A little while back, on a whim, I downloaded Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George, a set of songs by crunchy-mellow-surferdude Jack Johnson. I haven’t seen the movie and I don’t own any other Johnson albums, but my kid went through a Curious George phase, so I figured he might like it.

I’m somewhat embarrassed to reveal that he’s not the only one. In the shower the other day I found myself humming:

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If you have two
Give one to your friend
If you have three
Give one to your friend and me
It’s always more fun
To share with everyone

I can’t help it. It’s catchy!

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Anyway, most "kid music" is utterly insipid, so it’s nice to find something for the boy that’s just simple and good.

I bring all this up because a fairly strong environmental theme runs throughout the disc — Johnson is a long-time greenie — and the subject of pop songs came up a while back. Here are the lyrics to "The Three R’s," a spin-off of the Schoolhouse Rocks classic "Three Is a Magic Number":

Three it’s a magic number
Yes it is, it’s a magic number
Because two times three is six
And three times six is eighteen
And the eighteenth letter in the alphabet is R
We’ve got three R’s we’re going to talk about today
We’ve got to learn to
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
If you’re going to the market to buy some juice
You’ve got to bring your own bags and you learn to reduce your waste
And if your brother or your sister’s got some cool clothes
You could try them on before you buy some more of those
Reuse, we’ve got to learn to reuse
And if the first two R’s don’t work out
And if you’ve got to make some trash
Don’t throw it out
Recycle, we’ve got to learn to recycle,
We’ve got to learn to
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Because three it’s a magic number
Yes it is, it’s a magic number
3, 3, 3
3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36
33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, and
3, it’s a magic number

Sing along at home!

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Update [2006-4-30 23:53:40 by David Roberts]: Apparently Johnson also started a foundation to bring environmental education to Hawaii’s schools.

(Thanks, Lea!)