LULLABIES

Certain songs lend themselves to being interpreted as baby's lullabies. Indeed, one of them listed here (GOODNIGHT MY LOVE) was fashioned as an invitation to slumber when child star Shirley Temple sang it in the 1936 movie "Stowaway". Its lyric begins: "Goodnight my love, the tired old moon is descending" and the chorus ends: "Sleep tight, my love, goodnight my love/Remember that you're mine sweetheart".

Thirty-two years later, the Sherman Brothers, hot properties following their smash-hit scores for such Disney classics as "Mary Poppins" and "The Jungle Book", wrote a group of terrific songs for the movie musical version of Ian Fleming's whimsical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"; one of the most memorable was HUSHABYE MOUNTAIN, introduced in the movie by Dick Van Dyke. It describes the perfect setting for a lullaby - a faraway, magical land were winds of night blow your troubles out to sea.

Here is a list containing these and other EMI-published songs which can easily be transformed into heartwarming lullabies.

CHILD OF MINE (Gerry Goffin/Carole King)
FIELDS OF GOLD (Sting)
GOODNIGHT MY LOVE (Mack Gordon/Harry Revel)
HUSHABYE MOUNTAIN (Richard M.Sherman/Robert B.Sherman)
IT MIGHT BE YOU (THEME FROM TOOTSIE) (Dave Grusin/Alan & Marilyn Bergman)
MORNING HAS BROKEN (Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens/Eleanor Farjeon)
ONLY THE HEART MAY KNOW (Dan Fogelberg)
OVER THE RAINBOW (Harold Arlen/E.Y. Harburg)
SCARLET RIBBONS (FOR HER HAIR) (Evelyn Danzig/Jack Segal)
SEE THE FUNNY LITTLE CLOWN (Bobby Goldsboro)
SLEEPY TIME GAL (Richard A. Whiting/Ange Lorenzo/Joseph Alden/Raymond Egan)
SWEET BABY JAMES (James Taylor)
TO A CHILD (Laura Nyro)
A TRUMPETER'S LULLABY (Leroy Anderson)
YOU CAN CLOSE YOUR EYES (James Taylor)

The jazz world created their share of such melodies as in Benny Goodman's 1938 seller LULLABY IN RHYTHM and of course George Shearing's signature tune and his tip of the hat to the legendary New York club, LULLABY OF BIRDLAND. Finally, we should make mention of Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil's 1972 chart hit by B.J. Thomas: ROCK AND ROLL LULLABY.

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Hear audio extracts of these songs on our website

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Please remember as always that these lists are based on songs controlled by EMI in the U.S. and that control of certain copyrights varies by territory.

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ROCK ON !
Alan Warner

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