New York, NY (Top40 Charts) In 2006, series co-creator Lisa Roth couldn't find a gift that was fun and parent-friendly enough for a friend's baby shower, so she suggested to
David Haerle, president of her Los Angeles based employer CMH Label Group, that they do something in the baby business. Development ensued with series co-creator,
Valerie Aiello, and a small team. On August 29th of that year, CMH put out the first three Rockabye Baby albums, Coldplay,
Metallica and Radiohead. The New York Times profiled the series and literally broke the internet; or at least, the Rockabye Baby website due to all the incoming traffic.
Since then, Rockabye Baby has gained more than 800 million streams and sold nearly two million physical CDs (in the 21st century, mind you!). With this, they have charted on the Billboard Kids Chart (top 10), Billboard Indie Chart (top 20), and Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart with nothing but lullabies. Most importantly, however, the company has brought music from the likes of Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Snoop Dogg, Bjork, KISS, Kanye, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Beyoncé and more, from the club to the nursery.
Vocal fans of the series include Kate Hudson, Chelsea Clinton, Chrissy Teigen,
Victoria Beckham and Elton John. Its smooth sounds have been featured on Ellen, Jimmy Kimmel, a Super Bowl commercial and more. It's potentially the first-ever music series to get equal love from Pitchfork and Parents Magazine, Romperand Rolling Stone, but the greatest accolade bestowed on Rockabye Baby thus far might just be: Zzzz's, from happy parents and babies alike, release after release.
To mark its 100th release, Rockabye Baby decided to (slightly) soften up the hardcore hip hop of Wu-Tang Clan. A special vinyl will be released on April 18th for Record Store Day, and the album will be released digitally, and on CD, on April 24th.
Since 2006, Rockabye Baby has grown exponentially and expanded from rock to hip-hop, pop, country, Broadway (Lullaby Renditions of Songs from Hamilton) and Latin artists (Juanes, Selena). What's next is anyone's guess - the label did, after all, announce their Beyoncé lullaby album moments before
Queen B posted her iconic twin-announcement Instagram - but it'll be fun and parent-friendly enough for the pickiest gift-giver.
About Rockabye Baby!
A part of CMH Label Group, located in
Silver Lake, California, Rockabye Baby has taken the sounds of Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Tom Petty, Metallica, Taylor Swift, Nirvana, and more, and turned them into gentle, instrumental lullabies. To this day, Rockabye Baby has sold nearly 2 million CDs and 2 million digital track downloads, while garnering more than 800 million streams from close to 100 releases. The series has earned praise from Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, HuffPost, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Vice Noisey, and NPR Music, who calls the series "…fully realized and deftly orchestrated."
