Red Light, Green Light - SSA

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Screen Shot 2020-05-11 at 2.53.44 PM.png

Red Light, Green Light - SSA

$2.25

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  • SSA Chorus, Rap Solo and Piano (also available for SAB chorus)

    Recommended for: Middle School and Older

    Optional Instrumentation: Piano, bass guitar, percussion

    Many years ago, conductor and professor, Doreen Rao asked me to write a piece that incorporated playground songs. I finally got around to it over 20 years later when Elizabeth, my wife, asked me to create the same idea for YPC. I started to find old jump rope songs and hand clapping games that I learned during my study of the Kodály method and remembered many folk songs from my childhood in New York City, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

    I always loved the song "Pizza, Pizza Daddy-O" which has the feeling of 5, even though it is written in 4! Along with this song, you will hear “Red Light, Green Light 1-2-3,” “Down, Down Baby,” “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary” and “Miss Mary Mack.”

    Set to original music based on my heritage (Latin pop and Latin jazz), the rest of this work is new lyrics about young people finding themselves in a world that allows you to be energized and filled with ideas; a place that is accepting of who you want to be.

    I am very grateful to YPC chorister Alyssa Blake (age 15 at the time) for her help in the rap section.

  • Sweet, sweet baby, shimmy shimmy pow

    Rhythm in my head, red turns green

    Green turns red, miss Mary Mack said

    Rhythm of the hands, rhythm of the feet

    Red light, green light, shimmy shimmy free

    Dance with me, roll with me

    Let me grow up to be

    In my dreams I am free

    Red light, green light, 1, 2, 3

    I got dreams, I’m a time machine

    Free to be all of me

    Red light, green light, 1, 2, 3

    Red light, green light, wait and see

    La la la la la la la la

    Mary, quite contrary

    How does your garden grow with many shells

    And silver bells, pretty flowers in a row, hey!

    Rhythms of the hands, rhythms of the feet

    Red light, green light, shimmy shimmy free

    Mary has a boyfriend

    Billy has a pizza pizza daddy-o!

    Pedro has a friend

    How’d you know it

    Cause she told me

    Pizza pizza daddy-o!

    Let’s sing it free!

    Lie lie eh low lay low lay low lay lay low lie

    Low eh lie lie eh low lay low lay low lay lay low lie

    Heyza!

    Hey, I got dreams, dreams, dreams for miles in the atmosphere

    They keep on going and I keep know, knowing they never stop

    It seems to me like I’m a crazy first time machine going, going, going,

    Never stopping, red light, green light, 1, 2, 3

    Dance with me, roll with me,

    Let me grow up to be,

    Green light, red light, ‘cause that’s all I really want to be

    In a dream I am free all the time,

    I am free to be, free to be, free to be, free to be

    Rock with me, roll with me, grow with me,

    Because I will be strong and free

    Red light, green light, just wait and see

    I am free to be all of me!

    Let’s put the rhythm in our heads Pizza pizza daddy-o!

    Let’s put the rhythm in our feet Pizza pizza daddy-o!

    Put the rhythm in our song! Pizza pizza daddy-o!

    Let’s dance it free!

Available as a digital download. Once purchased, this score will be licensed and emailed to you within 48 hours.