Turning his toddler daughter’s stories into hauntingly beautiful songs

Jan 23, 2026

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Stephen Spencer on Instagram: "lyrics by my 3-year-old daughter"

This may be the best music/lyrics songwriting team since Elton John/Bernie Taupin.

Stephen Spencer is a music theory professor at Hunter College in New York City. And on his Instagram account — @_stephenspencer — he’s been taking his three-year-old daughter’s stories, verbatim, and turning them into beautiful songs.

Their latest collaboration is about an …

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A guest post by

Ruben Bolling

Cartoonist/Writer and creator of the award-winning weekly comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug. Join Tom the Dancing Bug's Inner Hive at tomthedancingbug.com - (no dms pls)