Spring is a popular season for many events, including festivals in local school districts across the United States. Perhaps the least appreciated, save for loving parents and grandparents, are the annual performances of various children’s choirs.
Generally, people enjoy spontaneous singing by children more than a weakened organized performance under adult supervision. The presence of adults tends to deplete the carefree joy of children singing while they play, one of the main reasons few children’s songs have become lasting hits.
However, some children’s voices are heard on some popular records, including one from an album that also won multiple Grammy Awards. In that particular case, the child can be heard crying instead of singing.
No one would expect that hit to come from Alice Cooper and, in fact, it wasn’t from that ghoulish hard rocker who did. Welcome to my nightmare. However, Alice Cooper possesses the distinction of including more children’s voices in her discography than any other artist in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
His first instance of including children’s voices came, appropriately enough, in his hit title track. School exit album. The children can be heard cheering near the end, when Alice declares that “school is completely over …”
An individual child can be heard asking a question in a song from the minor hit “The Ballad of Dwight Frye” from the album, Love him to death. “Mommy, where’s Daddy?” says the boy. “He’s been away for so long.”
Welcome to my nightmare contains the hit Department of Youth, “featuring children singing in the choir. The voices belong to Dave Ezrin and the Summerhill Children’s Choir, who baffle Cooper when the song wears off.
After the chorus line that says, “We have the power,” Alice yells, “and who gave it to you?” In unison they respond: “Donny Osmond!” prompting Cooper to jokingly yell at them.
Here are five other popular songs that feature children’s voices.
Playground in my mind by Clint Homes
This hit hit the Top Ten, in part because the kids refrained from saying “My name is Michael, they gave me a nickel, they gave me a shiny new nickel.”
dear God by XTC
A boy representing a young Andy Partridge sings the first verse of this anti-religious hit whose success was aided by a disturbing video, highlighted by Partridge himself carrying a hammer to a tree filled with a stereotypical family.
The pros and cons of hitchhiking by Roger Waters
Actor Brandon De Wilde, who played the young son in the Western classic. Shane, you should get credit for the child’s voice in this title track. After the Pink Floyd frontman mentions Dick Tracy and the film’s main character, De Wilde can be heard telling Alan Ladd, “Mommy loves you.”
Great Bear by Elton John
Rocket Man employs the talents of the Watford football team and Audley Street Girls’ Choir for backing vocals on this track A single man, his first release after the departure of his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin.
Sure by Gilbert O ‘Sullivan
The girl after whom the song was written can be heard laughing towards the end of this Top Ten hit, shortly after “Alone Again, Naturally” reached number one.
Isn’t it lovely? by Stevie Wonder
Songs in the key of life spawned numerous hits on its way to number one, including this ode to Wonder’s newborn daughter, who can be heard crying on the song.