Writer of Beloved Children's Songs Passes Away in Point Pleasant

Children's songwriter, Nino Chanson, has passed away at the age of 70. Chanson spent his entire life in Point Pleasant Borough where he worked as an accountant. What he will be remembered for most, though, is the many children's songs and rhymes that he created.

Chanson's daughter, Nina, said that her father's greatest legacy was the songs that children still sing on the playground. "My dad was a very humble man," she said. "Most people don't even realize that he is the one responsible for so many of the songs they grew up on, and that now their children sing. I remember the first time I heard my own son singing one of Dad's songs when he was only six. Even when I think of it now, it makes me smile."

Chanson started creating songs at a very young age. His first came to him when he was only nine years old. He introduced it at his older sister's birthday party:

Happy birthday to you! You belong in a zoo!
You look like a monkey! You smell like one too!

That same year, he came up with a special Halloween rhyme for his friends:

Trick or treat, smell my feet,
Give me something good to eat!

When he was 11, Chanson's work became a bit darker. "When my father was in 5th grade he was having a bit of trouble in school. He told me that he didn't really like his teacher that year, and that was reflected in his work."

Ta ra ra boom de ay,
we had no school today!
Our teacher passed away,
we threw her in the bay!

By the next year, Chanson was no longer in his "blue" period and created one of his most popular songs just in time for the holidays:

Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg!
Batmobile lost a wheel, Joker got away!

When Chanson was nearing the end of elementary school, his interest in creating children's songs waned. He did create one last rhyme that became one of his best known.

Beans beans, the musical fruit,
The more you eat, the more you toot,
The more you toot, the better you feel,
So we have beans at every meal.

Nina Chanson said that her father created a final song to offer the world. "The last time I saw Dad before he passed he gave me a paper with his last song," she said tearfully. "He told me it's to be sung to 'Yankee Doodle' and was to be written on his grave stone."

Nino Chanson lies here dead, sealed inside his coffin

Bring him flowers twice a year, and think about him often!

Nino Chanson may be dead, but won't be forgotten

'cause his songs stick in your head, even when they're rotten!

Nino Chanson may be gone, but his music will live on as long as there are children who love to sing.