To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, we’re cataloging 25 objects that define the country’s history.
Remember Columbia House music records subscriptions, the mail-order music?
In the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, children had a similar service called Young People’s Records (YPR).
Songs were about all sorts of subjects, from fire trucks, to American history, to farming to lumberjacks. And they included contributors like folk musicians Pete Seeger and Tom Glazer, and children’s book author Margaret Wise Brown.
In just a couple of years, YPR became a hit with more than 100,000 subscribers and more than a million vinyls in monthly sales.
Now, the entire collection has been donated to the Smithsonian Institution.
Maureen Loughran, curator and director of Smithsonian Folkways, joined Here & Now’s Scott Tong to discuss what made YPR special and why the songs resonate today.
What is the origin story of this service?
“YPR was founded in 1946 in New York City by Horace Grenell, who was a musician and also educator, and his wife Judith Sidorsky was also an educator. And she noticed that children really loved music, but they loved music that made them move. And so she influenced her husband to start this record company in which they provided music for children, songs that they would appreciate. And really, it’s from a progressive education point of view.
‘I think that at the time, a lot of adults, parents, thought that kids liked nursery rhymes. Things like Mother Goose. And really, what Horace and his wife were doing were creating songs and music that told the story of these kids’ everyday lives. Things that they witnessed. A fireman or the firetruck coming down the street. We can learn through singing.”
What do the songs tell us about the country at the time?
“If you look at the song, ‘Timber-r-r!’ about lumberjacks, many times do you think a kid in the middle of New York City would’ve encountered a lumberjack? Probably not often at all. But it allowed them to imagine worlds that they didn’t live in, but also introduce them to other parts of the country. A kid in Michigan might have encountered a lumberjack, right? So then that’s telling their experience through this music.
“When you look at the catalog, it really does show you a little bit of a window into what life was like — what people imagined life to be like — in the 1950s. What their experience might have been.”
Why does this matter to the story of America?
“I think for us, at least at Smithsonian Folkways, since we are the record label here at the Smithsonian, our goal is to have these labels that join our collection that do tell the story of America. And this is a particular window into mid-20th century United States history. But through the lens of a child’s eye. I think that the songs that are included here, they’re very catchy. They’re very much like inviting you to sing along and join the story.
“What I also love about them is that they remind you, too, of the progression of media at the time. If you know a little bit about radio plays from the 1930s and 40s, you can hear that in these songs. You can hear these little skits and stories, and they draw you in.”
This interview has been edited for clarity.
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Will Walkey produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Walkey also adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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