I’m not a songwriter, and I’m definitely not a singer. I am a children’s poet, who just happened to write a children’s lullaby while swinging a grandchild.
This has an interesting backstory …
Years ago, as a new grandmother, I loved having my first grandson, Liam, at my house while my daughter did errands. I had a Little Tykes baby swing hanging in our screened porch and just before nap time, I put him in the swing to relax him.
One day, as I slowly rocked Liam, a little melody came to me and I hummed it in time with the swing. As the swing slowed down, so did my humming and Liam soon fell asleep.
As each grandchild followed, so did the hummed melody when the grandchild was in the swing. One afternoon, words came and they fit the melody perfectly. I softly hummed and sang, as my grandbaby fell asleep in the swing. When I picked him up to put him in bed, my daughter whispered from behind,
“Mom, I love the words. When did you write them?”
“Hi Beth. I didn’t really write them —-they just came to me today.” I whispered back.
“Well, I taped you and it’s on my phone. I’ll send it to your computer,” I thanked her for being so thoughtful, but I was hesitant to hear it —-I wasn’t aware anyone had been listening.
At the time, a German friend, Cedric, was helping me work on a website. I told him about “The Swinging Song”, thinking maybe we could add it somewhere on the children’s page of the website. He asked me to send it to him, so I did.
He later told me he had a friend with a sound studio who offered to re-record the song and add music to it. He said it wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be OK for a website page for children’s poetry.
He told Cedric, ideally I should come down to the sound studio and he would be glad to record it again, properly with the music. Germany was out of the question for me, so Cedric took the audio recording to his friend and he added the background music, including a mandolin.
Remember, this was NOT professionally recorded —just a nice surprise from my daughter with her cellphone catching me unaware ... and a German friend who had a friend with a sound studio. He added music to the song.
”Swinging Song” Lyrics
Bye oh bye up,
bye oh bye down.
Bye oh bye feet,
way off the ground.
Swing-ing, swing-ing,
I love swing-ing.
Bye oh bye high,
bye oh bye low.
Bye oh bye faster,
look at me go.
Swing-ing, swing-ing,
I love swing-ing.
Bye oh bye fly
up to the sky.
Bye oh bye push me
higher than high.
Swing-ing, swing-ing,
I love swing-ing.
Bye oh bye eyes
are closing now
bye oh bye head
is nodding down
Swing-ing, swing-ing,
I love swing-ing.
Bye oh bye gently,
bye oh bye slow,
bye oh bye, shhhhh,
To sleep I go.
(whispering as swing slows down)
Swing-ing, swing-ing,
I
love
swing-ing.
I am going to sing that to Frankie 🥰. Btw, you can sing 🎶💜
This is truly beautiful .So sweet and loving . from the grandmother to Liam . Great voice and recording . Hugs to you C.J. great job