Nursery rhyme tapes - do good ones exist?

[Willow2]

My son is really getting into nursery rhymes - we had a tape I bought from Tumble Tots that had loads of relatively modern rhymes (wheels on the bus, three little monkeys etc). It wasn't too bad and he adored it. However, he got hold of the tape once too often and it is now dead in the bin. I've bought a couple of other tapes and they are badly sung, badly produced and generally bloody awful. He doesn't mind them, but they make me want to commit murder. One features some dreadful school choir which my husband refers to as "now that's what I call middle-class schooling, volume 28" - the kids I can almost stand, it's the Hinge & Bracket style pianist that sends me reaching for the prozac. Two more are from Mothercare and they make me yearn for Rod, Jane and Freddy - which might give some of you an idea as to just how bad they are. Can anyone recommend some or am I going to just have to learn to live with the fact that they are all just dire?

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Have a look in the tape section of your local library. Then you could 'try before you buy' and hopefully avoid any nasties!

All the kids in my family like the Singing Kettle tapes. Singing Kettle is a group of Scottish singers/musicians - lots of the songs remind me of my childhood - I grew up in Edinburgh. The songs are well produced and they do a whole variety of tunes - even one tape on green issues !! They have a website - www.singingkettle.com. Hope this helps.

try www.songs-for-children.co.uk - they have tapes at £1.99 and cds at £2.99 - they're not perfect but I prefer them to the much more expensive blooming marv ones that I have - and at that price you can buy loads ( actually I bought mine in tesco - they're 99p/£1.99 there!!!!)so you're not driven mad by the same one over and over again.

Have you got any groups near you, we go to Mumbaba who have a tape and book to go with the classes. I think someone somewhere mentioned one called Singing with Mummy? they have a website I think (sorry to be vague)

We've got a Fun Factory one from the Early Learning Centre - very popular with my 20 month old.

I agree, Fun Song Factory are good ones (videos to) we did the actions all the way to Cornwall ... and back.

My daughter goes to Monkey Music classes (we live in London) and she adores their tapes. Not all the songs are nursery rhymes but they are well thoughtout and even I don't mind listening to them!

We've got quite a good one from a class too called Jo Jingles (Brian Cant sings the songs - remember him?!)

oh boy I would not be without my "Wheels on the bus" CD (Toy R Us £3.50). The rhymes are all old favourites and Nia loves it. She sits there look around for the voices and does this jumping motion on her bum (I call it dancing). Anyway I got it from Toys R Us - £3.50 approx. Oh yes it last for 60 minutes.

we have millions of tapes,some more successful than others - the current favourites are :
a travelling songs cd from Early Learning Centre, Round and Round the Garden(play rhymes)Oxford University Press isbn 0192790358, Sesame Street Splish Splash bathtime fun,ELC's Spooky Songs and Stories and all time favourite,played every night at bedtime without fail ELC's Songs from around the world - the new edition - We now have a new car with a cd player so I've been trying to find interesting kid's cds that we can all tolerate on long journeys- my ltest find is 'The Big Rock Candy Mountain' featuring Burl Ives,Danny Kaye (Tubby the Tuba !) and Bing Crosby...he seems to like this.

WE go to Jo Jingles too and my daughter has a CD with 47 songs on it...it's ok too! We've also got a Tiger cvlub tape form Haven holidays.That's really good. I would recommend Jo Jingle s though....it's good fun for Mum and Tot.

I loved your posting, it's true these tapes really shred the nerves and make the brow furrow, but ... help is at hand. I really like the tapes from Penguin and Puffin. There's a great "Nursery Rhymes & Stories" one, that's beautifully produced with proper music (no synthesisers) and people with - admittedly rather thespy, lovey-darling - great voices reading them. There's a great shop in Wigmore St if you're in London (called the talking book shop I think) and they do a great range, otherwise you can order direct from Penguin. They do a big range of stories as well, we introduced our kids to the unexpurgated Brothers Grimm tapes early on. They are dead scary and highly unsuitable but of course they clammer for them, the bloodier the better. This would bring us on to Bruno Bettleheim territory - again these are ready by Juliet Stevenson, Alan Cummings etc and you will drive along in parental & child harmony.

Willow2, if a decent nursery tape still eludes you, what about a tape of some of the Beatles and the Kinks greatest hits? Like Octopus's Garden, Yellow Submarine, even Dedicated follower of Fashion?

Willow2, how do you feel about folky music? we have a wonderful tape from the EMI music for pleasure (MFP) "an hour of pleasure" collection - one side of short rhymes like baa baa black sheep (17 of those) and one of longer more traditional songs, like clementine, who killed cock robin, what shall we do with the drunken sailor (11 of those).

this tape is called "an hour of favourite nursery rhymes" and is by tim hart "and friends", and i think the friends include maddy prior, anyway the sound is very steeleye-span-ish and the music is great.

we have had it a long time, and it was a replacement for a similar tape we used to have which broke; i seem to remember i had to order it from WHS. it has number HR1873 on the spine of the card and 41 8173 4 on the back.

(by the way i love your husband's title for the school choir tape!)

when your son gets a bit older, the story-book-and-tape sets are great for car journeys too.

If you can any tapes from the wiggles i know they are australian but i've seen their show on tv over here and they also have a web sit www.thewiggles.com.au. Quite often i find my self listening to their tapes when i'm in the car on my own, sad person that i am. we brought a whole heap with us when we cam home from oz but they are well used now and we'll have to get more

My son too loves his 'tumble tots' tape it is sung so much more nicely than the other tapes we have acquired from mothercare, ELC and other outlets...He is really getting good at the actions that go along with them too.
just a suggestion Willow2 but why not re-order him another tumble tots one from their website, you can buy merchandise online.

Willow2, following on from Janh's recommendation, there is a Saydisc CD of British nursery rhymes sung amd played in a slightly folky style by various Saydisc regulars, including Lucie and Tom Skeaping and Maddy Prior. Very nice, very "authentic" and no naff disco beats added. From the sound of things, it might bring your husband out in hives (good? bad? all depends...), but if he objected, you could offer in revenge the HMV Children's Classics mid-price CD which has Mud, Glorious Mud, Puff the Magic Dragon, The Teddy Bears' Picnic and The Laughing Policeman on it, amongst others.
I'm with Tigermoth on this one - any melodic, singalong pop goes down well with our 2 year old. He likes The Beatles, Squeeze, REM and The Divine Comedy.

coming back in the car from Devon we played a cd of the Mamas & Papas which our 4 year old son loved - he was joining in the harmonies with me !- then we played his dad's new New Order cd which he loved too !