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Crown Publishers, Published 1987. Spiral bound hardcover, 106 pp.; 29 cm; First United States Edition (with full number line); illustrated with watercolors by Joyce Yamamoto, reproductions of children's crayon and marker drawings, and black-and-white concert photographs.
In Very Good condition. Glossy green and red pictorial paper over boards show mild shelf wear, with light bumping to edges and corners. Wire spiral intact and undistorted, pages clean and unmarked. Raffi Cavoukian, born in Cairo in 1948 to Armenian parents, emigrated with his family to Toronto in 1958 and gave his first children's concert in 1974 at a nursery school. He recorded "Singable Songs for the Very Young" in 1976 in a friend's basement studio on a $4,000 bank loan and distributed it himself; A&M took over distribution in 1984 and the record has since sold more than a million copies. This book collects the 51 songs from that record and its two successors, "More Singable Songs" (1977) and "The Corner Grocery Store" (1979), among them "Down by the Bay," "Brush Your Teeth," "Willoughby Wallaby Woo," and "Shake My Sillies Out." Raffi has never advertised or marketed directly to children, declined a proposed "Baby Beluga" film on those grounds, and received the Fred Rogers Integrity Award from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood in 2006. A crayon legend keys each song to its album by the color of a crayon stripe beside the title; the additional illustrations are credited to children from across Canada and reproduced with their first names. Piano arrangements by David Tanner; chord symbols, guitar and ukulele diagrams, and Raffi's notes on key changes and capo positions. Songs copyright 1980 by Homeland Publishing.