The Vine: March 31, 2010
It’s another on-the-road Ask The Readers; today’s theme is missing songs. Go!
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Hoping one your readers can help.
Years ago I was a nanny — the kids had a great cassette tape (this proves it was years ago!). I’m pretty sure it was called “Jelly Bean Jar” or a variation of that. It was a woman artist.
Some songs I remember are “Counting to 100,” “That’s Disgusting!”, and something about getting a smack for being naughty.
It was one of those kids’ tapes that doesn’t make you want to kill yourself after two listenings.
I’m now expecting my own bundle, and would love to find this album — hopefully on CD!
Fingers crossed
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With all the book questions, I never considered asking for help finding a song…
I am trying to locate a copy of the song “Cripple Creek” by Jim Rast & Knee Deep. (No, NOT the version by The Band.)
Due to my Google-fu, I can include the information that the song has has also been credited to Jim Rast & The Malones, and apparently appears on the CD “Line Dance Hits from the Jukebox Volume 1.” I don’t know the name of the original CD (or record, or whatever) the song originally appeared on, but some version of the song appears to have been released by South Bound Records.
Yes, I have tried iTunes, and the CD for sale at Tower.com is out-of-print and unavailable. I’m willing to pay for the song, but at this point I’d also be thrilled if someone would just be willing to e-mail or FTP me the mp3. It’s a popular line-dance song, and I occasionally give my friends lessons, so the music would help.
Country music is only good for dancin’ to.
Tags: Ask The Readers music popcult The Band
The description SAYS this music is
Cripple Creek by Jim Rast and Kneedeep.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RYHm3tnQIQ
interestingly, one of the comments is that a listener can’t find the song anywhere.
Fingers Crossed – I don’t know the album you’re talking about but for kids’ music that isn’t irritating you might want to give John Lithgow’s ‘Singing in the Bathtub’ a try. My kids really like it and so do I.
I’m no help here, but I would love to see a good anwer about the Jelly Bean Jar…just in time for Easter?
@Bev – Yeah, that’s the song. I’m *thisclose* to taking my memory stick to the club and trying to bribe the DJ into copying the song for me, but I only go to the country club once every few months, so I don’t know the DJ that well.
(I’m primarily a swing dancer, who also does ballroom and latin. However, since we’re all 20 and 30-somethings, we sometimes hit the country bar when my non-dancing friends want a more “club-like” atmosphere. Plus, line dancing is fun.)
Can’t answer the question about the Jelly Bean song, but They Might Be Giants have done some kids’ albums that I’ve heard good things about.
I’m at a loss about the kiddie tunes, but “Philadelphia Chickens” by Sandra Boynton is a lot of fun and has some fun celebrity cameo singers.
forgot… a BIG second to MizShrew on the TMBG kid stuff. It’s quality.
The “Jelly Bean Jar” and “That’s Disgusting” songs sound intriguing, but I can’t help there, either. For kids’ music that doesn’t make you want to shoot yourself, I second MizShrew’s They Might Be Giants recommendation and add: anything by Ralph’s World (my kids really like At the Bottom of the Sea), anything by Justin Roberts, Philadelphia Chickens and Dog Train, both by Sandra Boynton (she gets a lot of well known musicians and actors to do the songs)
I send the TMBG kid albums: Here Comes the A, B, Cs; Here Comes the 1, 2, 3s and Here Comes Science are all amazing. Even Non-kid-owning adults like these. Plus they come with DVDs that have additional music as well the videos for the songs.
Barenaked Ladies’ Snacktime is also a good one. And Laurie Berkner Band is lovely.
And is maybe the jelly bean one Jeanie B and The Jelly Bean Band? Have not heard of that one before but it looks awesome.
http://bit.ly/a0CQfe
If you were a nanny in the NYC area, it may have been Laurie Berkner. She totally fits the “don’t want to stab your eardrums with a sharp pointy object” kids singer mold. My kids love her stuff. She self-published early in her career and “Jelly Bean Jar” sounds like something she would write. If even if she is not the ticket, her cd’s and dvd’s are worth checking out. My daughter has been sung to sleep just about every night for two years by her “Moon Moon Moon” song – she is now singing it to her dolls.
Laurie Berkner has some children’s CDs that are not annoying. Many of her videos from Noggin are posted on Youtube.
Love They Might Be Giants kids album! “no! no! NO!”
We LOVE They Might Be Giants around here. Here Comes Science is our very favorite, followed closely by Here Come the 123s. Here Come the ABCs is a distant third.
Enjoy! :)
Toni: I hope I’m understanding things correctly; if not, feel free to ignore me. So:
Have you tried emailing the person who posted the YouTube video and asking them for (a copy of) the music, or the source? I have found YouTubers to be *mostly* helpful in that regard. I have contacted a few over the years and in all but two cases have gotten positive results – a digital copy of the item in question, a source link, a store name, etc. (One time I didn’t get a response; another time I got a stroppy answer about copyright, even though I had made it clear I was looking for a place to *buy* the music in question.) Worth a try. Of course, that assumes that you can get a response from the person who posted the video…
Seconding the Laurie Berkner suggestion (though after two solo albums, she got a backing band that are now called the Laurie Berkner Band). She fits the bill on “songs for little ones that don’t make you want to scrape your brain out with an ice pick while moaning ‘oh god please make this stop!'”. ;) I don’t remember a Jelly Bean song of hers specifically, but I would suggest you check her out period. I still love “I know a chicken”, “We are the dinosaurs” and “I’m gonna catch you”, even though I haven’t been obligated to listen to them for years (and I am in Fingers Crossed’s boat, so I know that we’re buying at least one or two of her 5 albums within the next year).
You can probably browse their catalog here: http://www.laurieberkner.com
When my now-13 YO son was younger, we especially loved music by Trout Fishing in America (I’m kind of surprised that no one’s mentioned them yet!) and John Flynn. Again, music that adults can listen to without stabbing pencils into eyeballs … and even enjoy a great deal! We had their respective CD oeuvres, and saw both in concert a couple of times as well. I remember Flynn’s “A Manatee Sneezed on Me” (from the CD of the same name) and “She’s No Lady, She’s My Mom” and TFIA’s “What I Want is a Proper Cup of Coffee” and “Big Trouble” with particular affection.
Both Flynn and TFIA have very good websites, so you can sample the tunes before you buy; I just notived that TFIA offers the option of having your CD autographed at no extra charge if you buy from their site, which is pretty cool. TFIA site: http://www.troutmusic.com/ John Flynn: http://www.johnflynn.net (there is another musician named John Flynn who is apparently a devout Catholic performer who leads worship services – this is not the same guy.)
Finally … a Philly public radio station (WXPN) has syndicated its “Kids Corner” program, I believe. It’s hosted by Kathy O’Connell, and it ROCKS. It’s not just music, but the music they do play is largely intelligent, witty, entertaining … and it just happens to be geared for kids. (Ditto the content of the entire program, for that matter.) At any rate, their website – http://www.kidscorner.org/ – has lots of cool things for kids, as well as their programming schedule, AND you can also sample some great music, or even listen to the show streamed live or listen to older, archived shows. Definitely worth a trip on the web for parents of todders and elementary-aged kids.
I second 50’s recommendations of Trout Fishing in America, John Flynn, and Kids Corner–we found many wonderful kids’ musicians through that show (Cathy Fink & Marcie Marxner, Jessica Harper, Ernie & Neal, and more). Tom Chapin and John McCutcheon’s children’s albums are also favorites, and Putumayo’s child-oriented ones (World Playground and WP II). Sarah Pirtle is lovely too.
Alas, no clue re jelly beans.
I say ask the DJ for a copy of it – I went to a bar a couple times where the DJ played some great songs, some of which I hadn’t heard of before. I happened to get his business card and eventually emailed him and asked him about some of the songs I’d heard. He was kind enough to email me mp3’s of them. It’s worth a shot and at least you know he has it!
Hi to the jelly bean jar nanny,
I had this tape when i was a kid as well and remember loving it along with my other siblings. As fate would have it Google came up with an old ebay listing of heaps of cassette tapes one of which was the jelly bean jar tape.
The artists name is Gillian Eastoe
Hope that helps you out if you haven’t had any luck with youtube