Songs you can trick your kids into liking

Songs you can trick your kids into liking
Flickr/Zenia
Songs you can trick your kids into liking
Flickr/Zenia

Songs you can trick your kids into liking

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.
(Flickr/Zenia)

If you have little kids, you likely have succumbed to Endless Hours of Kids Music.

A lot of it’s clever, some of it’s catchy and you may at first say you enjoy it. But after the 10,000th time listening to your son or daughter’s favorite CD, you may be, well, singing a different tune — one not accompanied by the lyrics “the wheels on the bus go round and round.”

But there is a way out.

Trick your kids into thinking adults songs are actually kids songs about their favorite topics: superheroes, scary creatures, animals and, the easiest category, trains. Even if, in many cases, the songs have nothing to do with what your kid thinks they’re about.

Here, then, four mixes for you … and your kids. (Edited versions of some songs allowed.)

THE SUPERHEROES MIX

1. Waitin’ for a Superman — The Flaming Lips

2. Superman — R.E.M.

3. Heroes — David Bowie

4. Superhero — Ani Difranco

5. Superhero — Jane’s Addiction

6. (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman — The Kinks

7. Spiderman — Jill Sobule

8. Heroes and Villains — The Beach Boys

9. My Hero — Foo Fighters

10. Superman — Snoop Dogg (featuring Willie Nelson)

THE SCARY CREATURES MIX

1. Monster  — Kanye West

2. Monster Hospital — Metric

3. Thriller — Michael Jackson

4. Vampire Blues — Neil Young

5. Ghost! — Kid Cudi

6. Dracula — Gorillaz

7. Wicked Old Witch — John Fogerty

8. Monster — Lil Wayne

9. Werewolf — Cat Power

10. Just About Anything by The Misfits

THE ANIMALS MIX

1. I am the Walrus — Beatles

2. Wild Horses — Rolling Stones

3. Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses? — U2

4. Jungleland — Bruce Springsteen

5. Welcome to the Jungle — Guns N’ Roses

6. Brass Monkey — Beastie Boys

7. Funny Little Frog — Belle and Sebastian

8. The Beast in Me — Johnny Cash

9. Buggin’ Out — A Tribe Called Quest

10. Dog Days Are Over — Florence & The Machine

THE TRAINS MIX (There are hundreds more to choose from)

1. Midnight Train to Georgia — Gladys Knight and the Pips

2. That Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore — Los Lobos

3. 5:15 — Chris Isaak

4. Slow Train — Bob Dylan

5. Train in the Distance — Paul Simon

6. Train Kept A Rollin’ — Yardbirds

7. Downtown Train — Tom Waits

8. Hear My Train A Comin’ — Jimi Hendrix

9. Train From Kansas City — Superchunk

10. Crazy Train — Ozzy Osbourne

Got any songs to add? Leave them below in the comments.