BA BA BLACK SHEEP - The Story, The Song & The Video
A few years ago, I had the distinct honor of being asked to play at my friend's son's first birthday party. I couldn't think of a more delightful way to spend some time on a Sunday afternoon. It had been a while since I'd last played for little ones and the night before the party, I decided to brush up on some kids songs. I pulled out my guitar and Rise Up Singing, the world's greatest songbook, and ran through the Children's Songs section. I chose about 10 songs just in case he had a long attention span.
After I played that perennial favorite Ba Ba Black Sheep, I was struck by the fact that only the little boy got a bag of wool and ran down the lane; no little girl got her wool. I decided to remedy this clear shortcoming of this otherwise charming song. Once I got started, I just couldn't stop…
The song was a hit at the birthday party. At the time, I had been working on some new material with John Guth, a wonderful musician/producer in New York. I asked John to work on it (more precisely, I asked him to "Guth" it), with the thought that I could include it as a bonus track for the Custom Children's Songs I create. Patrick designed an adorable cover and I released it as a single on CDBaby and iTunes, as well as posting it on SoundCloud and Radio AirPlay.
The result continues to be nothing short of extraordinary. Without a word of publicity or social media buzz, this little song has been played and downloaded more than any of my other songs. Maybe even more than all of my other songs COMBINED.
The other thing that is downright incredible is that the song is being passed around from mother to child, father to brother, family to family. And while it is popular in the United States, it is even MORE popular in Pakistan! I love the thought that children in India, Australia, United Kingdom, Africa, France, Spain and Asia have Ba Ba Black Sheep in common.
It tickled Patrick's creative inner child so much that he set out to make a video with the same sense of silliness as the song. I got to throw in my 2-cents...and right hand.
It was great fun for us...and we hope it will be great fun for you. So grab the nearest child...or your own inner child...and prepare to meet the new herd in town.