Junior Choice Volume 1

I was quite surprised at quite how enthusiastic my kids were for these songs, however. They knew songs like "Nellie the Elephant" "Teddy Bears Picnic" and "The Runaway Train" from other compilations, but they now much prefer these beautifully orchestrated versions to other more modern "girl/bloke with guitar or keyboard" versions. They love the Woody Woodpecker Song (though they've never seen the cartoon) and to my great surprise they love Charlie Drake songs like "Please Mr. Custer" and My Boomerang won't come back". They even love the Max Bygraves songs (and I thought my mother was the only remaining fan!)- they both sing along with "You're a pink toothbrush....etc" and the easy, call-and-answer "Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the Sea". I could never work out the words to that one from the radio, and at LAST, now I've reached the age of 40, here they are for me, laid out on a CD sleeve.

I can still remember Benny Hill's "Ernie" charting in the UK - heck, I can still remember ALL of the words to it. As for "Robin Hood" , although my children have never seen the associated TV programme, they know the character from Disney (yup that's life) and sing along with gusto....

In fact, these songs are almost all classics, from "Davy Crockett" (the king of the wild frontier) to Rolf Harris's "Jake the Peg" (again there's a whole generation of kids who know him only as a presenter of animal programmes). The surprising thing for me is that apart from bringing back golden memories (cliche time again) I have so much pleasure sharing these with my kids. In fact, I have been requested to order further copies by other parents.

A word of warning, however. My nephew and niece, aged 12 and 10, think these songs are seriously uncool. This sort of thing can be turned to your advantage. When they come out with me, all I have to do is threaten to drive past their friends houses playing this CD at full volume with the windows down, and they behave themselves all day! Read more ›