It was a normally chaotic evening in David Crawford’s Rocky Face home about four years ago when his daughters, then 3 and 7, inspired him.
“They were in the bathtub, and it was one of those stressful times of getting ready for bed — splashing too much water out, one of them got soap in their eye, one of them wanted the little ducky, and the other one didn’t want them to have the ducky,” he said. “So it was a typical stressful bedtime/bath time scenario, and as I was keeping an eye on them from the living room this song sort of popped into my head.”
Crawford quickly jotted down the words to what would become his “Pachelbel’s Bedtime Canon,” the song that would get more than 1.3 million hits on YouTube and lead him to a recording deal with an independent producer.
“Why don’t you want to say ‘good night’?” the song begins with Crawford rapidly singing the words. “Why is it that you do not go to your bed and sleep tight until the morning light has come and cast its haze upon your eyes and then you wake to greet the day God has made and then rejoice for you, a part of it? Why do you insist upon the crying and the moaning and the whining and the screaming and the tantrums and the yelling, the fussing and the fighting and the biting and the hissies, the one more drink of water and the ‘one more book please, daddy’? And now I just want you to go to sleep...”
The song proceeds to recount the trials of parenthood at bedtime and again in the morning, then transitions to a reflection in which Crawford realizes that the rewards of parenthood are worth all the hardships. His daughters, Tiffany and Sarah, are now 11 and 7.
“Then I think about the laughter when the times are not so hectic...when I hold their little hands, life could not go much more contently...”
A few days after writing the song, Crawford determined he would borrow liberally from the tune for “Pachelbel’s Canon.” Next, he put the song up on YouTube. The idea was to share it primarily with the teachers he works with at Westside Middle School and the teachers his wife, Amy, works with at Westside Elementary.
By the middle of 2008, the video had garnered more than 1 million views, and Crawford he received a message through YouTube from a producer in Novi, Mich. who was interested in the tune. Stan Williams, owner of SWC films and Ninevah’s Crossing, produced the CD. It’s his first CD production project and Crawford’s first CD of his own. A singer and guitarist for the Dalton blue grass band Spatial Effects, the 40-year-old has written and performed “silly songs” since he was about 25, he said.
Williams, who focuses on entertainment media that promote Christian values, said one of the first things he noticed about Crawford was his caring nature.
“I think all of his songs are peppered with those sort of metaphors that suffering has meaning in life,” Williams said. “It’s not just the wonderful stuff; it’s the bad stuff, the stuff that hurts your back and when your kid spreads glue all over your van...Those are the moments that give the relationship meaning and it shows character.”
The album features 11 songs Crawford wrote and performed in a studio in Detroit. Crawford plays rhythm guitar, but the other musicians are professionals from the Detroit area, he said.
He and Crawford said they are working on a second album that will feature educational songs he’s written over the years as a teacher.
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