30: A Man and a Woman Had a Little Baby

30. "Three Is a Magic Number" by Bob Dorough [Video: Three Is a Magic Number.]

When I first started compiling this list, almost two years ago, my oldest daughter had just turned five years old, and my son had just turned three. A lot has happened in the two years hence, including the birth of my second daughter.

At the time I started making the HondoJoe Top 200, this song, "Three Is a Magic Number," meant so much to me because of the connection it had between me and my oldest daughter, Roni. When she was little, before she could even walk, when she would see me at the computer she would request to "watch Numbers." No, this was not the television show starring David Krumholtz as a genius crime-solving mathematician. "Numbers" is what Roni called the video for "Three Is a Magic Number."

So, I would set her up on my knee and we would watch "Numbers." We did this many, many, many times. Usually we would follow it up by watching "Dancing Guys." ("Dancing Guys" was the video to "Here I Go Again" by OK Go.)

So, aside from the fact that "Three Is a Magic Number" evokes childhood memories of my own from watching it when I was a kid, the song has a much deeper meaning to me now. (One of my favorite parts is when big number "30" crashes through the doorway. When this happened I would always shake the chair a bit and make a little wall-crashing sound.)

But, as I said, since I started making this list, a number of other songs have had deep and meaningful connections with my children, and although these songs didn't make the HondoJoe Top 200, I felt I should give them a bit of a shout out. Here they are:

"Robot Parade" by They Might Be Giants For several months in a row my son Buzz would request this song as his go to bed music. Of course, he couldn't pronounce the name of the song, so the requests would be for "O-bah Away." "In a future time, children will work together to build a giant cyborg."

"The Hoppity Song" by John Ondrasik John Ondrasik is the name of the singer from Five For Fighting. "The Hoppity Song" comes from an album my wife got for me called "For the Kids," which featured songs for children by modern rock music artists. Both kids, but especially Buzz, loved this song and requested it often as night-time music.

"On a Carousel" by Glass Moon This song was released back in 1982 and only made it as high as #50 on the charts. (It turns out it's a remake of a song by the Hollies that reached #11 back in 1967.) I remembered the Glass Moon version from when I was in high school, and I had it on a cd in the car. It played a few times as I was driving Buzz to preschool, and then he latched onto it. He started requesting it every time we got in the car to take him to or from preschool or his speech therapy. So, I've heard "On a Carousel" many, many times in the past six months. (Roni jokes that it is "Anna Carousel," but not "Elsa Carousel," after the two main characters from the movie Frozen.)

"Swingin'" by John Anderson This one is just starting to catch on. Why? "Little Charlotte, she's as pretty as the angels when they sing. I can't believe she's sittin' in our front room in her swing, just a swingin'." Yes, those lyrics are altered a bit, but little Charlotte is as pretty as the angels when they sing.

The entire soundtrack from the movie Frozen Have you heard of the movie Frozen? Have you heard the soundtrack to the movie Frozen? I've heard the soundtrack at a rate higher than the number of salad plates Anna and Elsa have. (That number is 8,000, for those of you who have heard the soundtrack less than 8,000 times.) Both of my older kids love this soundtrack, and they can't seem to "let it go."

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