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I squealed with delight when I opened an email that my friend Ashley sent me. It had a link to Imagine That! Volume 2, a playlist complied by Brian Gossett. Billed as “music for hip moms and dads”, Brian’s list is definitely that.
Volumes 1 and 2 were inspired by a visit to Portland Brian and his wife made while looking for a perfect city in which to raise a family. He found out that, among other things, Portland has “a lot of young hip parents” and imagined they’d really like the music he complied. He made it super child-friendly by scanning each song for cuss words or adult themes, and each song passed the test but also retained its inherent kickassness.
Further adding to the awesomeness of these mixes? They’re both available for download at the site: Vol. 1 & Vol. 2.
Tell me! What songs would you put on a similar playlist?
Cover photos taken by David Lewandowski.
those mixes are SO good!! 🙂
As someone who takes music (a little too) seriously, I have been thinking about playlists that are good for kids. This seems perfect.
The mix I made for Bumble (still in belly, but you know….you have to start the music early!) has a little of everything, from “Baby I love you” by the Ramones to “The Rainbow Connection” by Kermit the Frog. We also just bought a copy of Johnny Cash’s Children’s Album and “the Dinosaur Song” and “Why Is a Fire Engine Red” are fantastic!
I love this post. I have a lifestyle & wedding blog (and a 2 year old) and did a similar post using songs we created as playlists for our son (and us). Itsy Bitsy Spider was not going to cut it!
Here’s the link to our playlist: http://www.yourlifevents.com/2010/04/14/kidsfamily-10-kid-songs-that-parents-will-love-too/
this is so wonderful. I work at hip baby store and i made my own playlist to play there, but hearing the same songs every day was driving me a little mad. these came just in time! 🙂
I want these playlists, bad! But, i get an error message that the zip file is corrupted. Am I doing something wrong? Can anyone help me out?
hmm, I didn’t have an issue. What program are you using to unzip it?
Hey Katie! I had to download WINRAR to Unzip them. I’m on Vista and Vista suuuuuucks.
Scarlet and I’s favorite mutual song is Yeah Yeah Yeah by Jack Conte, a close second is Mariella by Kate Nash also good for dancing around the house are On The Radio – Regina Spektor and I’m Good, I’m Gone – Lykke Li
awesome. LOVE this and thanks for sharing. PS: can an experienced commenter tell me how to change my icon pic to a real picture? I’m computer illiterate..
oh my gad, i love these albums! Thank you so much for sharing! Is it weird that my favorite is the Meow Meow Lullaby!?
LOVE THIS!!! The one song it was missing was Here Comes the Sun.
These mixes are awesome. I don’t have kids, but I live in a neighborhood where lots of kids run around all the time. I feel like I can sit outside and listen to this without being paranoid that I forgot to skip a song with the F-bomb in it.
Thank you so much for sharing this! My stepdaughter and I took an epic cross-country roadtrip last Christmas (Portland to central Texas), and I struggled so much going one by one through my CDs to sort them into the kid-safe stack and the off-limits stack. It was pretty shocking how much I had to eliminate because I would rather her not sing along to curse words, suggestive themes, etc. This will be great to have for our next trip!
“Birdhouse In Your Soul” by They Might Be Giants and “All I Want Is You” by Barry Louis Polisar are faves of my kiddos.
The link for the 2nd vol, i belive is wrong …
but here it is if people are having the same issue i am
http://since78.briangossett.com/2010/05/04/imagine-that-volume-02/
Thanks! Just fixed it. 🙂
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots-Flaming Lips
Open Up Yor Heart & Let the Sun Shine In-Frente!
Doctor Worm-TMBG
The Yo Gabba Gabba Compilations are great too.
these links arent working anymore 🙁
Dang, I was going to link my new parent friends to this and I just realized the downloads are gone. Crap!