Philadelphia Chickens: The Imaginary Children’s Broadway Musical Revue that I Could Play on Repeat
A torch song to chocolate chip cookies.
A diva’s belting song about the pleasure of being contrary.
A jazzy pajama time dance party.
There is a lot to love about Philadelphia Chickens: A Too-Illogical Zoological Musical Revue from Sandra Boynton and Micheal Ford!!!
From Amazon.com:
Grammy nominee. #1 New York Times bestseller. And, with 960,000 copies in print, a Recording Industry Association of America Platinum album. What an event! What a show! It’s Philadelphia Chickens—the catchy and quirky, tuneful and toe-tapping, exuberant, unexpected, and totally endearing family-musical-in-a-book.
Go Get It!
This is one book/cd combo that I encourage everyone to just go out and buy! (I acquired a used copy at a local secondhand toy shop.) But, if you’d like a preview…try listening to the album on Spotify here. Many of the songs are also on YouTube.
Philadelphia Chickens Track List from Wikipedia:
| Title | Performer | Style | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cows | The Seldom Herd | Broadway chorus line |
| 2 | Nobody Understands Me | Meryl Streep | Slow jazz |
| 3 | Philadelphia Chickens | The Bacon Brothers | Swing |
| 4 | Be Like A Duck | Keith Boynton | |
| 5 | Please, Can I Keep it | Laura Linney | |
| 6 | Snuggle Puppy | Eric Stoltz | |
| 7 | I Like To Fuss | Patti LuPone | Broadway |
| 8 | Snoozers | The Bacon Brothers | Folk song |
| 9 | Faraway Cookies | Caitlin McEwan | Torch song |
| 10 | The Intermission Song! | Aaaardvarks | Barbershop quartet |
| 11 | Fifteen Animals | John Stey | |
| 12 | Belly Button (Round) | The Heath Sisters | N/A |
| 13 | BusyBusyBusy | Kevin Kline | Patter Song / Gilbert and Sullivan |
| 14 | Those Dinosaur Blues | Michael Ford | Blues |
| 15 | Dinosaur, Dinosaur | Darcy Boynton | Jump-rope rhyme |
| 16 | Jump Rope Jive | Beth Andrien | Andrews Sisters |
| 17 | Pig Island | Scott Bakula | Jimmy Buffett / Calypso |
| 18 | Pajama Time | Adam Bryant | Elvis Presley / Bubblegum Pop |
| 19 | Silly Lullaby | Natasha Richardson | Lullaby |
| 20 | Philadelphia Chickens 2 | (instrumental reprise) |
Philadelphia Chickens….The First of Now 5 Book/Cd Sets.
Philadelphia Chickens was the first–and in my opinion, the best by a long shot–of the Boynton musical revues. But, if you can’t get enough you can check out:
- Blue Moo: 17 Jukebox Hits from Way Back Never ~Try #13 – Rabbit Tango
- Frog Trouble: and Eleven other Pretty Serious Songs (the country album) ~ Try #2 – Trucks
- Rhinoceros Tap: 15 Seriously Silly Songs ~ Try #6 – Tropical Sand
- Dog Train: A Wild Ride on the Rock-and-Roll Side ~ Try #8 – I Need a Nap
Philadelphia Chickens on Stage!
I used the track “Faraway Cookies” for a ballet dance with my Kindergarteners in our end-of-the-year showcase. This song about the frustrating longing of not being tall enough to reach the chocolate chip cookies sitting on a high shelf was absolutely perfect for letting these natural actors use their dancer bodies to tell a story. I leave you with two pictures of my dancers enjoying Philadelphia Chickens:
Reaching for the jar of cookies on: “I’m not tall enough…”
Stomping out their frustration on the words: “…to reach them myself.”
Happy Dancing! ~ Ms. Linda
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