Hap Palmer may be best known for his vocal contributions to the hugely popular Baby Songs video series, but parents of 2- to 5-year-olds, particularly those with a sturdier than average educational bent, will find a lot to love on Early Childhood Classics: Old Favorites with a New Twist. This release rids itself of tiresome attempts to turn performances of simple songs like "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" into minor personal masterpieces and instead injects its de rigueur dose of creativity directly into familiar lyrics. For instance, while there's the usual cow and pig on Old MacDonald's farm, we're also introduced to Henrietta's House, where there's a cat, Zebediah's zoo with its tiger, and the puppy in Pamelina's pet shop. Similarly, instead of the usual "Pat-a-Cake" cliffhanger, where the cake's put in the oven and that's all she wrote, we get to hear the ding-ding-ding when it's done and layer on the frosting. The sequence of songs is repeated instrumentally after Palmer's interpretations to allow for sing-alongs and the dreaming up of more new lyrics--a useful device for caregivers who think like teachers (those who don't, though, can make use of clever movement and activity suggestions in the liner notes). Each song's wordplay and simple rhymes are catchy enough to fall into the can't-fail category when it comes to enhancing vocabulary, phonics, and vocabulary skills, and the surprise lyrics lend themselves nicely to attentive listening. Early Childhood Classics delivers old-fashioned fun in a satisfyingly unsplashy way. --Tammy La Gorce