SwingDJs

Many of you know I'm the father of a one year old daughter. Many of you can only imagine the horror that is the "Baby Einstein" collection of children's music. Either you get lame synthesizers doing "children's" version of classical music or you get insipid singers doing nursery rhymes. It's maddening. This is the stuff they play in hell.

I know that Ella covered nursery rhymes all the time when she was scatting, but I'm really looking for "children's" jazz music (e.g., 1930's jazz music, recorded by real artists, but for kids) and/or nursery rhymes recorded for grownups but still accessible to kids (e.g., Ella's "A Tisket, A Tasket"). I have no problem buying 20 CDs so I can put together a decent compilation, although I'd obviously prefer something ready to go...

Suggestions?

It's not exactly swing, but you can't go past Songs for Bumpy Wagon Rides (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006 ... 164?n=5174), or They Might Be Giants http://www.giantkid.net/index_bed.html.
Perfect music for kids.

How about the Boilermakers cd for kids (Jazz Baby)?

http://cdbaby.com/cd/boilermaker2

a few other thoughts (not all nursery rhymes but maybe close enough):

Mary Had a Little Lamb (Teddy Wilson and His All-Stars)
Mother Goose Marches On (Camel Caravan 8-10-37)
Over the Rainbow (any number of versions)
Pennies from Heaven (The Billie Holiday Story)
Taint What You Do (Chick Webb and His Orchestra--1939)
Yes! we have no bananas (Green Brothers Novelty Band--from the UCSB Cylinder Digitization Project: http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu)
(if the marimbas are a hit, you could get 12th Street Rag played by the Imperial Marimba Band from the same site)
School Days (Louis Jordan)

[edited to add]

Did you go to kid-themed dance that we had about five years ago? The one where the girls refused to dance with the boys because the girls were coloring? Patty and I both collected some kid-type swing for that dance, so let me see what I can dig up.

There was a thread in the old Yahoo swing DJs group in April 2001 about kid-friendly swing. I don't remember if this group has revisited the kid theme since moving to the forum.

A few CDs to get you started:
Louis Armstrong's Disney album
Tony Bennett's Playground album
Dr Demento Goes Mother (goose)
Capitol Sings Kids' Songs

A few songs:
Fletcher Henderson, Mary had a little lamb
Fletcher Henderson, If I had Rhythm in my Nursery Rhymes
Brother Bones, Sweet Georgia Brown
Andrews Sister, Shortnin Bread
Ella Fitzgerald, Organ Grinders Swing
Rosemary Clooney, Ding Dong the Witch is Dead
Count Basie, London Bridge is Falling Down

Pottery Barns Kids, have couple of really good kids jazz collection. You can't get them online anymore, have to go to the store and see what's left. Or your friendly eBay. (Let's Play, Play Time)

Platypus is right, it's about 5 years ago we did the kids theme. That was fun.

Here's a few I still love:
Bare necessity
Zip a dee do da
Linus & Lucy (of course)
Flintstone by Morty Alexander

I want to say Wynton Marsalis has a Charlie Brown album
John Lithgow's Singin' in the Bathtub (or something have to do w/ singing and bathtub)

There's a song called "Mother Goose Jumps" by Woody Herman. Surprisingly good for Herman tune.

Oh, and there's this fun little tune by Bill Haley (Yes yes I know... I *like* Bill Haley) called ABC Rock (different than ABC Boogie by Haley too).

Actually, Bill doesn't sing the song, his Sax Player does I believe. It's totally a kids favorite. My kids used to love the song... they thought the voice sounded like Elmo though.

Keep the suggestions coming!

Meanwhile, turns out my wife read my mind and bought Nicky's Jazz for Kids (Amazon link), which has a nice cut of Nat King Cole singing "Three Blind Mice".

Among the highest quality music I was exposed to as a child:

Ann Murray
Sharon, Lois & Bram (of Elephant Show fame)

Each does some jazz, but above all they are trained musicians with great technique, so your children can grow up to be fabulous singers.

I also had a Sesame Street Sings record when I was little. Most of the songs were re-released recently in a huge box set. There might be some jazzy stuff in there too.

And my sister, who is now a professional jazz singer, got her start from Teddy Ruxpin of all places. He had her singing jazz standards when she was 4! (though his scary mechanical mouth bugged me so badly that I broke it because I kept holding it shut)

Sorry that's not nursery rhymes, but why not just skip the kid stuff and get right into the classics?

Side note- that Baby Einstein crap is amazing- why does it make any sense to take full orchestral pieces and play them on a synthesizer and market it as if it will make your kid smarter? Why is the Boston Pops not better?