Children's songs

We can trace songs written especially for children back to at least 1968, and they continued to appear until well into the new century. Some might argue that these songs ought to be considered part of Leon's standard body of work, and many of them do surface at various points in his main discography.

While it must be said that a number of these songs, such as "Flying High, Flying Free", or "Why Does it Have to be Me?" are fine technical compositions, on the whole, his children's compositions don't tend to aspire to the same artistic goals as his usual work, often being comparatively simplistic in tune and lyrics. For this reason they are better viewed as a sub-set, as outlined below.

In surveying these children's songs and songwriting projects, formulating a strict chronology is awkward due to the time span of the work, and the fact that the projects do not make for a neatly linear process. All of the songs below are somehow collaborative, and so we sort them into categories, based on the nature of the commissions.


Songs given to Roy Bailey


Oats & Beans & Kangaroos (LP)

This 1968 LP was Roy Bailey's first "solo" album (actually recorded with his wife, Val). Leon played on the album and also donated two songs for it, which he would later record himself, but which at this point were brand new:

Why Does It Have to Be Me? (CD)

In 1989 (more than 20 years after Oats & Beans & Kangaroos), Roy Bailey made his second children’s album, pulling in no fewer than eight Leon songs old and new, with many of them fairly obscure. Already released elsewhere were “Kangaroos Like to Hop”, “Song of the Clock”, “Free to Roam”, "Flying High, Flying Free" and “Why Does It Have to Be Me?”. Of the three others, two are known to have been written contemporaneously for Inter-Action ("Skin" and "Vitamin Dance"), leaving only one song completely new to the public:
Up The Wooden Hill (CD)

Another release, in 2001, was the album, Up The Wooden Hill, which contained a version of "One, Two Three", plus a song not available as a recording anywhere else:

Songs written for Inter-Action


Writing for community theatre

Most of Leon's writing for Inter-Action was done in the period 1970-72, when he was being funded to work with the community arts group. Almost all of his known output consisted of children's songs, but there are five which were not apparently written for children, and which feature on his main LPs (these being, "Full Marks For Charlie", "The Man Who Puffs The Big Cigar", "Plan", "Song Of The Mother Xmas Union" and "That's The Way The Wheels Turn").
 
We can itemise 22 children's songs for Inter-Action, with varying degrees of documentation. Due to its length, the list of songs is somewhat overburdening to the reader and so we can split the list into songs known in some audio form, and songs not known at all on disc.
Songs which have been recorded at some stage:
Note: As mentioned above, "Can Anyone Tell Me That" has never been recorded by Leon, but is available to hear on a Roy Bailey album.

There is one more title from the 1970-72 era, which we list here although it is not directly related:
Songs which have never been recorded to date:
Game-songs with Prof Dogg's Troupe

This 1980 book of songs included Leon's "One Two Three", and a seemingly new song, "We're Going to Make A Circus". However, the latter is an amended version of Leon's "We're Going to be in a Movie" (see list above), the adaptation of which presumably did not have anything directly to do with him. Nevertheless, it is copyrighted to Leon, and so we detail it as a separate title. Re-publications (as pictured, right) have included cassette and CD editions of the songs, but Leon is not featured on any of the tracks.

New Game-songs and Healthy Learning Songs

Leon is believed to have written eight or so songs for these 1989 books, but only a few are confirmed to us, as yet. "Skin" was written for Healthy Learning Songs, which also had an accompanying cassette. Given its theme, "Vitamin Dance" would also have fitted, and might have been included.

The other period book is New Game Songs, Activities and Projects which may include the third of Leon's songs.

His known 1989-era Inter-Action songs are:

Work with Sheena Roberts and Playsongs


Between 1987 and 2000, Leon worked repeatedly with Sheena Roberts and her Playsongs Publications organisation, which produced music for children. Leon's input is varied, and the details below are possibly incomplete.

Birds and Beasts: Animal Songs, Games and Activities (1987)

This appears to be a songbook produced for schools, without accompanying audio. As well as the older “Kangaroos Like to Hop”, it contains two Leon songs then new to the public, fitting the book's theme:

Playsongs: Action Songs and Rhymes for babies and Toddlers (1987)

This book was originally published without audio, but was reprinted in 1991 with the addition of a cassette containing some 52 songs, especially recorded by Leon and Sandra Kerr. (Sandra Kerr had previously released her own versions of "Kangaroos Like to Hop" and "Why Does it Have to be Me?" on the 1983 album, Supermum.) The package was later republished again, with a CD version of the music. 50 of the songs are non-originals. Leon’s two are also oldies, but in new versions: “One, Two, Three” and “Kangaroos Like to Hop”.


The Green Umbrella (1991)         

It is unclear if this volume was published with any sort of audio media. It centres on environmental issues and is known to include the following song:


Two more Playsongs books

Also in the Playsongs series, Sheena Roberts produced two new books in 1995: Sleepytime Playsongs and Livelytime Playsongs. Each was accompanied by an audio cassette to which Leon contributed. The recordings in both cases feature Leon with Sandra Kerr and Janet Russell. Both sets were subsequently re-issued on CD. 

Livelytime Playsongs included no Leon compositions, but Sleepytime Playsongs did include one new tune:


Two 'animals' CDs

In 2000, Leon made two new children's recordings for release on CDs issued by Playsongs. Both are solo acoustic numbers, although several other artists (including Sandra Kerr again) appear on the CDs.

Five Little Owls contained 20 recordings, including one of Leon’s own, the text of which had previously appeared as a printed poem in the book, All Aboard (Collins Educational, 1998):
(Collins Educational also printed another of Leon's poems in 1998, but this has not apparently appeared anywhere as a song (yet).)
                            

Five Little Frogs contained 20 more recordings including one of Leon’s own songs, which he performs himself:
The nature of the above commissions is slightly confusing. Both of these songs were apparently written for Inter-Action (according to the songbook, Turning Silence Into Song, p89), but how Inter-Action and Playsong Publications cross over is not too clear.

* “Splish, Splash , Splosh”, “Mystery Bus Ride” and “Five Purple Elephants” are all available for download as MP3 files, along with their parent albums.


There is another of Leon's songs believed to be associated with these projects, although details remain unclear at present:

A Brontosaurus Chorus


This final work does not seem to fit with any of the above projects, and appears to be a stand-alone commission.

The book was by Catherine Baker (Ed), and published by Methuen Young in 1991. It consisted of an anthology of dinosaur poems with contributions from Spike Milligan among others, and Leon contributed one of his own. (We count it as a song rather than a poem, since Leon has subsequently recorded it as such.)


SUmmary

How to make sense of so many projects and releases? Those wanting to hear all of Leon's children's songs will have a task on their hands trying to locate copies.

To make matters considerably easier, Leon recorded twelve of these children's songs in 1994 and released them as Questions (which is treated as a standard album elsewhere on this site). A decade later his CD, The Greatest Drummer In The World was released with four new children's songs on - it is also included as a full release elsewhere.

For details of these two Children's collections, click the images below.
These two CDs gather the bulk of the available songs (ignoring the fact that different recordings sometimes exist). Three more titles designated as children's songs above turn up in the main discography (see That's Not The Way It's Got To Be and Temporary Loss of Vision for "School Taught Me", "They're Going to Build a Motorway" and "Penny for the Guy").

What remains beyond these releases are five compositions which can be heard in some form, somewhere:

  • Can Anyone Tell Me That? - available on Roy Bailey's Up The Wooden Hill
  • We're Going To Make A Circus - available on the CD which came with the book, Game-songs
  • Splish, Splash, Splosh - available as a download or on the CD, Sleepytime Playsongs
  • Mystery Bus Ride - available as a download or on the CD, Five Little Owls
  • Five Purple Elephants - available as a download or on the CD, Five Little Frogs

Published on paper but not audio are "All By Yourself", "Vitamin Song" and most of the listed Inter-Action songs detailed above.