Music

You’re hearing one of the most maligned of instruments — the kazoo — being featured in that excerpt from Jim Queskin’s classic “Jug Band Music.”

Does that song strike any familiar chords from your childhood? If you are of a certain age The Monkees were the rock band of your adolescence.

You’re hearing a little from “Nia, Nia,” a lullaby sung by Alessandra Belloni — a timeless song that’s been used for centuries to sooth restless infants and calm distressed adult nerves in the region of southern Italy called Puglia.

You’re hearing the concluding section of the first movement of Ludwig von Beethoven’s famous Fifth Symphony, played by Robert LaFond and his orchestra on their CD, Snoopy’s Classiks on Toys.

It’s Halloween tonight, and if this ancient holiday is just your cup of tea and sack of candy corn, you might be interested to hear that there’s an entire CD of Halloween music waiting for your trick or treaters.

You’re hearing the English group The Tiger Lillies with part of Fidgety Phil, from their Junk Opera that they based on Heinrich Hoffmann’s hilariously awful Struwwelpeter or Shock-headed Peter.

Here’s how we’re waking up at our house to start the new school year — with the Brazilian singer Nazare Pereira singing “Bonjour Pra Voce” — a good morning song that goes well with corn flakes or scrambled eggs — from a joyful CD called World Playground from Putumayo World Music.