Laurie Berkner’s ‘Greatest Hits’ Celebrates Dinosaurs and Other Musical Favorites Loved by the Pre-Kindie Set

Having seen hundreds of raucous rock bands, I can tell you that there is nothing quite like a Laurie Berkner concert, with its screaming little fans and boisterous songs about all the fun things. When my best friend and I took her 3-year-old son to his first Berkner show, he came away with a smile, having enjoyed more than an hour of dancing, bouncy balls tossed around the audience, and stage props galore. 

Over three decades, Berkner’s established herself as a true purveyor of pop music that’s perfect for the pre-kindie crowd. 

Many of her most treasured tunes are featured on her album Laurie Berkner Greatest Hits — out today via the KIDZ BOP label on all streaming platforms and on CD. But she has so many popular songs that one has to wonder, how on earth would she put together a “Greatest Hits” collection? We recently talked to the mom and musician — who is on tour this Spring — about that: 

Rockmommy: Hi Laurie! Happy Early Mother’s Day and Happy Tour! How’s it going on the road? Any special plans for Mother’s Day? 

Laurie Berkner: Hi! Thank you! The shows have been incredibly fun to do – and most of them are selling out! Having had this career for 30 years, I have seen it go up and down, so still being able to sell out shows and watch families have an amazing time together is super rewarding. I’m really grateful that I still get to do this! That being said, I’m also really looking forward to just taking the weekend off with my family on Mothers’ Day – and doing as little as possible!

Rockmommy: You’re dropping a “Greatest Hits” album, which is a huge milestone. How did you figure out which songs to put on it? 

Laurie Berkner: Ahh, that was easy and hard. The easy part was making sure all of the songs I still sing at most of my shows were still on there like “We Are The Dinosaurs,” “The Goldfish,” “Waiting For The Elevator,” “Chipmunk At The Gas Pump,” and the hard parts were choosing both the newer songs and which songs to leave out!

Rockmommy: What are the three most-requested live songs? 

Laurie Berkner: Well, I just did a “Berkner Bracket” on social media to try to get a real answer to that question. We asked people to vote on pairs of my songs in elimination rounds. Ultimately, “We Are The Dinosaurs” and “The Goldfish” were the top two. In fact, at the end, the numbers between them were so close that we had to extend the voting for another week! (“We Are The Dinosaurs” was the ultimate winner, but it was literally by just one or two votes!) After that I would say “Victor Vito,” “Waiting For The Elevator,” and “Chipmunk At The Gas Pump” are probably the next faves. But again, they are very close to a whole bunch of songs that are in the same league with them. I know it’s a good problem to have but makes it VERY hard to create a set list for my shows!

Rockmommy: Were any of them surprise hits (you wrote them and didn’t realize how popular they’d get?)

Laurie Berkner: Hahaha, YES! I mean . . . all of them! I hoped that kids would like them, but I certainly didn’t think I’d be singing some of them 30 years later, like “We Are The Dinosaurs.” I also remember when I wrote “Chipmunk At The Gas Pump” that it had a LOT of words and was more complex lyrically than most of my previous songs for kids. I had included vocabulary like “fiercely independent,” “he called all of his relations,” “he made a fine living as a gas station attendant.” These are not usually the kinds of phrases I would use in a kids’ song, and I had a lot of angst about whether or not I had written it more to amuse myself than for the kids, but it has not seemed to matter one bit. They STILL love that song.

Rockmommy: What’s your secret for writing a song that will resonate with kids? 

Laurie Berkner: Haha, well that’s the billion-dollar question, isn’t it?! I never really know what is going to hit and what won’t, but I do have a four-hour master class on all of the things I think about when I am writing for them! So I do have lots of different ideas about things that I think are good to try. Maybe the best answer I can give you right now is, I try to include at least one aspect of a song that will really engage the kids who listen whether it’s a movement, a rhythm, a lyric, or an idea. And … I write the songs I wish I had heard when I was young.