delight
Toddler Loves Telling Stories, So Music-Teacher Dad Turns Them Into THE Catchiest Bops Ever
A music lecturer turns his 3-year-old's whimsy into radio-ready songs, and millions have fallen in love with a family moment that started at the piano.
His songs are born inside the imagination of a three-year-old girl.
But thanks to her music-teacher father, the songs—like, Purple Bear Princess— are enjoying a long life on social media, becoming viral sensations whenever Stephen Spencer transforms his daughter’s musings into full-blown melodies.
“I’m always inspired by the strange and beautiful things that my 3-year-old daughter comes up with,” the music lecturer at Hunter College in New York City told the Huffington Post .
The collab began soon after his daughter could talk. Spencer would express his musical whimsy by singing things back to her, making impromptu songs about whatever she just said.
Eventually, he turned these musical moments into ‘real’ songs, sitting at his piano to mix his daughter’s words with notes and chords and catchy beats.
“I try to strike a balance between taking the craft seriously—producing a radio-ready song that sounds polished and professional—and keeping the whole process playful and spontaneous, the same way the stories came to me in the first place.”
This is the tune that started it all… ‘ Wigglin’ ’ ( Click the speaker at the bottom of the video to listen. )
original lyrics by my 3-year-old daughter
Spencer’s social media followers surged from 34 to 340,000, with more than 30 million people playing his songs.
Commenters are flooding his pages with positive feedback and clamoring for a full album of songs. Clearly, his daughter’s words and Spencer’s stringed instruments are pulling on some heart strings, too.
One Instagram commenter whose daughter is all grown-up now, gushed over a performance about a grown-up purple bear princess: “Pardon me while I go into her old room and have a good cry.”
“I’ve been amazed by the reaction online,” Spencer added. “Seeing so many people connect with something that started as a silly family moment has been really heartwarming, and motivates me to keep creating.”