First Songs

It is a little-known fact that many of today's top songwriters, being the talented people they are, were also precocious songwriting children. Now, with the release by Fisher-Price of the new LP First Songs, the record-buying public w[unclear] finally have a chance to hear brilliant and distinctive early works by some of its favorite pop composers. What follows is a preview of the album, which has already shipped plastic.

Big Kids at the End of the Block

By Bruce Springsteen

Too many yearsYou've been zipping up my pants, Mommy.Too many yearsWe've been dropping bricks on ants, Tommy.Got a hungry feeling,And I gotta let it show.And it feels just likeWhen I have to go.

(Chorus)Gonna get right on my tricycle,Where everything's all right.Gonna get right on my tricycleAnd pedal into the night.I'm gonna remember where I live,And I'm not gonna get lost.I'm gonna look both ways,And I'm gonna cross.Then I'll stick out my tongueAnd throw a rockAt the big kids at the end of the block.

© 1954 Bruce Springsteen

Help Me Make It Through The Night

By Kris Kristofferson

Take that clothespin off your nose.You can keep your little vest.Lay your body next to mine,But try not to itch my chest.Mommy never has to know.You'll leave with the morning light.Teddy, save me from the dark.Help me make it through the right.

Mommy says that I'm too old.If I am, I just don't care.There's a thunderstorm outside.Lord, tonight I need a bear.All I care about is now,And tomorrow's far from sight.Yesterday is hard to spell.Help me make it through the night.

© 1944 Kris Kristofferson

For Once in My Lunch

By Stevie Wonder

For once in my lunchI have somethin' worth eatingInside my brown paper bag.For once in my lunchTaste buds won't take a beating.This time I know I won't gag.For once Mom has packedWhat my heart used to dream ofAnd made my dreams come true,With somethin' fresh and new,Somethin' I can chew.

For once in my lunchThat old meat loaf won't hurt me,Not like it's hurt me before.For once in my lunchAppetite won't desert me.Mom must have gone to the store.For once I won't say,"This is mine, you can take it."Mom knows I hate liver.Then why does she make it?For once in my lunchI have somethin'I can eat.

© 1962 Stevie Wonder

I Crawl Around

By Brian Wilson

Round, round, crawl around.I crawl around.Yeah, crawl around.Ooh-ooh, I crawl around.

I crawl around (round, round, round, I crawl around)On the ground (round, round, round, round).I go where I please (round, round, round, round)On my hands and knees (round, round, round, I crawl around).

I'm gettin' bugged crawlin' up and down the same old rug.I gotta find a new place where there's Gerber's to chug.(Goo, goo, goo, goo, goo, goo, goo, goo, goo, goo, goo, goo, goo.)My reputation as an active tot is spreadin' 'cross town.Yeah, aunts and uncles try to catch me, but I just shut 'em down.

I crawl around (round, round, round, I crawl around)On the ground (round, round, round, round).I show 'em my back door (round, round, round, round)When I put four on the floor (round, round, round, I crawl around).

Round, round, crawl around.I crawl around.Yeah, crawl around.Ooh-ooh, I crawl around.

© 1943 Brian Wilson

Like a Rolling Cohen

By Bob Zimmerman

Once upon a time, you knew Abe Fine,You played with Sammy KleinAnd Joe Stein,Didn't you?

You ate kneydls, spun your dreydels,Sat at the tableWhile Mom shook her ladle,Forbiddin' you.

She said,"It's me you're killin'.Bobaleh, put away the farshtunkener guitar.Vat's vit dis 'Dylan'?"So you tell her,"I like to play."She slaps her foreheadAnd says, "Oy, vay!"And you're beginning to get the feelingThat she's about to launch into another spiel.

How does it feel?How does it feel?To be living at home,Like a complete unknown,Like a rolling Cohen.

© 1953 Bob Zimmerman

We may Never Pass This Grade Again

By Jim Seals and Dash Crofts

From the classrooms of first gradenessTo the green playgrounds of funness,In all there is a Oneness.In all there is a Oneness.

Yet greater be the wisenessOf the child who speaks with trueness:Oneness plus Oneness equals Twoness.Oneness plus Oneness equals Twoness.

© 1947 Jim Seals and Dash Crofts