Wee Sing Turns 25

Back in 1977, Pamela Beall and Susan Nipp were young mothers and former music teachers living in Portland, Ore. Eager to share traditional children's songs with their own kids, Beall and Nipp were surprised at the dearth of appropriate songbooks on the market. So the duo decided to put together their own collection, and the book Wee Sing Children's Songs and Fingerplays was born.

In just two years, Beall and Nipp sold 20,000 copies of their self-published book, prompting Price Stern Sloan to acquire the Wee Sing property, which allowed Beall and Nipp to add three more books to the line in the subsequent three years. Sing-along audio tapes, a natural extension of the Wee Sing line, were first packaged with the books in 1981. Video followed next in the expansion, with the release of Wee Sing Together in 1985.

Throughout the series' growth, Beall and Nipp remained true to their objectives of creating "a fun, entertaining and educational series with products that are musically correct, in a singable range for children, have a variety of instrumentation and voicings, include movement and activities, and are easy to use for children, educators and parents." Their philosophy has more than caught on. Wee Sing titles are still going strong and to date have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.

Price Stern Sloan, now part of Penguin Putnam, is marking Wee Sing's musical milestone with Wee Sing 25th Anniversary Celebration (Mar.), a book-and-audio compilation of greatest hits that contains such favorites as "If You're Happy and You Know It," "Head and Shoulders" and "This Little Pig Went to Market." In addition, eight classic backlist titles, including Wee Sing Silly Songs and Wee Sing for Baby, have received makeovers and are now available as revamped (featuring new art) book-and-cassette or book-and-CD-plus-cassette packages.