A Custom Lullaby for Your Baby Boy (Plus 6 Classics to Sing)

You are standing over the crib at 2 a.m., swaying, humming whatever half-remembered tune your own mother sang. You want the right lullaby for your baby boy, something soft enough to settle him and sweet enough to mean something. Maybe you want the classics. Maybe you want words that are just his.

6 Lullabies for Your Baby Boy (and One That's Only His)

These are the ones that have rocked babies to sleep for generations. Every one is short, slow, and easy to hum even if you have never considered yourself a singer.

1. Brahms' Lullaby ("Wiegenlied") The most recognizable cradle song in the world. Johannes Brahms wrote his "Wiegenlied" as a gift for his friend Bertha Faber when her second son was born, and it was first published in 1868. Tucked into the piano part is a hidden counter-melody drawn from a song Bertha used to sing to him, which means the piece was quietly a love song all along. That double meaning, one melody carrying more than it appears to, is exactly what a lullaby written for your own son can do.

2. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star The words began as a poem called "The Star," written by Jane Taylor and published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection she put together with her sister Ann. The melody came separately, from an older French tune, and the two fused into the bedtime standard nearly everyone knows by heart. If your baby boy likes to stare up at the ceiling, this is the one.

3. Hush, Little Baby A traditional American folk lullaby thought to have originated in the Southern United States, sung from a parent's point of view as they promise gift after gift: a mockingbird, a diamond ring, a looking glass. The simple structure invites you to add your own verses, so you can slip your son's name and his favorite things right into the song.

4. All the Pretty Little Horses (Hush-a-bye) Another traditional American lullaby, commonly thought to be of African-American origin, in which a caregiver promises the child dapples and grays and all the pretty little horses when he wakes. Its gentle, rocking refrain has been recorded by countless artists and even lent its imagery to the title of Cormac McCarthy's 1992 novel.

5. Rock-a-bye Baby One of the oldest nursery rhymes in the printed record, believed to have first appeared in Mother Goose's Melody around 1765. The lyrics are famously a little odd (a cradle in a treetop, a breaking bough), but sung slowly the melody is pure comfort, and the swaying rhythm matches the way you are already rocking him.

6. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) Not an old folk tune but a modern one worth knowing. John Lennon wrote "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" for his son Sean, and it appeared on the 1980 album Double Fantasy. It opens with a father soothing his boy after a bad dream and moves into plain, tender reassurance. It is proof that a lullaby can be written for one specific child and still land for everyone.

7. A custom song written for your baby boy. The six above are beautiful because they are timeless. The one thing they cannot do is say his name, or nod to the way he grabs your finger, or name the people waiting to love him. That is the lullaby we write. You tell us who he is and we turn it into a soft, singable song made only for him.

A custom song is the lullaby that belongs to your baby boy and no one else. You fill out a short form, about five minutes, with his name, the little details that already make him him, and the feeling you want the song to carry. We write it and record it as a real, singable lullaby you can play at bedtime for years. Standard turnaround is 24 hours, and if tonight is the night, our 1-hour rush has you covered. It starts at $29.99, with 24-hour standard turnaround and 1-hour rush. Start your song and give him a lullaby with his actual name in it.

Sing him the classics tonight, and let us write the one that is only his. When you are ready, we'll take it from here.