Raffi, the Children’s Troubadour

His first album, “Singable Songs for the Very Young,” was released in 1976. It was a smash hit.

It led to 20 more albums of toddler classics, from The More We Get Together to Bananaphone:

… and especially his most famous song, Baby Beluga:

Baby beluga in the deep blue sea

Swim so wild and you swim so free

Heaven above and the sea below

And a little white whale on the go

“The song was inspired by a whale in captivity in an aquarium,” he said. “And yet, the song set the whale free. And there’s something about, ‘Is the water warm? Is your momma home with you?’ Now, I don’t know what a little child hears when they hear that, but there must be something, you precognitive connecting with them.”

And he’s still connecting with kids today, by releasing new music and touring around North America.

You can stream Raffi’s album “Dog on the Floor” by clicking on the embed below (Free Spotify registration required to hear the tracks in full):

Raffi spends his downtime at his home in the beauty and seclusion of Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. He first came in 2008. And you can find him every Saturday at the farmer’s market, manning a table for his non-profit, the Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring, which advocates for putting children’s needs first when tackling environmental and social problems.

But as much as children love Raffi, and vice versa, he decided not to have children of his own. “People are always surprised by this,” said Altschul.

“Well, back then, when my wife and I talked about it, long time ago, we were always around kids (she was a kindergarten teacher and I was entertaining children), we just felt that we didn’t need children of our own. And we decided to honor that feeling. It was just that simple.”

“And you have children – they’re just not biologically your children.”

“Precisely.”

And he can count Altschul’s own daughter Vivian as one of them!