As soon as he heard the voices, the toddler lifted his arms in celebration and bounced his head to the rhythm of the music, all the while strapped in a padded car seat that prevented his being what the song touted: “Free To Be … You and Me.”

Nonetheless, he swayed and he smiled while listening to children – and some childlike adults – sing and speak the memorable selections from the 1972 album. His music came from a CD inserted into the slot on the truck’s dashboard, the stereo fullness surrounding him like the car seat.

His dad heard the first “Free To Be” songs on a 33 1/3 rpm record by Bell Records that featured a pink jacket, bright lettering and drawings of children of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors and sexes, the target audience.

It was all conceived by Marlo Thomas and friends Alan Alda, Harry Belafonte, Mel Brooks, Jack Cassidy, Dick Cavett, Carol Channing, Billy DeWolfe, Rosey Grier, Shirley Jones, Bobby Morse, The New Seekers, Diana Ross, Diana Sands and Tom Smothers. It was a project “born of love,” one “wonderful adventure in this voyage towards self- discovery,” said Gloria Steinem.

And so it has been all these many years since Thomas searched through store shelves and found books and records for boys and girls “which charmingly dictated who and what they must be, colorfully directing new minds away from their own uniqueness.” She and her friends wanted an alternative message, one that helped children feel free to be who they are and who they want to be.

Take Dudley Pippin, new in the neighborhood, who confesses to a stranger that he has no friends, then hears from her, neither do I. And Dudley Pippin and his “no-friend” go off to play. Or learn about a boy named William who loved to play baseball … and with dolls – and that it is OK to do both. And, in another story, that it’s all right to cry. Through the lyrics, young listeners are told nobody really likes housework, that sometimes grandmothers -however bossy – can have hurt feelings. And parents are people.

“In a complex and violent world, our children are our conscience,” said the editors of Ms. Magazine in 1972. “Their spirit reaffirms the worth of being alive. Their questions test our wisdom and humanity. … we owe them our loving support as they discover for themselves the adults they wish to become.”

And so the musical recording continued to play more than 30 years later … in an even more complex and violent world. Like father, like son, the young child listened, learned and laughed.

“Were all thy children kind and natural,” said Shakespeare. “Free To Be … You and Me” was created as a “celebration of the natural child: curious, exuberant, experimental, frightened, joyous, angry and always full of wonder.”