One of Susie Tallman's talents is bringing generations (grandparents, parents, and little ones) together through familiar and loved songs with some new twists added. A few examples include Tallman presenting Polly Wolly Doddle through a Raggae beat, combining several of Mother Goose's nursery rhymes in Throw It Out the Window, a mellowed out Clementine, and even Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind has the same tune in vocals as the original, but the musical accompaniment is completely redone.  Tallman begins On Top of Spaghetti, a little one's favorite since it was introduced by folk singer Tom Glazer,  much slower and more dramatic than the traditional version, but the pace soon picks up to a samba sound with shakers and bongos. You Are My Sunshine is remade into a rock song, complete with an electric guitar and drums! Between verses, Tallman includes interactive directions like, "Wave those arms, stamp your feet, clap your hands, shake your hips to the beat!" The album also includes fun call-and-response songs, like Going On a Bear Hunt and Sippin' Cider Through a Straw.

The songs are full of creative stories, fun phrases, and silly lyrics that your little ones - and you! - will love to sing along with. Examples of silly songs include The Old Family Toothbrush (about a toothbrush that was handed down throughout the family; "Father first used it, mother refused it, brother abused it, and now it is mine."), The Ostrich Song (about a yodeling ostrich; "Yodee-h, yodel-ee-ah-cuckee, yodel-ee-ah-cuckee-cuckoo, yodel-ee-ahh-cuckee-cuckoo!"), and 1,000 Legged Worm who is missing one of its legs, so it has to "hop around on the other 999." Boom Chicka Boom covers multiple genres in one song by asking the children on the album and the little listeners at home to sing the chorus like a cowboy, a jazz singer, an opera singer, Elvis, a little old lady, and finally like a little quiet mouse in call-and-response style. You can easily turn this in to a game with your little one by asking them to come up with more fun ways to sing the chorus - how about like a puppy dog,  their daddy, or even like a buzzing bee?! The title song is catchy and fun to sing along with, with lines like, "Let's go, hideee, hideee ho!" You and your little one can help the children in the song come up with ways that they can travel to new destinations; car, boat, bike, rickshaw, helicopter,  imagination - what can you come up with?

My two-year-old friend Kyle often listens to this CD while driving to and from his house whenever we're spending an afternoon together. We each have our favorites. Kyle loves to sing "Boom dee-ah-da, Boom dee ah-day" in I Love the Mountains, while I turn up the volume whenever Blowin' in the Wind comes on. I've also made it my personal mission to learn the chorus of the song Madaline Catelina because I cannot say it for the life of me; "Madaline Catelina Whoopastina Wilamina Oopsy Doopsy Woopsy was her name."

 

--Audra