Sing my kid to sleep - I need more songs
July 31, 2019 1:19 PM   Subscribe

My four month old loves it when I sing, for some reason, and it's a major part of our night time routine. But I really only sing a couple of songs to her, and I need suggestions for more. Details below the fold.

Our go to is Little Bird by Elizabeth Mitchell (yes inspired by Futurama), the first verse of 'You are my sunshine' and the occasional 2001-inspired round of 'Daisy.' Also, weirdly, she enjoys Miguel's Do You, with the word' drugs' replaced by 'snugs.'

I need soothing songs with SIMPLE, MEMORABLE lyrics that my sleep deprived brain can retain. The four month sleep regression is kicking my ass and I'm sick of singing 'Little Bird'! Also I think Miguel might not be appropriate for a baby.
posted by nerdfish to Media & Arts (40 answers total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
The book Rise Up Singing was a lifesaver to me when my kids were little. (I remember singing about fifty verses of "99 Bottles of Beer" one night.)
posted by chromium at 1:24 PM on July 31, 2019 [5 favorites]


Steven Universe has really sweet and ear-wormy songs. Be Whoever you Are is so so so lovely and could really lend itself to you making up whatever words you wanted for the verses if it gets boring to sing on repeat.

Isn't this such a beautiful night,
Whoa, we're underneath the thousand shining stars.
Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different,
Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are.
Look at this place,
Look at your faces.
I've never seen you look like this before.
Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different,
Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are.
Look at this place,
Look at your faces.
They're shining like a thousand shining stars.
Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different,
Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are.
Why don't you let yourself just be somewhere different.
Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be whoever you are.
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 1:27 PM on July 31, 2019 [3 favorites]


I always like singing Stay Awake from the original Mary Poppins movie. :D
posted by jillithd at 1:36 PM on July 31, 2019 [3 favorites]


"Baby Boats" was a short-and-sweet staple (although I don't much care for this piano arrangement): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ebK3FVnFUU
posted by nkknkk at 1:45 PM on July 31, 2019


Sing the songs you actually know and like. I owe my extensive recall of the lyrics from fifties musicals to my mother doing just that. Now she’s eighty-six I sing ‘em back to her.
posted by Segundus at 1:47 PM on July 31, 2019 [17 favorites]


My parents did this for me and I loved it! We got a lot of our favorite songs out of a copy of the Fireside Book of Folk Songs. Folk songs are simple and memorable by design, and this particular book is full of beautiful illustrations, so when your kid is a little older she can help pick songs based on that.

(Because of this, years later I stunned a high school trivia team by instantly recalling the lyrics to Sweet Molly Malone. Thanks, mom and dad!)
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:49 PM on July 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


I agree with singing the songs you like. I used to sing rock songs to my babies. The choruses of Beatles songs, especially early ones, are pretty easy to remember (Love Me Do, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Yellow Submarine). My daughter used to request "Everything's Alright" from Jesus Christ Superstar (she called it "fire in your head and feet"). Puff the Magic Dragon was a hit too.
posted by FencingGal at 2:02 PM on July 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


Nthing the advice to think of songs you know -- like, they may not be something you can sing cold, but if it's something you know from listening to it, you can learn the words enough to sing it to a kid. Somehow I got into a pattern of singing the Pogues' Lorelei to my kids. Also Oh What A Beautiful Morning from Oklahoma.
posted by LizardBreath at 2:08 PM on July 31, 2019 [2 favorites]


Also Oh What A Beautiful Morning from Oklahoma.

Hey now that's what I’m talking about...
posted by Segundus at 2:09 PM on July 31, 2019


I recommend getting a sheaf of song lyrics/scores in a folder and hauling it out at bedtime, to avoid boredom. A lot of them were rounds so when my offspring got old enough we sang them together. Many are folk songs. Most are silly, or gruesome.

Here's what I sang to my child. There are others in the folder I still have, but we mostly didn't sing them.

Deck Us All with Boston Charlie (from Pogo)
The Universe Song (Monty Python)
Coventry Carol
Nell Flaherty's Drake
Mrs. Murphy's Chowder
In the Boardinghouse
Make New Friends
Home on the Range
Muss I Denn?
Down by the Old Millstream
Baby Beluga
Apples and Bananas
Cockles and Mussels
Keemo Kyemo
Sarasponda
The Cuckoo
Oh, No John
Tallis Canon (Thomas Kenn words)
I'm Not Strong, Sir!
Octopus's Garden (Beatles)
Day O (Harry Belafonte version)
A-rovin'
I Love Trash (Oscar the Grouch)
Oh, You Can't Get to Heaven
The Mermaid
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Merrily We Roll Along
Come Follow
Softly Sings the Donkey
On Mules We Find
Throw It Out the Window
Oh, How Lovely Is the Evening
Black Socks
MacTavish
Don't Swat Your Mother
Thirty Purple Birds
To Stop the Train
Clementine
White Coral Bells
The Three Ravens
posted by Peach at 2:15 PM on July 31, 2019


You Can Close Your Eyes is my go-to lullaby!
posted by tangosnail at 2:16 PM on July 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


Yeah, the baby doesn't care what you sing; sing whatever you can think of. Musical theater kept me in business; I sang most of My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Annie, etc. But the Beatles will also work, and so will Indigo Girls or Christmas carols if that's what you prefer. Pick whatever music you want to sing.
posted by gideonfrog at 2:17 PM on July 31, 2019 [3 favorites]


I mostly sang songs I knew to my kids because when they're that small they aren't going to know what the lyrics are saying anyway (like where Tom Selleck was reading some violent book to the baby in Three Men and a Baby because it doesn't matter to the baby what you read just the tone of voice you use). That being said Raffi does a version of Good Night Irene that is pretty good and you could easily make up more lyrics for it too.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:22 PM on July 31, 2019


I literally came in to suggest Little Bird - that is such a good song.

Frere Jacques
Row Row Row Your Boat
It's A Small World After All

Christmas songs are valid year round since they are pretty easy to remember
posted by soelo at 2:22 PM on July 31, 2019


I sing my kid the Daniel Tiger lullabye, the one Mom Tiger sings. It's easy to remember, easy for my voice to sing, on topic, and mercifully short.
posted by cpatterson at 2:30 PM on July 31, 2019


I used to sing Old McDonald Had a Farm to my son, adding increasingly ridiculous verses about the various animals you might find on a farm and what they say.
posted by bluedaisy at 2:34 PM on July 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


My dad used to sing Bonnie Lies over the Ocean to me every night when I was very little. Then we moved to France and he learned a lot of old French folk songs which I later sang to my children.
posted by mareli at 2:56 PM on July 31, 2019


It's not a real song -- but what I did was find some melody I knew and make up a category song. Countries, foods, animals, Europe cities, etc and try to remember something alphabetically. I really felt the need to have a little brain challenge and would make up a song "I am going to take you around the world and we'll go to Albania, Bermuda, Chile and Denmark. Estonia and then Finland."

I was also sang a thousand of fake versus to frère jacques. French sounds so pretty and soothing. I don't know French so I just sang made up French sounding words. It didn't have words for him to ponder over and I think helped him fall asleep. He did tell people I knew French so I had to remedy that though.
posted by beccaj at 3:09 PM on July 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


I've had good luck slowing down whatever songs I listened to during my formative years (basically high school).
posted by craven_morhead at 3:41 PM on July 31, 2019


Made-up lyrics to Camptown Races ("who's the best girl in the whole wide world...." and Clementine. The big fave when my kids were little was Chattanooga Choo-Choo (which my mother would sing to them)
posted by Samarium at 3:44 PM on July 31, 2019


My dad apparently used to sing me to sleep with Skye Boat Song :)

"Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing, onward the sailors cry, Carry the man who was born to be king, over the sea to Skye..." etc. Super-soothing.
posted by penguin pie at 3:50 PM on July 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


Brahms lullaby with made up words? “Lullaby, and goodnight, go to sleep little baby....”
also, any random song! My poor kids had to deal with Guns n’ Roses or Pearl Jam as much as kid songs.
And bob dylan! So much Dylan. Looking up song lyrics than memorizing them was a great intellectual pursuit at 2am.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 5:46 PM on July 31, 2019


Dream a Little Dream of Me
posted by cali59 at 6:10 PM on July 31, 2019 [1 favorite]




Rainbow Connection!!!!
Moon River
Ain't Misbehavin
It's Only a Paper Moon
A You're Adorable

All were in heavy rotation and got many requests
posted by brookeb at 6:42 PM on July 31, 2019


Kiddo is only 4 months? Sing whatever you want, as long as it has a soothing tone, it fits your range (and remember you can drop it up or down an octave as needed), and you can mostly remember or fake the lyrics. At that stage I know I sang ONJ's "Please Mr. Please" to at least 2/3 of my kids, and so far none of them have developed a taste for good Kentucky whiskey nor a penchant for marrying men who fake their own death, so. Imagine "acoustic" versions of whatever your favorite music is. And if all else fails, as others mentioned above, use the same old tunes but make up words - bonus points if you have the brainpower to make stuff rhyme, but kiddo's not going to care. They just want to hear a parent's voice.
posted by cinnamonduff at 8:20 PM on July 31, 2019


Classic Lullabies
Cockles and mussels
To- rah-loo rah
Hush little baby

Fun lullabies:

My kids know every Patsy Cline song by heart now. They tend to be relatively short and repeat verses and bridges and choruses often.

Nthing the advice to sing the songs you m or. Each of my boys have their own song just for them. Preschool Kitty gets “hallelujah” and Baby kitty gets “carry on my wayward son”
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 8:26 PM on July 31, 2019


My mother used to sing us I Gave My Love A Cherry , and yes, to Moon River as well.
posted by gudrun at 8:28 PM on July 31, 2019


Just sing what you can remember, my dude. Don't add "learn new songs" to your already long list of baby related work. Toddlerhood and it's terrible, terrible music will be upon you soon enough. My kids both got excruciatingly bad renditions of the works of Radiohead, Queens of the Stone Age and new lyrics for random snatches of jazz that I remembered from working in a clothing boutique that only played jazz on the in-store radio.

Just do whatever is legitimately easiest for you and your kid will be fine.
posted by Jilder at 11:33 PM on July 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


Our favorites were mostly songs from the first Renee and Jeremy album. But I agree that singing whatever you already know is also great.
posted by ElizaMain at 2:43 AM on August 1, 2019


Sleep, Baby, Sleep by Nicolette Larson -- the best baby songs. Depending on your age, you may have heard them as a baby yourself.
posted by JimN2TAW at 4:50 AM on August 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


Is this because you think you have to sing Kid Music and don't know any? There is no specific Kid Music you have to use! Just sing whatever you like to listen to or gets stuck in your head. I know pretty much the entire Top 40 list from 1985 for this reason - my mom just sang what was on the radio at the time.

This will benefit you in the long run, since nobody really wants to listen to Kid Music for five straight years. You will have enough of Baby Shark in time, I guarantee it.

Is it because you literally cannot think of any music? I think the simple solution here is to put on Spotify or whatever you use whenever you are driving, etc. Eventually some of it will soak into you head and you won't be able to get it out; babies were made for earworms.
posted by epanalepsis at 5:43 AM on August 1, 2019


"I Will" by The Beatles is the absolute sweetest song. Though, I never successfully sang it to my son because I'd always get choked up.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:55 AM on August 1, 2019


I will absolutely second the recommendation of the Steven Universe soundtrack. Our girls have grown up with that show and it's been a wonderful influence, and a wonderful source of singable songs.

I'm not sure if you already sing all the old classics, but I've never heard them sung as pure and beautifully as by Sophie Barker on this record, and whether you play it to your baby or just use it to learn so you can sing it, they deserve to live somewhere in everyone's subconscious.
posted by snarfois at 9:07 AM on August 1, 2019


Trout Fishing in America and They Might Be Giants have some great kids music that adults (at least in my family) like too. They make great sing-alongs, and there are a number that would work for bedtime.
posted by cross_impact at 10:02 AM on August 1, 2019


Every kid I ever babysat loved Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.
posted by ApathyGirl at 3:50 PM on August 1, 2019


A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes (originally from "Cinderella")
posted by somanyamys at 3:50 PM on August 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


^ That is my lullaby go-to as well.
posted by ApathyGirl at 3:52 PM on August 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


I forgot about Kooks!
posted by LizardBreath at 4:29 PM on August 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


Definitely You Can Close Your Eyes, and I loved to sing "The Water is Wide, or Sarah Maria - substituting his name instead, of course :)
posted by lemniskate at 8:55 AM on August 2, 2019 [1 favorite]


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