I’m not sure what to say. Rock-Star Wannabe Finds Fame Making Music for Kids:
It might have continued this way, another talented musician plugging along while waiting for his break into rock ‘n’ roll stardom. But in 1994, Mr. Andersen played an impromptu gig at a Kiddie Academy day-care center in New Jersey, belting out ‘Yellow Submarine’ as a favor to his wife, who was temping there. The kids went wild. And without realizing it, Mr. Andersen was on a new career path.Today, the 41-year-old musician is more successful than ever. Known simply as “mr. Ray,” Mr. Andersen has sold about 25,000 compact discs in the past three years featuring music from his children’s album, “Start Dreaming.” His songs, ranging from “Swish!” to “Boo-boos Go Away,” are a hybrid of kid-empowerment messages cloaked in a rock sensibility that parents welcome as a break from Barney. Mr. Andersen’s own dinosaur tune, “I’d Be a Dinosaur,” is played in a minor key with a shuffle inspired by Doors classic “People Are Strange.” Moms say they don’t mind Mr. Andersen’s good looks or sultry style, either.
His pay also has picked up. Mr. Andersen charges $500 to $2,000 for his concerts at museums, schools, birthday parties, parks and theaters, and less for church and charity clients. Families up and down the East Coast have hired him, and he is playing bigger and bigger venues. Actress and mother Julianne Moore bought his DVD after a recent concert honoring Dr. Seuss at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, he says. Mr. Andersen earned $100,000 last year, nearly three times as much as during his highest-paid year as a rocker.
Oddly, I just heard about The Wiggles recently:
Mr. Andersen says he hopes to become the “Mister Rogers of the rock ‘n’ roll world.” But to get there, he needs to get on television. The Wiggles, for example, is a men’s quartet from Australia that released its first album in 1991 and has parlayed live concert music into a booming business of videos, TV shows and merchandise.