The hit singer's new kids' book 'Put Your Records', out now, is based on her 2006 hit of the same name
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Corinne-Bailey-Rae-Put-Your-Records-On-book-cover-by-Corinne-Bailey-Rae-030326-f7427745b6b14dd3a517e6d1ef042614.jpg "Corinne Bailey Rae; Put Your Records On book cover by Corinne Bailey Rae")
Credit: Ulrike Rindermann; Courtesy of Corinne Bailey Rae
NEED TO KNOW
- Corinne Bailey Rae has released her first children’s book
- The story is inspired by her 2006 hit “Put Your Records On”
- “I’m just so happy with how it turned out,” the singer tells PEOPLE
Corinne Bailey Rae isn't singing a new tune, but she's just written about an beloved one.
The U.K. born Grammy-winner, 47, just released her first children's book Put Your Records On, from Rocky Pond Books. The story is inspired by her 2006 hit of the same name. "I've done three readings so far and I get so much out of reading it," she tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "I'm just so happy with how it turned out."
In the new book, a young girl named Bea spends a day discovering new music in her aunt's record collection, and feeling all the feels that come with each tune. The main inspiration is of course the Rae's global hit with lyrics "Girl put your records on, tell me your favorite song, just go ahead let your hair down."
Credit: Courtesy of Corinne Bailey Rae
Now celebrating the 20th anniversary of the song and her debut album Like a Star, Rae recalls what it was like first writing those lyrics. After coming up with the original guitar riff, "I remember kind of finishing the lyrics for it on the train," she says.
She pulled from experience. "When I was writing the song, I was getting back into that feeling of finding myself through music, putting on my my dad's record collection, dancing around the room. I remember putting on a Stevie Wonder song one time, and I had these really big chunky, high heeled shoes and dancing. My neighbor came knocking."
Credit: Courtesy of Corinne Bailey Rae
With two daughters ages 8 and 6 with husband Steve Brown, she says they were the real inspiration behind turning her hit into literature.
"Having kids, finding myself, telling them loads of different stories," she says of how the idea came about. "We obviously have lots of car journeys, plane journeys and train journeys where they just say, 'Tell me a story.' And you just have to pull from what you know and so much of that is your experience. And so I really wanted to tell a story about music and emotions."
Credit: Ulrike Rindermann
One of the emotions the book explores is sadness. Rae faced the unexpected death of her first husband, fellow musician Jason Rae, in 2008. She says now she has an answer to the sadness that comes at times.
"When I'm in a happy moment, I feel the joy. And then I also feel this kind of extra layer because I think, gosh, I didn't know that I would be here. I didn't know I would be able to feel this really uncomplicated joy," she says.
Rae continues, "Every time I'm with my kids, I think, 'Wow, this is amazing. I got to have children.' Or I'm with my husband. I think, 'Wow, I've got to have this love.' You're grateful for the joy and then you're also grateful because it's so much in contrast to the pain that you've experienced. It kind of colors every day with an extra layer of gratitude."
As for motherhood, she couldn't love it more. "They're amazing. I think I'm really aware at this moment of them being 6 and 8 and how it feels," she says.
Credit: Courtesy of Corinne Bailey Rae
"When we're in the room together, I'm as present as I can be. When they say, 'Will you play with me?' And you think, 'Yeah, I'm pretty tired right now,' but the fact is that they won't be saying that just in a few years. It's got so much beauty and pain sort of wrapped in it together."
That said, when she gets time to herself, the singer is still putting her records on. Gearing up to head out on tour for the the 20th anniversary victory lap of Like a Star, Rae has nice playlist going. "Stevie songs, 'Cornflake Girl' by Tori Amos, and I just got the new Jill Scott record. There's so much positivity in it. I like anything that lifts you up."
Put Your Records On from Rocky Pond Books is available now wherever books are sold.