Free Music for Valentine's Day (2017 Edition)

I haven't tried to put together a list of kids songs for Valentine's Day, mostly because songs about love, while not necessarily 85% of all songs like it seems music for adults can be, make up not a small portion of kindie output.

Luckily, Beth Blenz-Clucas with Sugar Mountain PR has put together a list of songs appropriate for Valentine's Day which have the added bonus of being free for the downloading for a limited time.  That's right, through Valentine's Day itself, next Tuesday, you can gather for your family a nice selection of tracks from artists like Justin Roberts, Recess Monkey, Little Miss Ann, Frances England, Raffi, Lucky Diaz and more.

You can play the entire playlist below, and, through Valentine's Day, click through to get the free download.

Video: "Valentine" - Justin Roberts

I think in terms of the disparity of attitude between adults and kids, there is no holiday greater than Valentine's Day.  Adults love it (or, depending on their relationship status, actively loathe it), but kids?  Most kids are pretty much "meh" on it.  It's like Arbor Day with candy, pretty much.

It's that disconnect that makes Justin Roberts' "Valentine" so appealing to me.  It's a song whose chorus leads off with the lines, "I don't wanna be yours / You don't wanna be mine."  Imagine a Christmas or Hanukkah song that led off with a similar sentiment -- it'd be shunned.  But for Valentine's Day?  Aside from the candy, there's very little that kids actually enjoy about the holiday.

For this latest video off his album Lemonade, Roberts wears an appealing dorky pipe-cleaner-and-paper-heart crown and fills it with kids who really get into being, well, just annoyed by the holiday.  There will be a lot of sweetness over the next week or so, but this video brings just the right amount of, well, non-sweetness.

(As a song titled "Valentine," I think I like "Valentine" by the Old 97s slightly better, but this is a close second.)

Justin Roberts - "Valentine" [YouTube] 

Video: "Me and My Kangaroo" - Justin Roberts

Lemonade album cover

Not enough kangaroo-themed songs in kids music, in my opinion.  Who doesn't love kangaroos, right?

Sure enough, Justin Roberts has got me (and you, fellow kangaroo friend) covered with his latest video, for "Me and My Kanagaroo" from his Lemonade album.  A sweet song, a good friend, and even a bit of a laugh track.

P.S.  Justin -- let me know if you ever want to play Ticket to Ride!  Love that game!

Justin Roberts - "Me and My Kangaroo" [YouTube]

Songs for Thanksgiving (Updated)

About five years ago, I compiled a list of songs for Thanksgiving that brought together a bunch of kids music themed for Thanksgiving either overtly or somewhat more subtly (i.e., songs about gratitude).

It's time for an update.  I've included some stream/video links, along with a Spotify playlist for those songs on the service.

And if I've missed one, please let me know in the comments or via e-mail and we'll add it in.

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Laurie Berkner - "(I'm Gonna Eat on) Thanksgiving Day" (as close to a kindie Thanksgiving Day anthem as we have)

John McCutcheon - "Thanksgiving Day"

Charity and the JAMband - "Thank You" (close enough, right?, and you can still download it for free or pay what you like)

Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer - "Thank You" (this one's much more Thanksgiving-related)

Brian Vogan and his Good Buddies - "Last Thanksgiving"

Todd McHatton - "Happy Vegan Thanksgiving Song" (listen here)

Bill Harley - "Enough is a Feast" [parents: see note below]

Bill Harley - "Thanksgiving Prayer"

Kindiependent - "Kids' Table"

Jim "Mr. Stinky Feet" Cosgrove - "Gobble Across the USA"

The Harmonica Pocket - "Give Thanks"

Dre Towey - "Turkey Bop"

Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights - "The Tofurkey Song"

Spencer the Gardener - "The Gobble Song"

Kurt Gallagher - "Tommy Turkey" (watch here)

Shine and the Moonbeams - "Soul Food Holiday"

Renee and Friends - "Gather Round"

Aaron Nigel Smith and the One World Chorus feat. Dan Zanes - "Grateful"

Mista Cookie Jar - "Gratitude" [stream]

José-Luis Orozco - "Thanksgiving"

Rocknoceros - "This Thanksgiving"

Justin Roberts - "How Lucky We Are"

Gustafer Yellowgold - "Pumpkin Pied"

Miss Nina - "Grateful" [YouTube]

Kids' Songs About Emotions

While I generally shy away from songs and kids music that explicitly teach subjects in a didactic way, that doesn't mean that a) non-didactic songs don't teach the listener, and b) you can't create a very catchy song that also happens to be educational.

There are lots of songs that take history as their subject, and there are any number of math, non-English language, science, and standard school or preschool life skill subjects in song.  Emotional literacy, however, is a trickier subject, as the songwriter isn't so much covering facts as she or he is trying to write a song explaining the very emotions songs usually generate.  It's a meta idea... for 4- or 7-year-olds.

Back in 2008, I said that there really hadn't been much if any non-didactic kids music about emotions written, and that there was a niche waiting to be filled.  Luckily, I think that niche has been filled, at least a little bit -- there are now a number of tracks that I think could serve as tuneful introductions for a young audience to what emotions are.

I've provided a list below, but if you've got more to add, list them in the comments!  (Note that the list generally tries to limit itself to songs about emotion, rather than including songs that deal with emotion in passing.  Such a list would be much, much longer.)

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“It’s Alright to Cry” - Rosie Grier (among many others) [stream]

"Cry Cry Cry” - Ziggy Marley (feat. Jack Johnson & Paula Fuga) [stream]

“Joy Comes Back” - Alastair Moock [stream]

“Furry Happy Monsters” - R.E.M. [video]

“Sad” - Big Block Singsong [video]

“Brave” - Big Block Singsong [video]

“Happy” - Big Block Singsong [video]

"Mad" - Big Block Singsong [video]

“Mama Is Sad” - Justin Roberts [stream]

“Happy Sad Silly Mad” - Jeremy Plays Guitar [video]

“Sad Robot” - The Jellydots [stream]

“Are You Happy?” - Alison Faith Levy [stream]

“If You’re Happy and You Know It..." - Raffi (and many many others) [stream]

"In All of the World" - Papa Crow [stream]

"Alright, Okay, Just Fine" - Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang [Spotify]

"Feel What U Feel" - Lisa Loeb feat. Craig Robinson [Amazon]

"Feelings Change" - The Pop Ups [stream]

Announcing the Best Kids Music of the Decade

I've spent a long time thinking about kids music and trying to elevate the genre's visibility, both generally and as well for the very, very best of it.  One of the efforts I'm most proud of relative to that latter category is the Fids and Kamily Music Awards, which compiles top 10 lists from a lot of people who spend a lot of time listening to a lot of kids music.  The 2016 awards will be announced later this week, but this summer I realized that this would be the 10-year anniversary of starting the awards in 2006.

With that in mind, we put out a call to Fids & Kamily judges past and present and asked them to give us their list of the best kids music of the past decade.  To help them a bit, we limited the choices to the 122 ranked winners over the first ten years of the awards, and told them to give us their 20 choices, ranked in the same general way they rank their top 10 lists for the regular awards.

The result is a list of the top 20 kids music albums of the past decade, with another 20 albums awarded honorable mention.  The top five?

1.  The Okee Dokee Brothers - Can You Canoe? (2012)
2.  Molly Ledford and Billy Kelly - Trees (2015)
3.  Dan Zanes and Friends - Catch That Train! (2006)
4.  Justin Roberts - Jungle Gym (2010)
5.  Justin Roberts - Pop Fly (2008)

That is an excellent, excellent list, in my opinion, a great start to any kids music library (be that an actual library, or a family's iPhone playlist.  I encourage you to see the rest of the list of the best kids and family music of the past decade.  I'll have some thoughts on the results at some point soon, but for the moment, thanks to all the judges, artists, readers, and Bill Childs of Spare the Rock Spoil the Child, a Fids & Kamily co-founder who continues to work on this with me today.

Logo credit: 2006-2015 Fids and Kamily Awards logo courtesy Jeff Bogle / Out With The Kids