The Wiggles

Pop goes back to pre-school with the Wiggles, Australia's world-conquering song 'n' dance troupe. Join the four-strong gang of color-coded kiddie icons — Jeff, Murray, Anthony, and Greg — as they sing you through the basics of healthy eating ("Fruit Salad"), sleeping ("Rock a Bye Your Bear"), and cow identification ("I'm a Cow").

Mind control is a bad thing when it's the tool of an evil dictatorship, but a great thing in the hands of the Wiggles, who mesmerize and entertain your kids while filling their tiny heads with wholesome educational goodness. They'll also give them a pretty solid cardiovascular workout, to the strains of "Wags the Dog, He Likes to Tango."

The roots of the Wiggles can be found in the absurdist, visionary work of the legendary Captain Beefheart (clearly an inspiration for friendly pirate "Captain Feathersword") and Frank Zappa (where else could the madness of "Zardo Zap" have originated?).

The Wiggles are now so huge that lynchpin character Captain Feathersword even got a name-check on The West Wing. Their Australian brand of easygoing, sing-along entertainment for tiny tots loses nothing in translation (except perhaps for "Let's Have a Barbie on the Beach," which refers to BBQs), and these Wiggles classics will have the most hyperactive of little terrors hooked into a world of fun within seconds, doing the actions…and, of course, waking up Jeff.