When I was a kid, there were only two TV shows I was allowed to watch. One of them was Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and the other was Sesame Street, mostly because it came on right afterward. I grew up loving both Fred Rogers’ kindly ways, and the jazz stylings of Johnny Costa.

Because of my support of Wear A Sweater / Won’t You Be My Neighbor Day (via @andyfowler) a few weeks ago, Holly Yarbrough contacted me on Facebook and offered to send me a CD of her Mister Rogers jazz cover album.

(Sidenote: Holly’s father, also an accomplished singer, is Glenn Yarbrough, best known to me as the singer of “The Greatest Adventure” in the 1977 animated version of The Hobbit, which I saw at the James V. Brown Library when I was about four years old. See Dirk Gently’s “fundamental interconnectedness of all things”.)

I said “Sure, I’ve love a copy,” and when it arrived, I was impressed. It was in a punch-cut paper case (classier than a jewel case, in my opinion), and the CD was cleverly made to resemble an LP. But the music was even better. Backed by an all-star jazz band, Holly does a lovely job interpreting all of the songs, but especially two of my all-time favorites (click to hear samples):

• It’s You I Like
• You Are Special

The only song I listened for and missed on the album was What Do You Do, but there’s always a follow-up album.

You can buy Mister Rogers Swings! on CDBaby, and there’s no digital rights-management on the tracks (unlike the version on iTunes). This is really an album of which you should buy the CD, though, since it’s such a nice physical CD.

By the way, you can read the lyrics and download sheet music for Fred Rogers’ songs on his PBS Kids site.

(Congrats, Holly; you got Boing Boing!’d today: Jazzy Covers of Mister Rogers’ Songs)