Ask my mom and she’ll vouch for it. Whenever The Beatles’ “All Together Now” hit the turntable, the 9-year-old me lost all control and bounced off the walls. So, the infectious ditty was high on my list of songs to introduce to my son early.
Apparently, we’re not alone in our love for this usually overlooked “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack gem. There’s a new board book and CD for kids called “All Together Now: Beatles Stuff for Kids of All Ages,” from Little Monster/V2 Records.
The colorful book features poems with names borrowed from Lennon/McCartney classics (“Hello Goodbye,” “Love Me Do,” etc.) and whimsical kids’ drawings. The disc features the likes of Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle, The Bangles, Marshall Crenshaw and Rachael Yamagata doing Fab Four tunes especially aimed at wee ones. All of the featured performers sing alongside kids.
While kids will like hearing the other kids sing, it’s a shame that producer Kevin Salem and the performers didn’t take a little creative license. The songs are pretty much straight-up readings and I know that I will enjoy the originals of “And Your Bird Can Sing,” “Yellow Submarine” and “Birthday” (to name but three) more. Kids voices or not, my son likely won’t like the originals any less than these fun, but excessively safe, versions.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
