Kidiscography, 1960

Trade once followed the flag; nowadays it trails the cradle. One result: more children's records every year. Among the relatively few good ones on the market:

Mother Goose (Cyril Ritchard, Celeste Holm, Boris Karloff; Caedmon). Arch without being cute, this trio skips through the old rhymes like verbal jump ropes. In gleeful self-amazement, Actor Ritchard triple-tongues Peter Piper's pickled peppers ("I didn't break down, you see"). Hershy Kay's musical punctuation is pert and pertinent, unfailingly delights, never intrudes.

Richard Wagner: His Story and His Music (Vox). This is a handsome way for a musically receptive child to meet a master. The dissonances of Wagner's life are scanted, but the sonic sensuousness of his work is served boldly, briefly and well.

A Christmas Carol (Sir Ralph Richardson; Caedmon). Dickens conceivably wrote the first Christmas sermon against the commercial spirit. As Scrooge, the "man of worldly mind," Sir Ralph is delectably mean and deliciously remorseful. He almost banishes that spirit of Christmas past, Lionel Barrymore.

Peter and the Wolf (Beatrice Lillie; London Symphony Orchestra; London). The ineffable Bea seems to take Prokofiev's fable with what Max Beerbohm called "a stalactite of salt." Her impish spoofery is just what this staid and somewhat self-conscious classic now needs.

Hoorah for the Red, White and Blue! (Golden). A masculine. 14-song choral salute to flag and country (The Caissons Go Rolling Along, The Halls of Montezuma) that goes off with a rousing, old-fashioned Fourth of July bang.

Let's Play a Musical Game (Tom Glazer, William Keene, Sally Sweetland, Arthur Malvin; Columbia). This crew, especially the infectiously good-natured Tom Glazer, commands something no parent does—instant obedience. In this superior participation record, children are invited to put their fingers "in the air, in the air," pretend to lead orchestras, and "do a little square dance two by two."

The Story of Jazz (narrated by Langston Hughes; Folkways). A neatly telescoped chronicle of the U.S.'s greatest native art form from Basin Street to Birdland. Using segments of historic recordings, Narrator Hughes gets thumping, jumping assistance from Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Bunk Johnson et al. Folkways also offers a vast additional library of musical lore from West Indies calypso to Ghana folk tales.

Burl Ives Sings "Little White Duck" and Other Children's Favorites (Columbia). Big Daddy thrums his guitar and sings Mr. Froggie Went A-Courtin', The Grey Goose, and the rest, with a voice that is clear as a mountain stream and cozy as sitting by the fire. In the path of Burl's music, the weather of a child's mind seems to turn sunny, rapt, calm.

Song and Play Time with Pete Seeger (Folkways). Only a tossed coin could choose between Burl Ives and Pete Seeger in folk-song appeal. Purists may find Seeger's numbers a shade more authentic or the twang of his guitar a trifle more personable.