In 2011, Christy Turlington directed and released a documentary called No Woman No Cry, shining a spotlight on the shockingly high mortality rate for expectant mothers, particularly among women living in poverty.
The film inspired a companion benefit album called Every Mother Counts, named after Turlington’s foundation. Turlington personally recruited the artists–all women–who contributed to the album.
One of those artists was Patti Scialfa. Patti readily agreed to participate, but she had trouble finding the right song until Bruce reminded her of a song she’d written years before when their children were young. Patti liked the idea, but she wasn’t overly fond of the way she sounded singing it, so she rewrote it to her comfort.
“Children’s Song” eventually made it onto the album, but not before Patti and Bruce worked through some creative tension around it.
“We had both versions and I kept pushing for the new one,” Patti told Rolling Stone in 2011, “and Bruce kept pushing for the one that ended up on the record. I kept saying, ‘I just don’t sing it that well.’ And he said, ‘Run the tape, I’ll sing it.’ He sang the whole song and it really suited him just perfectly.”
Ultimately, Patti and Bruce recorded the song as a duet, tapping Ron Aniello for production duty during the *Wrecking Ball*sessions. While that may technically have violated the “mothers only” rule for the album, the gentle, parental benediction turned out too lovely to keep in the vault.
Bruce’s participation might have drawn more attention (and therefore sales) to the project, but Bruce, Patti, and Christy agreed to keep Bruce’s name off the credits to better support the album’s theme.
Every Mother Counts was available for sale exclusively in Starbucks stores (the Seattle-based coffee company was the project’s sponsor) for a mere 28 days. Even with such a brief on-sale window and limited retail outlets, the album debuted at #83 on the Billboard album chart and spawned a follow-up project the following year.
If you managed to snap up one of those rare original CDs, congratulations on scoring one of the more elusive original Springsteen recordings and for supporting an important cause–eight dollars of your purchase went toward helping make pregnancy and childbirth safe for women everywhere.
Children’s Song
Recorded: 2011
Released: Every Mother Counts (2011)
Never performed
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