‘Morningtown Ride’

Celebrity Q&A
on November 23, 2003
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My question is about a song called Morningtown Ride by a group called The Seekers. It sounds like a lullaby for little kids. What inspired the song and is it available on CD?

—Mary M., Michigan

The late songwriter Malvina Reynolds is the woman behind Morningtown Ride. Reynolds wrote many songs for children, and in a radio interview explained the inspiration behind the song that became such a huge hit for The Seekers. “I know youngsters hate to go to bed at night because it seems like, as far as they’re concerned, it is the end of the world,” she says. “Going to sleep means that you are going to be cut off from everything, and I wanted to help them understand that they were heading somewhere, when they got into bed, that they were heading for morning. And strangely enough, this song became a grown-up hit all over the world.” The song has proved to be a perennial favorite, included on albums by children’s singer Raffi, Sesame Street, and sung by numerous parents to their children at bedtime. You can find The Seekers’ original version on The Very Best of The Seekers. In 2001, the Australian group got together to record a Christmas version of the song for an album called Morningtown Ride (To Christmas).

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