Fun With Kidsongs Blog

Everything You Want To Know About "Purple People Eater"

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 20:46:37 +0000

It was an instant hit when it came out way back in 1958, it’s played on oldies radio the world over, it sold three million copies and inspired a movie. But what is the story behind Sheb Wooley’s classic novelty song about a “Purple People Eater”?

Here are a few fascinating facts about the one eyed purple guy’s genesis:

Writer and performer Sheb Wooley was an interesting guy -- Raised on a farm in Erick, Oklahoma, his first careers were cowboy and rodeo rider, followed by welding work for the local oil industry. But his heart was in music and from high school on he always had a country and western band.

In 1946, he moved to Ft. Worth, Texas to pursue his career as a musician on a local radio show. Plowing his earnings into acting lessons soon led to success as an actor in Western movies and TV Shows. You can see Sheb in “High Noon”, “The Cisco Kid”, and “Rawhide”. His last film, his 40^th, was the 1986 double-Oscar nominated “Hoosiers”.

Sheb was known for his quirky sense of humor and having a flair for parody. By all accounts, he was a fun guy. He married a young lady, Melva Miller, from his home town whose family had take in a cousin, Roger. The same Roger Miller who wrote another major novelty hit, “Dang Me” and the classic “Trailer for Sale or Rent”. Two hardworking farm boys from Erick, OK made a major impression on Nashville, Hollywood and popular culture – A true American success story, but I digress.

Let’s look at what was happening in music and movies at the time “Purple People Eater” was written. The late 1950’s were a time of over-the-top Sci Fi Films that were almost as much fun as they were scary; movies like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman”, “The Blob”, and “Godzilla” -- Gotta love those titles.

It was the era of rock and roll novelty songs like “Short Shorts”, “Yakety Yak”, “Splish Splash” and “The Witch Doctor”. Little Richard and Chuck Berry were topping the chart with R & B tinged rock and roll with a good time feel.

"Purple People Eater" from Kidsongs Music Video Story "Very Silly Songs" and The Kidsongs TV Show "Let's Learn About Animals". these titles are also available for Download.

“Purple People Eater” is the happy combination of all of these elements. Like many popular novelty songs it has a memorable title and a silly premise. Sheb wrote a catchy melody, added a prominent sax solo and a rockin’ beat. He added witty lyrics to parody the popular Sci Fi movies of the day, giving the starring role to a friendly “Purple People Eater” who liked short shorts and rock roll, added some sped up vocals a la the Chipmunks and -- Voila! -- A hit was born.

So is “Purple People Eater” a cleverly crafted pop song incorporating all things 1958? Or was it something else? When asked about it, Sheb said, “A friend of mine told me his son had come home from school with a joke: ‘What has one eye, one horn, flies and eats people? A flying Purple People Eater!’ I wrote the song in a matter of minutes – Just dashed it off as a sort of afterthought.”

Sheb might have been joking with his response. Either way, the song has made a lot of people happy and has tons of long-lasting “kid appeal”. That’s why we’ve included “Purple People Eater” in our Kidsongs catalog. Take a peek at our version from the aptly titled “Very Silly Songs” and rock it out with your little ones.

To see the complete lyrics, click here.

Check back often for more blog articles from this series, “Kidsongs Guide to Children’s Songs”. Learn the history, fun facts and some behind-the-scenes stories about everyone’s favorite songs.

Top 5 Christmas Songs For Kids

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 17:22:19 +0000

What are the best Christmas songs for kids?

This is a question being asked across the land this time of year. Since those of us at Kidsongs.com are supposed to know these things, we could offer our opinion but instead decided to ask the real experts: our customers!

Here are their five favorite Christmas kid’s songs, why they picked them and a bit of trivia, too:

#1 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (a.k.a.The Ninth Reindeer!):

Easy to understand this choice as the song has mega kid appeal – who doesn’t love the story of the “Rocky” of reindeers who saves the day? (Foggy night to be precise.)

RudolphTrivia: An employee of the Chicago Montgomery Ward department store was assigned to create a Christmas giveaway item for kids. He wrote a short story called “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”, the store published it and the star was born.

More Rudolph Trivia: The song inspired another character, an accidental star who had her own TV special: “Olive, the Other Reindeer”. Olive owes her existence to the many people who misheard the line in the song, “All of the other reindeer”!

#2 Jingle Bells:

This made the list because it’s easy for kids to learn. Jingle Bells is fun to turn into a “round” with harmonies leading to many a happy family sing along.

Trivia: Haven’t seen this on Jeopardy, but you will be prepared if the “Out of this World Music” category comes up with: “What was the first song broadcast from outer space”. Yep, “What is Jingle Bells?” will win you some bucks.

#3 The Twelve Days of Christmas:

An example of the classic “add-on & repeat song” like Old MacDonald, Twelve Days is fun and a bit silly. Kids love this format, and they feel proud of themselves as they remember the items on the list.

Trivia: This year it will cost $23,439 to buy all the gifts, according to PNC Financial Group. They didn’t say what it would cost to store them until next year.

#4 All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth:

Easy to see why this made the top 5 – it’s about kids.

Trivia: New York school music teacher Donald Yetter Gardner wrote this hit song in just 30 minutes back in 1944. He was inspired by his toothless class of second graders. It’s the only song about teeth that has been recorded by both RuPaul and George Strait.

#5 Deck the Halls:

Made the list because kids like the “fa-la-la’s” and it puts everyone in a good mood.

Trivia: Deck the Halls is an Oldie but goodie, it goes back to medieval times, around 1500. However, it took until 2005 for it to peak on the Billboard Country Chart at number 37. Patience is a good thing.

You can download all these holiday songs and many more at Kidsongs.com.

More Fascinating Facts About Nursery Rhymes

Thu, 06 May 2010 21:28:57 +0000

It’s been a while since we’ve talked about the stories behind our favorite nursery rhymes and based on the responses we’ve been getting, it’s clear that our readers like this topic. So back to our sources we went, for more fascinating facts:

First up, let’s look at “Pop! Goes the Weasel”. This song started out as a popular dance in England in the 1850’s and words were added soon after. The earliest version of the first verse went like this:

Up and down the City Road
In and out the Eagle
That's the way the money goes
Pop! Goes the weasel

The City Road is one of the main roads through London and “the Eagle" refers to The Eagle Pub which was on it. The third line implies that the story teller has spent his money “pub hopping”.

Straight forward so far, and then the curious phrase, “Pop! Goes the Weasel” appears. To “pop” is a slang word for “pawn”. “Weasel” is an example of the very entertaining Cockney rhyming slang. The Cockneys, working class English folk, take a word or phrase, find a rhyme for it, and use the rhyme instead of the word. “Weasel and stoat” rhymes with “coat” and rhyming slang shortens it to “weasel”, hence “weasel = coat”. If you are still following me and are curious, a stoat is furry creature from the ermine family.

So, what does the fourth line mean? It was traditional for working class people to own just one set of nice clothes, that they would save for church on Sunday. During hard times they would pawn their suit, or coat, on a Monday and claim it back before Sunday. So “Pop Goes the Weasel” means “to pawn the coat”.

On the other hand, “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is an all-American nursery rhyme that was first published as a poem in 1830, by Sarah Hale of Boston. It was inspired by an actual incident, when, at the suggestion of her brother, a little girl really did bring her pet lamb to school. Naturally, it caused quite a commotion.

In the 1830’s, Lowell Mason, a leading figure in church music who composed over 1,500 hymns during his lifetime, set the poem to music and added the repeating lyrics to “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. A timeless hit was created. What I find most interesting about this nursery rhyme is that the words of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” were the first ever recorded by Thomas Edison, on tin foil, on his phonograph.

“Pat-A-Cake” also known as “Pat-A-Cake, Pat-A-Cake, Baker’s Man”, is one of the oldest and best known English nursery rhymes. This rhyme is accompanied by a hand-clapping game played by two people, often a parent and child. It is common to replace some lyrics with a child’s name and initial with your own. For example, changing “mark it with a B, for baby and me” to “Mark it with an A, for Amy and me”.

The earliest historical record of “Pat-A-Cake” lists it as a rhyme in a play called, “The Campaigners” by Englishman Thomas D’Urfey, way back in 1698. In the play, a nurse tells her charges:

“…and pat-a-cake baker’s man,
So I will master as I can,
And prick it, and prick it,
And prick it and prick it and prick it
And throw’t in the oven”

The “prick it” refers to piercing the pastry. It’s sweet that the long history of this rhyme lets us know that the tradition of decorating cakes with the name or initial of a child goes back at least 300 years!

It’s fun sharing these fun facts about the songs we love here at Kidsongs. We hope that you find them fun, too. Let us know if you do!!

Everything You Want to Know About "If You're Happy and You Know It"

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:28:06 +0000

When I think of the songs from my childhood, it’s always easy to remember the simple, play along ones, sung to a happy tune. “If You’re Happy and You Know It” is a perfect example. Like many familiar children’s songs, it has been altered in various ways over the years.

Here is the start of the original song as it is known to many people:

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
If you're happy and you know it,
And you really want to show it,
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.

A common variation of the fourth line is "Then your face will surely show it". The song usually proceeds with other verses that replace "clap your hands" with phrases such as "stomp your feet" or “touch your toes” or “pat your head”. You can view and print the full lyrics of the Kidsongs version here.

Repetitive songs that get kids up and moving have always been popular with preschool teachers, camp counselors and parents the world over. There is a Japanese version of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” written by Rihito Kimura called, "Shiawase Nara Te o Tatako" (meaning “If You’re Happy, Clap Your Hands” -- so close!). This Japanese version is on the movie soundtrack of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”.

Cal Worthington used a variation of the tune for years, as the advertising jingle for his Worthington auto dealerships throughout the United States (including Alaska!)

The international pedigree of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” traces back to an old Latvian folk song from the early 1900’s. An instrumental version written by Isaak Dunayevsky was featured in the 1938 Soviet film “Volga-Volga”, directed by Grigori Aleksandrov. When Aleksandrov came up with the idea for his movie, he was rowing a boat on the San Francisco Bay with his friend, silent film star Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin jokingly told him that the movie should be called “Volga-Volga”. Apparently Aleksandrov took him seriously!

The universal appeal of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” probably comes from its catchy tune, positive message and people's fondness for songs that teach children while entertaining them. Songs like this one and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”, “This Old Man" and “Old MacDonald Had A Farm” are all examples of songs with a basic structure and a variable phrase. These repeated phrases help develop children’s memory and language skills. The variable lyrics tied to the play along gestures encourage kids to pay attention to different word sounds and meanings -- essential building blocks for reading. The “play along” aspect of these songs, especially actions like “stomp your feet” and “clap your hands” help the development of balance and coordination. Fine motor skills also come into play when acting out lyrics like “touch your nose” or miming “a quack, quack here”.

“If You’re Happy and You Know It” is fun, entertaining, has a positive message and is even good for your kids. Perhaps that’s why it’s been the most downloaded song here at Kidsongs.com for three months in a row. We like it and clearly our fans do, too.

The song "If You're Happy and You Know It" is featured on the "A Day At the Circus" DVD, the "My Favorite Kidsongs Collection" CDs, "A Day At The Circus" Album Download, The Kidsongs TV Show episode "Let's Work Together" on DVD and sheet music, too!

The Alphabet Song -- Where Did It Come From?

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:05:02 +0000

One of the most popular songs from everyone’s childhood and one of the most popular here at Kidsongs is The Alphabet Song (also called "The ABC Song" ). Learning our alphabet by singing the letters has an interesting history and goes back a lot farther than I would have guessed.

Did it originate in the 1950’s? The 1920’s? Try the 1700’s in France! It was first written down by a French composer named Bouin in 1761, although music historians note that this song existed in French culture even earlier than that. It uses the same melody as a French song whose title translates into “Ah, I Would Say to You, Mama”. The pedigree of "The Alphabet Song" also includes the illustrious Wofgang Amadeaus Mozart himself! Mozart composed several variations of the melody for piano in the 1781 and 1782 titled, "Twelve Variations on Ah Vous Dirai-Je, Maman".

Another very famous composer, Franz Joseph Haydn, used the melody, too, in his “Surprise” symphony. In America, "The ABC Song" was first copyrighted in 1835 by music publisher Charles Bradlee who gave credit for the musical arrangement to Louis Le Maire, a French 18th century composer.

Seems like everyone is proud to have their name attached to this simple but memorable melody!

Kidsongs version of The Alphabet Song from "What I Want To Be"

Now sing your ABC’s and think about the melody -- Have you heard it before? Don’t think so? Think again -- It’s the same as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and “Baa, Baa Black Sheep”! Am I the only one who didn’t realize these songs were the same? Our music producer pointed this out to us when he was in the studio recording it again & again for our various Kidsongs albums and videos.

United States and all around the world, where it is frequently modified for different languages.

It will continue to be used in preschools, kindergartens and homes around the world to teach little ones their ABC’s in a way that makes it fun and easy to learn.

Check back often for more blog articles from our new “Kidsongs Guide to Children’s Songs”. Learn the history, fun facts and some behind-the-scenes stories about everyone's favorite songs.

"The ABC Song" continues to be an extremely popular tune in the