Free to Be... You and Me

[mia]

I still have my book from 1972. I also had the cassette tape. My children grew up listening to it and I played the songs in my kindergarten classroom for many years.

Enjoy the music!

Free to Be... You and Me is a children's entertainment project, conceived, created and executive-produced by actress and author Marlo Thomas. Produced in collaboration with the Ms. Foundation for Women, it was a record album and illustrated book first released in November 1972 featuring songs and stories sung or told by celebrities of the day (credited as "Marlo Thomas and Friends&quot including Alan Alda, Rosey Grier, Cicely Tyson, Carol Channing, Michael Jackson, Roberta Flack, Shirley Jones, Jack Cassidy, and Diana Ross.

An ABC television special, also created by Thomas, using poetry, songs, and sketches, followed two years later in March 1974. The basic concept was to encourage post-1960s gender neutrality, saluting values such as individuality, tolerance, and comfort with one's identity. A major thematic message is that anyone—whether a boy or a girl—can achieve anything.

In 2021, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/complete-national-recording-registry-listing/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_to_Be..._You_and_Me

[AllaN01Bear]

1. great song. im sure the dingbats would try to have this banned from school librarys .

[mia]

2. The youtube link has all 19 songs. :)

Public school libraries hardly exist at all. When I retired in 2017 it had become the computer lab with a fraction of the books it once contained. The school librarian retired and was never replaced.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. I mean...except for the bit where babies' genitals determine their genders.

[demmiblue]

3. Free To Be You and Me - Atalanta

[mia]

4. My favorite story in the book.

Thanks for the link.

[pecosbob]

5. That Girl

[mainer]

6. And 50 years later, we're going backwards

To think that concepts introduced half a century ago are now considered "dangerous."

[AllaN01Bear]

8. still going backwards . e time we get a wingnut for prez.

[garybeck]

9. surprised it hasn't been banned. n/t