So they’ve been playing the Disco Star Wars Theme on XM Kids lately. I’ve caught it maybe three times in the car this week, which is a lot, because I haven’t been listening a ton. (On the other hand, it could be part of a pre-programmed block we keep tuning into the right part of.)

Adam saw the display and said “this song is by Meh-co”.

I said “it might be May-co, or it might be Mee-co, but whoever it is, that’s who did this song”.

Becky said “who is singing this song?”

I said “this is an instrumental. There are just instruments.”

Right around the Cantina theme part, Adam helped out. “Ya wanna know who’s singing on this song?”

Becky said “Who?”

Adam said “Jackie Robinson!”

So there you go. According to Adam, the man who broke the color barrier in baseball also has the distinction of having sung on the highest-selling instrumental single in the history of recorded music.

Adam snuck into the computer room this morning (while I slept) and purchased “Everything’s OK”, Al Green’s 2005 album, from iTunes.

Also, I am serious. I just bought a mouse for the Mac: I think this helped him (the touchpad kind of confused him). I have my password turned off for iTunes (I just turned it off a few months ago), and he managed to click “buy now”, and when asked “are you sure?”, likely had no problem with finding his favorite button, “Yes”.

As I explained to him, he owes me $10. But Al Green belongs to him now. It’s supposed to be good. I’ll let you know.

Note: I went on a tear of 1-976 joke-line calling when I was 8 or 9. On one hand, I understood what I was doing, but on the other hand, there’s no way I could, you know? So I have sympathy for Adam.

On the way to school this morning, my iPod started playing “Girlfriend” by ‘N Sync. (Stop looking at me like that. It’s classic Neptunes production.)

“What is this band about?” Adam asked.

“Being friends,” I replied, not knowing if he meant the song or the band. That’s not a bad answer for either.

“I don’t like this song,” he continued.

“Listen to the drums. Do you like the drums?”

“I like the pillows most.”

He listened to the pillows maybe two weeks ago. (To make a long story short, we were listening to the FLCL soundtrack, and I told him who it was.) They’re one of my favorites, a very catchy Japanese pop-punk band, and the soundtracks tend towards instrumentals, but even the Japanese or English stuff is perfectly suitable for driving to school.

Of course, he spent the next five minutes saying “not this song” (to “Last Dinosaur”) and “this is not the song I like” (to “Ride on Shooting Star”), so I guess we have to keep trying, but it beats Laurie Berkner. (And Ms. Berkner is, herself, miles ahead of things like The Wiggles and Barney, so we are happy with what we have.) But it’s very interesting the stuff that they choose and remember.

There will be time, I am sure, to explore in this space Adam’s fascination with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, along with the Tuvan throat singing of Kongar ool-Ondar.