It started with Big Merla. I saw one of her reels doing the rounds of her parody of Chop Suey by System of a Down. Not only is it a great parody and she is a great musician, but she plays it all on children’s musical toys with amazing coordination.
A few weeks later I was scrolling the internet and found another of her videos. So of course that led me down the rabbit hole of her Instagram back catalogue.
The next rabbit hole after watching the videos was to read the comments. I found a post recommending a playlist called PUNK goes the weasel, which consists of punk/rock bands covering nursery rhymes. I recommend listening to Working on the railroad and Humpty dumpty).
The next find was Punk does Disney, which does exactly what it says on the tin. I’d heard Marilyn Manson’s cover of This is Halloween before, but it was fun listening to some new songs (like Part of your world and Be our guest).
Then it was time to explore some more. I looked at the discography of some of the artists in the PUNK goes the weasel playlist, and discovered the exact opposite: punk songs being played as instrumental lullabies (like All the small things and Longview).
Nice and short this week, but hopefully some new songs to get stuck in your head.
On a related note, I highly recommend the playlist Lullabies for baby sleep 2024. It contains instrumental versions of classical songs (e.g. Fur elise, Symphony No. 9), popular songs (Tiny Dancer - Elton John, Fix You - Coldplay) and movie music (Edelweiss - Sound of Music, Let it go - Frozen). It also has a mix of instrumental nursery rhymes and original compositions thrown in. And it is looong, which makes it great if you are listening to it every night (or multiple times per night!). (fun fact: there have been times throughout the last year of sleepless nights that, even for a nap during the day, I needed the lullaby music playing to get myself to sleep!).
My favourite song on this playlist is an instrumental called Little Sleepy Eyes by Barbara Bailey Hutchison. There is also a version with words, but I think the clarinet is what I love the most about it. It gives me classic romantic movie vibes. I feel like I can picture a long summer day in Paris, where the main characters are getting their happily ever after and growing old together.
If you can recommend any other fun mash-ups or other lullaby music to add to my rotation I would love to hear it!