Rock-a-Bye Baby music box
Rock-a-Bye Baby is a lullaby made for swaying. Its lilting rhythm matches the motion of rocking a baby, which is why parents still reach for it without thinking.
- Tune
- Rock-a-Bye Baby
- Composer
- Traditional; popular melody published in the 1880s
- Origin
- Words printed c. 1765
The story behind the tune
The words were printed in London in Mother Goose’s Melody, a collection of nursery rhymes from around 1765, and were almost certainly sung long before that. Where the “treetop” and the cradle came from is anyone’s guess; theories abound, and none is settled.
The melody most people sing today was published in the United States in the 1880s and is usually credited to Effie Crockett, who said she made it up while rocking a baby she was minding.
How it sounds on a music box
Its swaying three-beat feel is easy to follow even when the tune is pared back, and the phrases rise and fall gently without any big jumps. Final arrangements for the Musical Drawer are still being developed.
Lovely for
- A nursery dresser or change-table drawer
- Calm-down time
- Baby showers