CD Picks: Tom Arma's Animal Songs

By Nicholas Moreau

• Tom Arma's Animal Songs, et. al
• Producer: Madacy Kids/Madacy Latino
• Age: Newborn and up
• Approximately 40 minutes each
• CD SRP $7.98
• Available August 24, 2004
• Includes non-commercial public performance rights.

This week, Madacy Kids released Tom Arma's Please Save the Animals Animal Songs, in which all of the tracks are classic tunes starring winged, scaled, and furry friends.

This title joins three other new English-language releases in the Tom Arma line, Playtime Songs, Heavenly Lullabies, and Christmas Favourites. Also released are Spanish titles Primeras Canciones, Mis Animalitos, Colores, Formas y Números, and Pequeña Navidad.

The songs are all wonderfully performed by the Countdown Kids, not Tom Arma, as I had originally thought. If you don't know who Tom Arma is, like I didn't, you can read below the article.

"We are happy to have Tom's name and photography grace such a lovely line of children's entertainment products," said Julie Ann Arma, of Tom Arma Studio, Inc.

Animal Songs or Mis Animalitos features great sing-along songs, Playtime Songs compiles playtime favourites, over an hour of soothing lullabies in Heavenly Lullabies or Primeras Canciones, and instrumental favourites of classic carols on Christmas Favorites or Pequeña Navidad. Colores, Formas y Números features songs teaching the concepts of colours, shapes, and numbers.

Curious is the recording of "B-I-N-G-O". Generally letters are taken off the start of the dog's name, in Animal Songs, letters are taken off the end. This version actually might make the song slightly easier to sing.

Also, each CD comes with a bonus growth chart and screensaver.

Track List

1. B-I-N-G-O
2. The Bear Went Over The Mountain
3. The Animal Fair
4. Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone
5. Baa-Baa Black Sheep
6. Five Little Monkeys
7. Home On The Range
8. Had A Little Rooster
9. The Ants Go Marching
10. Hickory, Dickory, Dock
11. Three Little Kittens
12. Fiddle-Dee-Dee
13. Six Little Ducks
14. The Crocodile
15. This Little Pig
16. Mary Had A Little Lamb
17. Pop Goes The Weasel
18. The Farmer In The Dell
19. The Bear
20. There Was A Bee-i-ee-i-ee

Who is Tom Arma?

So who is Tom Arma? Going in, I had no clue to who he was, but perhaps I'm alone on this. Much to my surprise, Tom is one of the world's foremost baby photographers.

Mr. Popular: Where to find Tom's photos

Starting as a staff photographer at the New York Daily News, Tom covered many of the decade's biggest stories, everything Woodstock and the Beatles, to Nixon's rise and fall. Moving to the newspaper's magazine, he photographed Hollywood luminaries like Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, and Michael Caine.

Opening his own studio in the seventies, he found his niche capturing the uninhibited beauty of children. Appearing on the covers of magazines, advertising campaigns, calendars, and 34 often best-selling books, Arma was the spark lighting America's fire for costumed babies. The New York Times has even declared him as being "[t]he most published baby photographer in the world."

To express his ecological concerns, Tom created the Please Save The Animals line. Tom gives back to many charities, and is proud to support the National Wildlife Foundation.

Tom Arma's photos appear on address labels, calendars, CDs, checks, coveralls, disposable diapers, dolls, gift bags, greeting cards, growth charts, Halloween costumes ("...the Armani of the kiddy costume world." - Wall Street Journal), journals, layettes, magazine covers, pictures books, posters, puzzles, screensavers, and stationery.

About the Author:

Canadian graphic designer Nick Moreau remains in touch with family entertainment, despite his demographic, which would skew to suggest elsewise.

From 2001 through to 2003, Nick actively maintained categories in the DMOZ web directory, including ones for Captain Kangaroo, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, American Dreams, Canadian flags, comedian/voice actor Louie Anderson, and independant US TV stations.

For a short time, Nick managed the Sesame Street, Sesame Park, and Play with Me Sesame listings on TV.com (then TV Tome).

He quickly moved on to Suite 101, where he wrote on Children's Television/Family Entertainment from April 2003 to September 2005, and the Academy Awards from October 2004 to August 2005.

During his time at Suite, he started writing for the Wikipedia Encyclopedia. In total he has contributed over 13,000 edits to the project, and acts as an administrator on the site. He is the Canadian press contact for the site, appearing in newspapers, magazines, and on television shows worldwide.

Article courtesy of http://www.suite101.com.