beaner_car_mmviii
I think I created the first beaner_car playlist over a year ago (maybe even further back than that), using songs from his Music Class CDs mixed in with a few boppy pop favorites of mine that I thought he might like, too. Since then we've been refining his playlist, taking off songs he rejects, adding new ones he's either heard on the radio, on TV, or me humming in the kitchen, and also trying out tunes we like just to broaden his tastes a bit.
We're now up to beaner_car_x. (Although maybe we should move to beaner_car_xi now, since we just bought a used 325xi wagon to replace our current vehicle... but that's another story.) ANYWAY, my point was music, and what appeals to the Beaner right now. Here's his latest playlist, with notes:
| Name | Artist | Album | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hello Goodbye | Paul McCartney | Back In the U.S. (Live 2002) | His favorite song of the moment. I started singing it while washing the dishes one night, and he immediately wanted to know how it went. (It turns out that I probably got it in my head because of a Target commercial, fwiw.) I looked it up in the iTunes store with the full knowledge that no Beatles songs were available for sale there, but I was delighted to find this Paul McCartney live version. The Beaner actually prefers this one to the Beatles version (we ended up buying two Beatles compilations to see if there were other tunes he might like). He knows all the words now and often sings under his breath while he's working at school or playing at home. |
| Come On Eileen | Dexy's Midnight Runners & Kevin Rowland | '80s Pop #1's | This one came on at Trader Joe's the other day, and he was completely taken by it. I used to have it on an 80s CD, but as this wasn't one of my favorite tunes, I apparently didn't rip it before selling the CD at a garage sale. Apple now has another $.99 from me. |
| This Land Is Your Land | The Uncle Brothers | Two Big Kids | He came home from school one day trying to sing this song, but he only knew bits and pieces. I knew a bit more, but not the whole thing. iTunes to the rescue again. This is another one that he sings at random moments. |
| Time of Our Lives | Paul Van Dyk | Reflections | The Beaner is a big fan of Jeeps, so one day Al showed him the Jeep website, where he found some videos of the vehicles in action. There were also a few Jeep commercials available for viewing, and this song was the soundtrack to one of them. I found it on iTunes and surprised the Beaner with it on disc vii or viii. He said, "hey, it's the Jeep song!" |
| Snow Day | Bleu | For The Kids | We got this CD from the Beaner's cousin when the Beaner was really little, and I must confess that most of the songs on it didn't really appeal right away. I revisited it when I was looking for new tunes to try on him recently, and I discovered this winter-appropriate gem. It's become one of his most-requested favorites. |
| Rock Lobster | The B-52's | Time Capsule: Songs For A Future Generation | I tried this quirky B-52s classic out on him really early on (I think it was on the original beaner_car playlist, as well as car_ii), but he didn't like it then. Now, it's highly requested. He especially likes me to sing along (something I can do easily because I rehearsed it to death in preparation for a karaoke event once), and he thinks the line "pass the tanning butter!" is absolutely HILARIOUS. |
| New Song | Howard Jones | Human's Lib | I started him out with Life in One Day a few playlists ago, and when he got into it, I tried out some other HJ songs on him. He really likes this one, and refers to it as the "ooh ooh ooh" song. |
| Revolution | The Beatles | 1967-1970 [Disc 1] | Who can resist a little Revolution? The Beaner did at first, but our enthusiastic singing in the front seat eventually won him over. He often asks what that noise is at the beginning; I always reply, "it's a guitar, honey. It's called 'rocking out.'" |
| Everybody Wants To Rule The World | Tears For Fears | Songs From The Big Chair | A favorite of mine that I tried out on the Beaner very early on, but it never stuck. (He always asked to skip the track.) He has no objections now, but he also doesn't request it. It's a favorite of Al's too, though, so we're just happy he doesn't reject it. |
| Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da | The Beatles | 1967-1970 [Disc 2] | He LOVES for us to sing this song. He always says, "Mommy, Daddy, sing it with me!" but then he doesn't sing—he just listens to us. I catch him singing it to himself when he's playing sometimes, tho. |
| Hello Goodbye | The Beatles | 1967-1970 [Disc 1] | He's starting to appreciate this slightly slower, slightly more subdued original version, and he'll sometimes ask us to flip back and forth between it and the Paul McCartney version so he can compare. I think playing both versions is what piqued his recent interest in singers and bands; he now asks "who's singing this?" and "what band is this?" for most songs he hears. He knows that there are four different Beatles, and that Paul and John are the most frequent answers to "who's singing this?" He also knows that Howard Jones is both the singer and the band. |
| Kids In America | Kim Wilde | Living In Oblivion: The 80's Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 | This was a wacky choice thrown in for variety. Still too early to tell if it's a hit. |
| Making Time | Creation | Rushmore | No complaints, but no votes either. Also appeared on car_viii. |
| Real Gone | Sheryl Crow | Cars (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture) | A favorite for several discs in a row, I left it off car_viii—and heard about it. We ended up having to swap discs quite a bit so he could hear it, so I put it back on car_ix and car_x. He knows the name of the song, but he also refers to it as "the race song." |
| Help! | The Beatles | 1962-1966 [Disc 2] | The jury's still out on this one. It was a favorite from my childhood, but the Beaner isn't convinced yet. |
| Peanut Butter | The Marathons | The Tao Of Steve | An instant hit. I remember thinking a long time ago that the Beaner would probably love this song, but I didn't have it in my iTunes library despite owning the CD. After watching the Tao of Steve again with Al a few weeks ago, I was reminded to get out the CD and burn this track (I'd already burned a couple other favorites). We all sang it together on the way to pick up the new car, and played it several times in a row. Hilarity ensued. |
| Jiggle Up And Down | The Music Class | The Pony Collection | For some reason, this is one of the Music Class songs that totally sticks in my head. I make up random lyrics to it or just sing the original ones at completely inappropriate times and give myself the giggles. I don't know if the Beaner now finds it funny because I do (I suspect so), but it's back in rotation for this reason. |
| Here It Goes Again | OK Go | Oh No | Like Real Gone, this is one of the Beaner's all-time favorites, and he likes to listen to it LOUD. (He likes most music loud—louder than I'd usually listen at—but this one in particular he always asks us to turn up.) Ironically, it's already louder than most other songs on the CD. He's always referred to this song as "OK Go"; now that he's aware of singers and bands, it may be easier to explain that OK Go is the band. |
| Life Is a Highway | Rascal Flatts | Cars (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture) | Another favorite from the Cars soundtrack, known to the Beaner alternately by its name and as "the driving to California song." |
| My Flying Saucer | Wilco | For The Kids | My favorite song from the For the Kids album (see Snow Day, above, as well), probably because I love Billy Bragg's voice. (I swore up and down that it *was* Billy Bragg, but it took some Googling to prove it.) The Beaner has grown to love it, too, and missed it when I left it off car_viii and car_ix. |
| Clicking Sticks | Music Class | The Tiger Collection | I'm not sure why this Music Class tune is a favorite, but he asked for it by name one day and was disappointed when I couldn't find a disc in the car that had it. It's been on several car_n discs in a row. |
| Like Wow/'Wipeout | Hoodoo Gurus | Mars Needs Guitars! | I was looking for CDs from Al's collection to burn and came across this Hoodoo Gurus gem. A friend in college had also this CD back when CDs weren't that common, and I was really into making mix tapes. I salivated over her CD collection and recorded every song that was remotely interesting to me. This was one of them. Al was skeptical that the Beaner would find it as appealing, but it was an instant hit with him. |
| Love Shack | The B-52's | Time Capsule: Songs For A Future Generation | We rarely make it to this song on the CD because he's so busy asking us to replay earlier tracks, but the couple times he's heard it he's voiced approval. I'm waiting for him to parse the line "I've got me a car, it's as big as a whale", as I think it has the potential to become the next "pass the tanning butter!" |
| Let Go | Frou Frou | Garden State | OK, I admit it, this one's on there for me. I always do that—try to slip in a song or two that *I* really like, in hopes that he'll like it, too. (Funny, as I write this, I can hear Aura playing "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" for the Beaner in the basement. :) Most of the songs I slip in are rejected vehemently, sadly ("Watching the Detectives" was rejected soundly and repeatedly, to my dismay), but so far this one hasn't been—probably because I think we've only made it to the end of the disc once. |
Posted by Lori in music at 9:20 PM on January 16, 2008
Comments (1)
What a fantastic post -- really brilliant. This is going to be so helpful to so many. My youngest sister worked at a pre-school once upon a time, and when she had her first son, I remember she hung all of the artwork in his room down at his eye level (which looked odd to the grown-ups), but she said she wanted it where he could enjoy it -- and I loved that.
Posted by myla | January 19, 2008 9:21 AM
Posted on January 19, 2008 09:21