur Le Pont d'Avigon.'"
-Nancy Maes, Chicago Tribune