Here's a list of album numbers 11 through 25 of the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll. For a few more comments on the methodology, go here, but you may as well just dig in... because it's gonna take a little while. 25. Family Dance - Dan Zanes Points: 136 Ballots: 6 Release date: 2001 Zanes' second foray into music for families. Unlike its predecessor Rocket Ship Beach, this album to me feels like his first real "age-desegregated" album, with less of the more kid-focused stuff on the first disk. 24. Easy - Secret Agent 23 Skidoo Points: 137 Ballots: 6 Release date: 2008 (released in 2009) I'm not the only person to have said it -- it's the first great kids hip-hop album, but saying so makes it sound like its appeal would be limited. It's not. 23. Rocket Ship Beach - Dan Zanes Points: 140 Ballots: 6 Release date: 2000 Sure, Laurie Berkner and Justin Roberts released albums before this one came out, but if there was an album that first made people in the world at large aware of a resurgent genre, it was this one. 22. On a Flying Guitar - SteveSongs Points: 144 Ballots: 6 Release date: 2000 The second SteveSongs disk, and the first after Steve Roslonek left his job as a business consultant to perform music for kids full-time. It's worked out well for him, I think. 21. Singable Songs for the Very Young - Raffi Points: 146 Ballots: 6 Release date: 1976 It's been said (though by whom has been lost to the mists of time and the internet) that this album, Raffi's first, basically created the kids' music genre from a sales perspective. Seeing as the album has gone platinum, that's not entirely surprising.

I'm about to post the first part of results from the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll, and I wanted to start off by thanking everyone who voted lo these many months ago. Nearly 90 folks submitted ballots, which I thought was an excellent response. And I also want to thank everyone for their patience while I compiled these results. One note on the results I'll be presenting here. The rules I outlined in my original post asked people to vote for 10 albums, with point ratings from 1 to 10, but people could submit fewer than 10 albums with points reduced accordingly. As I received votes, however, I realized a couple things: 1) The disparity between a tenth place vote and a first place vote was far too large 2) By permitting one- or two-vote ballots (albeit at a discounted value), it didn't discourage persons who wanted to specifically promote one artist at the cost of all others. So, prior to tabulating votes, I decided to change the scoring methodology as follows: 1) Rather than scoring votes from 1 to 10, I scored votes from 18 to 27. (There was a justification for selecting that range, but it's not worth getting into.) 2) I disqualified all ballots with fewer than five votes. I will be describing the top 25 albums using the revised methodology, but will publish (after the full results are revealed) both sets of results. So I hope you enjoy the results. There are a lot of familiar faces, a few (relatively) unfamiliar ones, and a lot of time both in the voting and in the compiling. Enjoy.

I don't ask much of you, my readers, but today I'm asking that if you haven't already, please please please with sugar on top vote in the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll. Tonight at 8:59 PM west coast (11:59 PM east coast). You don't have to be like Bill or Jeff (thanks for the shout-out) or Kathy or Phil and do this as a hobby or career. You just have to have made music for kids and families part of your life. Go to the link above to read all the voting directions. Remember that lobbying for votes for yourself or others is bad, but that spreading the word is A-OK. Don't overthink it -- just vote! Thanks!

Time is running out, folks, to vote in the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll. That's right, you have until just before the stroke of midnight east coast time on Wednesday, October 7th to vote. Go to the link above to read all the voting directions. And remember: Encouraging folks to vote in the poll = OK. Soliciting votes for a particular album = FAIL. Thanks!

Well, not all of you. A fair number of you have already voted in the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll, but a bunch of you (yes, you) haven't, and the deadline is now just less than two weeks away. I appreciate the continued number of shout-outs from across the web, and I encourage you to spread the word (but not too much so), but more importantly, I want you to vote. It'll be awesome.

OK, maybe not a warning, but at least a request. I really do appreciate that people are excited about the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll and are e-mail folks and putting it on Facebook, et cetera. But as I review submissions, I'm beginning to wonder if some artists are starting to cross the line. For better and for worse, I tacitly accept the craziness of the KidVid Tournament, where encouraging folks to vote for your video happens (and, you know, it's a competition). But this poll is something different -- it's not a competition. Look at it this way -- rules for public radio business support are pretty clear -- you can't have qualitative language (e.g., award winning, leading, Pulitzer Prize Winner, etc.) or state facts that cannot be proven, you can't use comparative language (e.g., better, best, oldest, largest, etc.), and you can't have a call to action ("Visit our store…"Call xxx…etc.). The announcement in Bill Harley's latest e-newsletter was just about perfect, I thought:

For those who are just looking for a fun family-music activity, Stefan Shepherd... is looking for your list of top 10 kids albums of all time! Here's your chance to make a wonderful list of all the family music you love and share it with other! It's easy to do and will certainly be fun. Check out the details here!

Anything more than that, and I think you've crossed the line. Sure there's qualitative language and calls to action, but none of it is directed at Bill -- it's just a heads-up about the poll. It's like a public service announcement. So, kids music artists, please don't encourage fans to vote for you. It cheapens the poll, I don't like it at all, and it makes big-eyed puppies very sad. And everybody else without a stake in the end result, please do vote -- the more people who vote, the better the result will be.