the la-la song

As I backed my car out of the parking spot, something on the radio took me back immediately to a sweet memory. It was a song in which the singer sung "la la la la" instead of words to a song. Something about the quality of his voice and the intimacy of the wordlessness took me instantly back to my childhood and the song my father sung to us.

My parents rocked us each to sleep until we were entirely too old for such things. I distinctly remember my long legs hanging over the arms of the rocking chair as my father would rock wildly (it was always much more fun when he was the rocker). The old chair creaked to keep time with my father's song. It seems to me he only ever sung two songs: Go Tell it on the Mountain and the La-la song.

My brother hated the la-la song. He would cry, making the job of rocking him to sleep even tougher. He'd put his little hand over my father's mouth and scream "no more la-la's!" and my father would just chuckle. Imagine my surprise when I overheard my brother singing to his own son Seth the very same but (evidently) no longer detested song.

I asked my mother today if she knew the name of the song. She said that she knew it was by "The Singing Nun". I did a search online and found it. It is called "Sister Adele".

It's jarring to hear the song outside of our family and sung with such a high voice. I tried to find the song in its entirety...I know Jennifer and Jessica will want to hear it. I could only find a sniplet...the la-la bit just begins at the end. Click here to hear it.

I think when we're camping this weekend I'll ask my father to sing it before I go to bed, for old times' sake.