Laura Marling has surprised released a new album for kids, which sees her cover songs by legendary Canadian children’s singer, Raffi.
‘Laura Sings Raffi’ is out today (Friday June 5), and available now on CD and on streaming platforms. It comprises 17 songs, many of which are covers that are either written by, and/or performed by Raffi.
There are also some songs that aren’t by the pioneer in children’s entertainment – who was named as the “the most popular children’s entertainer in the English-speaking world” by The Washington Post – but these have all been recorded by Marling in a way that feels reminiscent of Raffi.
“‘Laura Sings Raffi’ marks a logical next step for me, but it’s not only a desire for tolerable children’s music that landed me here,” Marling explained.
“Having discovered Canadian songwriter and children’s entertainer, Raffi, while living in North America, I developed a love for his sincere, dead pan renditions of both his original songs for the very young and those plucked from the canon – all before I even had children of my own,” she added.
“These covers, though not all Raffi originals, are delivered in homage to his style and ethos, that being not only a respect for children and his expert attendance to what entertains them, but also to his wider audience – the parents whom he has blissfully attended also. Be funny, be kind, and never patronise.”
Check out her cover of Raffi’s hit song ‘Baby Beluga’, which was originally released in 1980, above, and tune in to the full album below.
The ‘Laura Sings Raffi’ tracklist is:
‘Peanut Butter Sandwich’
‘Baby Beluga’
The More We Get Together’
‘Mr Sun’
‘Five Little Frogs’
‘Six Little Ducks’
‘I Wonder If I’m Growing’
‘Down By The Bay’
‘One Light, One Sun’
‘Robin in the Rain’
‘Thanks A lot’
‘Listen To The Horses’
‘Willoughby Wallaby’
‘Going To The Zoo’
‘Biscuits In The Oven’
‘Everything Grows’
‘Going On a Picnic’
The album is the first from the British singer-songwriter since she dropped her eighth studio album ‘Patterns In Repeat’ in October 2024.
That album included the singles ‘Patterns’, ‘No One’s Gonna Love You Like I Can’ and ‘Child Of Mine’, and Marling went on to play just two shows in Manchester as her only 2025 live dates.