Ella Fitzgerald

Developing a child's taste for Ella Fitzgerald should be on every parent's to-do list: teach her to use a fork, tie her shoes and ... love jazz vocalists. Seriously. Even when Fitzgerald sings a song as insipid as "Molasses, Molasses" -- or as potentially insipid as "Chew-Chew-Chew" -- she outclasses the material and finds an archly sweet angle (or maybe even a lascivious one, as on "The Hot Canary") to spice it up. Many of these songs, compiled specifically for their kid-friendliness, are excellent, and Fitzgerald's champion scatting abilities will appeal to kids' love of absolute nonsense.