Music Beat: Soothing Show Tunes

Musical numbers that put the "lull" in "lullaby."

When baby G arrived last year, he kept a simple schedule: Eat for an hour, sleep for an hour, repeat. Once we figured this out, it wasn't so hard to find a cat-napping rhythm of our own. Still, sleep deprivation does funny things to the brain—and the cells storing my musical memory short-circuited.

Like many new moms, I sang to the little guy all the time. But instead of the beautiful, child-appropriate ballads my mother sang to me, I was streaming pop music circa 1990. We're talking Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," NKotB's "The Right Stuff" (ugh!), and the chorus to Snoop Dogg's "Who Am I (What's My Name)?" In one particularly bad moment, I churned through a piece of meta-pop from Neil Diamond called "The American Popular Song." That pulp—with the telling lyric "The American popular song goes on and on and on"—had been moldering in a corner of my brain since the early 80s.

Obviously, baby G's musical education needed an overhaul! Today, our MP3 player administers regular doses of indie rock songs, folk tunes, jazz sessions, British rock anthems, and classical recordings—but our favorite staple is the musical soundtrack. And why not? The lively song-and-dance numbers are like primary colors—bright, cheery, simple, and entertaining. So, it's no surprise that five of our favorite lullabies come from musical soundtracks. Here they are:

• "Moonshine Lullaby" from Annie Get Your Gun
  Illegal brewing has never been more soothing than in Bernadette Peters' rendition of this treasure from Irving Berlin. We saw her in the 1999 Broadway revival—and the incredible energy she had on stage comes through loud and clear in the recording. With lyrics like the following, how can you go wrong?
  
  "Behind the hill,
  There's a busy little still
  Where your Pappy's workin' in the moonlight.
  
  "Your lovin' paw
  Isn't quite within the law,
  So he's hidin' there behind the hill.
  
  "Bye, bye, baby.
  Stop your yawnin'.
  Don't cry, baby,
  Day will be dawning.
  
  "And when it does,
  From the mountain where he wuz,
  He'll be coming with a jug of moonshine."
  
  You get the idea.
  



• "Stay Awake" from Mary Poppins
  Julie Andrews tenderly delivers this clever piece of reverse psychology from Sherman and Sherman on the film soundtrack. The lyrics may preach resistance to bedtime, but the sleepy melody promises to carry kids off to dreamland before they can put up a fight:
  
  "Stay awake, don't rest your head.
  Don't lie down upon your bed.
  While the moon drifts in the skies,
  Stay awake, don't close your eyes.
  
  "Though the world is fast asleep,
  Though your pillow's soft and deep,
  You're not sleepy as you seem.
  Stay awake, don't nod and dream;
  Stay awake, don't nod and dream."
  



• "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music
  When I was 10 and wanted my cat to climb up on the bed with me, all I had to do was sing this Rogers and Hammerstein favorite from The Sound of Music. What can I say? The cat had taste. There's something intimate and comforting about the acoustic guitar accompaniment (which my mom played for me when she taught me the song). And the lyrics are hopeful and happy, with a dash of nationalism—just what every kid needs, right?
  
  "Edelweiss, Edelweiss,
  Every morning you greet me.
  Small and white, clean and bright,
  You look happy to meet me.
  
  "Blossom of snow,
  May you bloom and grow,
  Bloom and grow forever.
  
  "Edelweiss, Edelweiss,
  Bless my homeland forever."
  



• "Good Night, My Someone" from The Music Man
  My mom taught me this ballad from Meredith Willson's The Music Man for one of those elementary school talent shows, and I just loved the idea of singing a lullaby to a person I'd never met. The unknown person, of course, is one's true love: "I must depend on a wish and a star as long as my heart doesn't know who you are." Swoon, right? This chorus came right back to me when I was rocking baby G one night, which gave me hope for recovered brain cells:
  
  "Sweet dreams be yours, dear,
  If dreams there be,
  Sweet dreams to carry you close to me.
  I wish they may, and I wish they might;
  Now goodnight, my someone, goodnight."
  



• "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" from Cinderella

A song from a Disney animated feature may not exactly count as a "show tune"—but it's my list, and I'm making an exception! Ilene Woods' warm voice carries this dreamy tune from Mack David, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston. Unfortunately, on our version, there is a clanging clock that sounds in the middle of the track, followed by a cranky lament from Cinderella herself. But if you can get around those bits, or just sing it yourself, it's a sweet melody.

I'm a sucker for optimism, and this song is chock-full:

"A dream is a wish your heart makes,
When you're fast asleep.
In dreams, you will lose your heartaches.
Whatever you wish for, you keep.

"Have faith in your dreams, and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling through.
No matter how your heart is grieving,
If you keep on believing,
The dream that you wish will come true."