RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Back in 2006, a shopping trip for a baby shower gift sparked an idea that would evolve into one of music’s most endearing children’s brands. Lisa Roth, executive producer and co-creator of Rockabye Baby , realized the existence of a gift that both parents and children could enjoy together was absent; so, she set out to create one.
Nearly two decades later, Rockabye Baby has reimagined the catalogs of various artists — including Beyoncé , Billie Eilish and The Weeknd as well as legends like Queen , Marvin Gaye and Metallica — all as soothing instrumental lullabies. Now, the series is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a new album inspired by the rock band Paramore .
Ahead of its release, Billboard caught up with Roth to discuss Rockabye Baby’s beginnings, the secret recipe to transforming hit songs into lullabies and why Paramore felt like the perfect act to help celebrate two decades.
For Roth, the band’s place in the anniversary lineup felt like a natural fit. “There’s the obvious: their demographic is having children,” she tells Billboard. “More than that, though, they are a very special, iconic group who have been around for a long time now, who haven’t really lost their momentum.”
Roth also pointed to Paramore’s broader cultural impact, praising the band for remaining a successful women-fronted rock band while advocating for inclusivity. ”I appreciate that it’s a female-fronted band with great success, which in a male-dominated business is extremely difficult to achieve,” she says. “I love their advocacy for the LGBT+ community, people of color and others…I want to support anything and anyone who’s fighting the good fight, and Paramore does that.”
Although Rockabye Baby has grown into a catalog of nearly 130 albums and more than 4.5 billion streams, Roth admits she never imagined the concept would last this long. “I had no idea it would be going two decades later,” she jokes.
The idea itself came unexpectedly. After leaving a 20-year career in the nutrition and wellness business and documentary television, Roth joined CMH Label Group without any formal music industry background. During her first week at the company, a frustrating search for a baby shower gift sparked the realization that there wasn’t anything designed to appeal to both parents and their children.
“I went back to the office the next day, and I said to the owner, ‘We have to get into the baby business,’” Roth recalls. “I wanted something like ‘Baby’s First Sex Pistols’ or ‘Baby’s First Punk Rock Album.’”
Not long after, Rockabye Baby was born — and had secured its first three releases: lullaby renditions of Radiohead , Coldplay and Metallica.
That original mission of creating something parents could enjoy alongside their children still rings true and guides every Rockabye Baby release to this day. ”It created a bridge between who you were before you were a parent, and who you’re becoming as a parent,” Roth shares. “It’s not, you know, ‘Wheels on the Bus’ everyday.”
Behind every album, there is an intricate process. Roth and her team plan release schedules about a year in advance, balancing classic artists with contemporary ones while listening closely to fan demand. After securing mechanical licenses for each song (which often requires approval from publishers and rights holders), tracks are assigned to one of Rockabye Baby’s producers, who painstakingly reconstruct each arrangement from the ground up. Drafts routinely go back and forth between the producers and Roth, sometimes more than a dozen times before they’re finalized. “Every album is a long, full-time job,” says Roth.
Surprisingly, Roth shared that no song is ever considered “too difficult” to turn into a lullaby. Instead, she sees each arrangement as an exercise in preserving the emotional DNA of the original. “You can’t just slow [the song] down, because that’s how you lose the recognizability,” Roth explains. “One of my main and often repeated directions to the producers is: ‘I want you to produce this as if you have a newborn baby in your arms while you’re doing it. I want it to sound and play out in a way that would never disturb a sleeping baby, but I want you to keep the original intention of the artist who created that song.'”
The audience of Rockabye Baby has also expanded well beyond parents. According to Roth, Rockabye Baby has found fans among yoga instructors, dog owners, adults looking to relax and even music industry executives. ”I was contacted by a big name in the music industry,” she says, “and he told me that he plays Rockabye Baby in the background at dinner parties, and people are very interested in what they’re listening to.”
As for the new Paramore lullaby renditions, Roth says every track translated beautifully into lullaby form, though she expects “Misery Business” — the band’s breakthrough single, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007 — to be a fan favorite.
“I was just looking at the very cute video that goes along with it today,” she says with a smile. “It’s adorable.”
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