No really, I need more songs like Call Me Maybe.

August 17, 2012 7:05 AM

The things we do for our kids: Music edition. I need music to dance with with my baby during his night time fussy periods. Embarrassing examples of what works well inside.

So with my first child, several years ago, there was a video circulating (see it here) of a pop song (Jay Sean's Down for those who don't want to watch the video) and he just loved when we danced around to it. Turns out, my second feels the same way. I tried other songs that I actually own to dance with, but turns out he is way pickier than his brother was and wants a genre of music that I don't own (but I will admit is fun to dance around to) and I need to remedy this, however, I'm in need of suggestions of similar sort of songs that I can try out and see what he thinks.

So far he's enjoyed Jay Sean's Down, Bruno Mars' Marry You (of the famous Isaac's lip dub proposal here), and, of course, Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe. (he's only 4 months, don't hold his taste in music against him yet).

So, what sort of other songs are similar to those in a fun to dance sort of way and are at least fairly clean in terms of language (so he's 3 year old brother doesn't pick up anything)?

posted by katers890 to media & arts (26 answers total)

I like to move it move it!
posted by chickenmagazine at 7:13 AM on August 17, 2012 [11 favorites]

My baby likes "Like a G6", but he did hear it a lot in the womb. Not quite Mozart, is it.
posted by the young rope-rider at 7:17 AM on August 17, 2012

Do you have Pandora? Make a station for Mad Con, edit for content, and you should be pretty good to go from there.

Now please excuse me while I go blast some Powerglove to get those songs out of my head.
posted by theichibun at 7:18 AM on August 17, 2012

OK, so this doesn't really answer your question but I have to add. If the dancing stops working or you exhaust yourself and your baby won't let you stop, I have found this YouTube video to be a life saver:

Kittens Inspired by Kittens.

When nothing else has worked, looping this over and over has kept my daughter engaged long enough to cool down.
posted by rocketpup at 7:20 AM on August 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

sigh, that should be "so HIS three year old brother"... I need more sleep.
posted by katers890 at 7:22 AM on August 17, 2012

As you know (I always spot your questions!), baby Eli was a big fan of Playing for Change, as well-evidenced here.
posted by jozxyqk at 7:25 AM on August 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh, hey, I just made a CD of ALL THE TERRIBLE POP MUSIC to calm my son down in the car. "Call Me Maybe" is track 1. Some of the rest won't work ("Sexy and I Know It" can't be made clean enough ...) but I did buy "clean" versions of the other songs.

2. "Party Rock Anthem" LMFAO
3. "We Run the Night," Havana Brown/Pitbull
4. "Somebody I Used to Know" Gotye/Kimbra
5. "Where Have You Been" Rihanna
6. "Stronger" Kelly Clarkson
7. "Lights" Ellie Krieger, Bassnectar remix
8. "Titanium" David Guetta/Sia
9. "Starships" (clean version), Nikki Minaj
10. "On the Floor" Jennifer Lopez/Pitbull
11. "We Found Love" Rihanna
12. "Take Care" Drake/Rihanna (references getting high in the same verse as a birthday is mentioned, so probably not good for 3-year-old)
13. "Give Me Everything" (too much drinking talk, probably)
14. "Shake it Out" Florence and the Machine
15. "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)" Beyonce (oldie, goodie)

None of them have the particular magic of "Call Me Maybe," but they're pretty good.

I used to listen to NPR.
posted by purpleclover at 7:27 AM on August 17, 2012 [5 favorites]

What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction
Cupid Shuffle by Cupid
Gonna Get Over You by Sara Bareilles
Galaxies by Owl City
posted by brilliantine at 7:35 AM on August 17, 2012

You want both Yo Gabba Gabba CDs, stat.
posted by jbickers at 7:43 AM on August 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also, Kriss Kross Jump!
posted by jozxyqk at 7:52 AM on August 17, 2012

Purpleclover I feel your pain. My boys will let me listen to more stuff in the car, but the youngest is picky about his dance music. I'm more concerned about curse words than references to sex/drugs, those the 3 year old misses or we can talk about, it's more about limiting the stuff than actually getting completely clean versions. The 3 year old actually has heard Sexy and I know it (the George Takei version actually), but I think you've got a lot of the same sorts of music on that list that I need. I think it is the combo of songs I can dance with him with as well as ones I can "sing", he really likes the singing.

Jump might be a little hard to dance with a baby with, though it is a great toddler song (and yes Josh, I knew you'd find this).
posted by katers890 at 8:10 AM on August 17, 2012

Selena's Bidi Bidi Bom Bom.

Gwen Stefani, Hollaback Girl.

Anything by Britanny Spears. Check out Eurovision stuff. Really pop oriented and a lot of STUPID, but mostly clean lyrics!


The Social Network Song, Valentine Moletta

Caroban, Nina

Aphrodesiac, Eleftheria Eleftheriou

La La Love, Ivi Adamou

Time, Izabu

Can I come over and dance too?
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 8:22 AM on August 17, 2012

This isn't so similar, but very baby friendly.

They Might Be Giants: Here Comes Science.

It is a CD and DVD with animated videos of all the songs.
posted by rocketpup at 8:24 AM on August 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

My four year old's pop favorites include "Dynamite" Taio Cruz, "I Got a Feeling" Black Eyed Peas, and many of the songs from the Madagascar 3 soundtrack, "Afro Circus/I Like to Move It" Chris Rock is his favorite though.

They aren't quite in the same vein as your examples but as someone who isn't into pop music I find them pretty tolerable.
posted by a22lamia at 8:25 AM on August 17, 2012

"Somebody I Used to Know" is my singing go-to (along with Simon & Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)." Not contemporary pop, but great for singing. He likes songs with a lot of words.)

"Starships" might be especially good too (the clean version avoids repeated use of a really catchy delivery of "we're higher than a montherfucker")

Re: drinking/drugs, I hear you, but I cringe at the idea of "It's my birthday, I'll get high if I want to ..."

OH, a few more:
- "Umbrella" by Rihanna! I think this might be perfect! Also, her "Pon de Replay." These are clean, catchy, good for singing.
- "Stars Are Blind" by -- wait for it -- Paris Hilton. (Seriously. YouTube it for proof of its perfection for this application. I would, but smartphone.)
- "Candyman" by Christina Aguilera (so much innuendo and "panties dropping" but no curses.)

Finally, Bruno Mars: He's your guy. I think your baby might like a bunch of his songs.
posted by purpleclover at 8:38 AM on August 17, 2012

It is true that I loved NPR pre-baby, but I also love pop music.
posted by purpleclover at 8:47 AM on August 17, 2012

We actually have all the TMBG's cds, and my older son loves them, the younger one hasn't taken to them as much yet.

Purple clover: I actually like some pop music too (shhh, I actually like Call Me Maybe), my music collection is just a little light on it for my babies current taste
posted by katers890 at 8:59 AM on August 17, 2012

"Lights" is by Ellie Goulding. Ellie Krieger has a show on the Food Network. Sigh.
posted by purpleclover at 9:17 AM on August 17, 2012

Ok, I was just making a Spotify playlist of the happiest of happy songs ever, so ... um ... this is perfect? Maybe? I was actually going to come to MeFi to ask for more suggestions, but couldn't figure out a good way to define my criteria, so I'll be following your thread! Call Me Maybe was on it, fwiw. I am happy to PM you the playlist if you want, but here are the highlights (NB: They are not all recent, I don't know if that matters?), especially those without any explicitness:

The Cure: Mint Car This is actually the happiest song ever made, I'm sure. From the Cure of all things. Also, Friday I'm in Love
Train: Hey, Soul Sister My daughter loved this song when she was about that age
Bruno Mars: Just the Way You Are And other Bruno Mars, as already suggested.
Paul Simon: You Can Call Me Al
Chumbawumba: Tubthumpin' There is drinking in this song, which may not be child appropriate.
Len: Steal My Sunshine
*nsync: Do Your Thing
Madonna: Ray of Light

I would also suggest some songs by Queen. In my list I chose Fat Bottomed Girls, which is probably not appropriate :). Most of the rest of the songs are either 90s alterna bands with some pretty happy stuff going on for once or probably don't meet your explicitness needs. I'm not sure if those 90s bands things suit your needs, but like I say, happy to send you the Spotify playlist if you PM me.


You could also look at all the Glee soundtrack stuff and pick out the danciest. Their version of Rebecca Black's Friday is actually pretty fun, for example.
posted by freezer cake at 10:11 AM on August 17, 2012

My 3 month old enjoys Justin Roberts' Way Out album (particularly "Humpty's at it again"). It's actually children's music, so it's clean. But maybe more singy than dancey.

She also likes janelle monae's Tightrope. Dancey fun!
posted by kestrel251 at 11:08 AM on August 17, 2012

My son loves anything by Justin Beiber and he also really likes Nicki Minaj, which is hilarious to me.
posted by AbsolutelyHonest at 11:31 AM on August 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Freezer cake -- you need Katrina and the Waves' "Walking on Sunshine". Probly also works for the OP, since s/he marked it as best answer.
posted by kestrel251 at 11:35 AM on August 17, 2012

Heh, I can't try these out until tonight, but I've marked some that I think have some songs that are likely to work (or at least that I like enough that I hope they work!). Nicki Minaj, though not really G rated, seems very much the right sound. And I like Fat bottomed girls, so I'm going with that too. Most of the dancing time occurs after the 3 year olds bed time, so I have a bit more leeway in lyrics, at least for another couple months...

I think I may have to actually break down and enter this century and get pandora and/or spotify in the future, as right now, I only hear the music that randomly comes my way.
posted by katers890 at 12:23 PM on August 17, 2012

Oh! Just thought of these two:

Colbie Caillat - Brighter than the Sun

Outkast - Hey Ya But skip the sketch for the first minute on this video
posted by freezer cake at 2:00 PM on August 17, 2012

"Chewing Gum" - Annie

"Love Letter to Japan" - The Bird and the Bee

Hot K-Pop 2010

"Don't Upset the Rhythm (Go, Baby, Go) - Noisettes

"Together in Our Holiday Sweaters" - My First Earthquake

"Primadonna" - Marina and the Diamonds

"That Beep" - Architecture in Helsinki

"Let It Go" - Dragonette

"Boys & Girls"- Solveig feat. Dragonette

"Bad Girls Remix"
posted by DisreputableDog at 9:45 PM on August 17, 2012

Songs that my preschoolers like (I teach English to two- and three- year-olds in Japan):

Girl's Generation - Gee

Maru Maru Mori Mori (I recorded an English version of this if you want it, MeMail me)

Mamboleo

Boomerang

Nobody But You
posted by emmling at 12:50 AM on August 18, 2012