12 July 2011, by Dannie Cho
My ‘Colett’ion of Songs
Sorry for the long absence. I was actually planning to blog about something else I learnt during antenatal class, but every time I tried to type something about massages, I get so comfortable I fall asleep. Yeah… my massages are that good. Just the thought of them is enough to totally relax anyone. *grin*
But falling asleep whenever I want to blog is not helping anyone. So I’ve decided to do something related to sleeping instead. Songs! Bedtime songs!
Since the start of the wife’s second trimester, I’ve started singing to the baby at night, just before we turn in for the night. It just started quite naturally, with very little pre-planning. We were just logging on on our separate laptops one evening at home, when I decided to have some music. Robbie Williams’ ‘Better Man’ got shuffled up, and next thing I knew, I had turned the wife towards me, put my head near her swollen belly and belting out the lyrics, “… Lord I’m doing/ all I can/ to be a better man.”
I looked up and say tears glistening in the wife’s eyes. She was so touched! From then on, I just started creating a playlist for little Colette. I’ve added a few more songs since, and now have a grand total of 25 songs. The wife reckons that repetition is more important than variety now, so we’re pretty happy with the collection I have.
So, just to share, here are the songs in my playlist!
1) Better Man by Robbie Williams
2) If We Hold on Together by Diana Ross from the Land Before Time soundtrack. This was another song that made the wife cry, though she claims it is because she ‘just keeps thinking of poor lost little dinosaurs’. Yeah… right :p
3) For the Longest Time by Billy Joel. Man’s a wife-beater, but this is such a classic song! And I love it when the wife goes ‘oo-oo-oo-ooh’ or ‘ah-ah-ah’ according to the song.
4) Betcha by Golly Wow! by Prince. This was actually our march-in song during our wedding. Totally sweet lyrics made even more meaningful for us.
5) Be My Baby by The Ronettes, from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. The title says it all. Though there is a little guilt when we go, “Be my be my baby / my one and only baby…”. After all, we intend to have more than one child… anyway, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it! ๐
6) Close to You, by numerous people especially those jazz singers that like to do cover versions of classic songs in their own way, thereby killing the simple joy I want to have by singing along because I only know this one version by Susan Wong. I need to change the lyrics to “all the boys in town / follow you all around”. No biggie.
7) All I Have to Do is Dream by Ant and Dec. Also known as PJ and Duncan. Go the **** to sleep and then you can dream!
8) Eternity by Robbie Williams. Hmm… actually, I have no idea how this song made it to my playlist. You know what? Effective now, my playlist is only 24 songs. Feel free to recommend a replacement!
9) God Must Have Spent A Little More Time on You by N’ Sync. Yes, boy band song! But hey, when the wife’s spending 40 weeks being pregnant, some mention of it being a miracle is a good thing.
10) Goodnight It’s Time to Go – the version I have is from a collection of local groups singing a capella under the album title so originally named Aka A Capella. Quintessential go-to-sleep song made popular by the movie “Three Men and a Little Lady”
11) Endless Love by “Rachel” and “Jesse” from the Glee cast. Actually, I only like the front half of the song. The second half is a little too fragmented for one person to sing alone.
12) Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede, made famous by TV series Ally McBeal. Yes, it’s that dancing baby song! Oogah shaka oogah shaka!
13) Can You Feel the Love Tonight? by Sir Elton John. From The Lion King. Hey, Disney love songs are strangely appropriate sometimes. Just avoid ‘Beauty and the Beast’.
14) Walking on the Milky Way by OMD. This is one of the songs that is just too cool. It also evokes memories of our one-year trip because I used it as background music for a video clip. Good stuff.
15) Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin. This is part of our plot to get Colette to love the sun, sand and sea as much as her parents.
16) A Whole New World from the Aladdin soundtrack. The lyrics take on a whole new meaning when sung from father to daughter. The wife also teared at this song, because it’s my promise to show Colette the wonders of the world.
17) You’ll be In My Heart by Phil Collins from the Tarzan soundtrack. The first time I sang this, I selected the short ditty from the movie by mistake. The one where Tarzan’s ape-mom sang to him. Made the wife cry as well. (Isn’t she emo?!) I’ve since switched to the Phil Collins version because it lasts longer than a minute.
18) Rule the World by Take That. Conveys our hope and confidence to our daughter, that the world will soon be her oyster. Come out and grab life by the pearls!
19) Lullaby by the Smurfs. Yes, the Smurfs! From the “It’s Party Time!” cassette! I suddenly thought of this song a a couple of years back and hunted it down. Eventually, I managed to find it online. Sounds a little scratchy because it was recorded from a cassette…CDs were not even invented yet at that time!
20) Mr Pigeon, also by the Smurfs. “Round and round, the chimney he flies/ Higher and higher he climbs in the sky…” I try not to sing this as the last song before we finally fall asleep, because the wife complains that it’s such an earworm!
21) I’ll Cover You from the musical Rent. This is a bit of a strange song, because in the musical, it was sung by two gay lovers with AIDS. One of them dies soon after. The song even has the lyrics “… when your heart has expired / I’ll cover you”. Hmm… but it’s a really fun love song to sing, so whatever ๐
22) Any Dream Will Do by Jason Donovan from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Again, the reference to dreams = go the **** to sleep. Oh, and it’s also a song of encouragement to follow your dreams, so it’s cool.
23) Can’t Take My Eyes Off You by too many people, but the version I have is from a local group called Budak Pantai. The wife and I are great fans and have attended almost every one of their performances at the YMCA rooftop since 2005 or so. They’ve kinda disappeared for the past year though. Sad. But yeah… singing this song while looking at the belly shift? Really can’t take my eyes off you!
24) Hush Little Baby by Yo-yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin. It’s a common lullaby (Hush little baby don’t say a word / Papa’s gonna buy you a mockingbird…”) given a quirky twist by the amazing duo of Yo-yo and Bobby. Another really fun song.
25) Arms of Orion by Prince and Sheena Easton, from the Batman soundtrack. I’ve loved this song since my Secondary school days. Love the instrumental part at the end, love the duet, love the sense of protection the song evokes. So it goes on my list of all-time great songs that few people pay attention to. Colette should listen to genius like this.
And that’s my 25 (now 24) songs!
Any fathers out there who want to recommend other songs? Drop me a comment!
[edit]: I just realised that I have always meant to include Kermit the Frog’s The Rainbow Connection to the list, but never did so! It’s in it’s rightful place now ๐
Posted on : July 12, 2011
Filed under : Mums- & Dads-to-be
3 Comments
Dannie
July 21st, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Hi Rach!
Hm… I finally checked out the lyrics for What Do You Want From Me, since my only impression was Mr Lambert just singing the title over and over again. Pretty cool! But I think Yi Lin can sing this to Colette on those days where her insides feel like they have just received a Super Hyper Combo finishing move.
And I really think that I Love Children should take up the idea of a BABY BOOM song. Just give it a similar treatment to the Fun Pack-Pack song, put it on Youtube, and let it go viral! Voila! Message passed to all Singaporeans! ๐
Mandy
July 21st, 2011 at 11:58 am
This list is great! I should get Tim to look at it.
We liked singing Bruno Mars’ “Just the way you are” to Boubbles before we found out he was a boy! Its more appropriate for Colette since its meant to be sung to a girl!
Rach
July 15th, 2011 at 5:27 am
the 2 songs i can think of right now:
1) what do you want from me by Adam Lambert.
For one of those days, the title says it all.
2) Wonderful world. (sorry, i really don’t know who sang this beautiful song.)
School taught kiddo this song. I mad love this song after listening to her, especially when she sang
“I see trees of green, red roses too, I see them bloom from me and you.
……
I hear babies cry, i watch them boom for me and you. and i think to myself what a wonderful world.”
there’s nothing not to like about a song when BABIES BOOM. for me and you no less. what a wonderful world indeed.
๐