Mundelein 7th-grader's music video offers a respite for homebound

A Mundelein seventh-grader's catchy music video about being stuck at "home-ium" during the coronavirus pandemic is spreading nearly as quickly as its subject.

As of Friday morning, "All Day Long (The Coronavirus Song)" had 79,913 views and was climbing on YouTube rankings, making Chloe Langford a celebrity of sorts.

The three-minute toe-tapper with Dixieland and Vaudeville vibes has been featured on local television and NPR.

And the sleek finished product and the exponential social media sharing have surprised everyone.

"I didn't think it would be this big," Chloe said. "I just thought it would be a couple of my parents' friends commenting on Facebook."

Far from it. Friends have texted about seeing her on TV and jokingly asked for an autograph.

Her dad, Paul, said he has been a professional musician for 30 years but not achieved a similar response. He plays piano, sings radio and TV jingles, produces recordings and arranges music, and has his own YouTube channel.

"This goofy little song is a nice levity most people are seeking," he reasoned.

Indeed, aside from praising Chloe's talent, many commenters said the video is a tonic we all need.

How did this come to be?

Sarah Rafalowitz, a language arts and social studies teacher at Carl Sandburg Middle School in Mundelein District 75, asked her students to write about what they've been doing the past two weeks.

The response could be a paragraph, narrative, poem, blog post, song or picture.

Because Chloe loves all aspects of music, plays instruments and has a natural singing voice (she played Rafiki in the school's January production of "The Lion King Jr."), a song was the logical choice.

Sitting on a stool in the living room, Chloe plays a euphonium, a ukulele and a trombone and sings about what she's been up to while "stuck at home-ium" because of the virus.

Everybody, from "here in Mundelein all the way to Sedona," is in the same boat because of corona, she laments.

Sorting Legos, riding scooters, talking family walks, drawing with chalk, washing hands, playing Catan and watching 1,000 movies except for "Peter Pan" (no reason, it just rhymed) also have been part of the 12-year-old's routine.

The words and music were written by Chloe and her dad. The unexpected hit started with an offhand after dinner remark.

"I think my wife said, 'It's just me and my euphonium,' and we were off and running," he said.

Ideas, rhymes and phrases flowed quickly, and the song was finished in about an hour. The vocal, done in Langford's basement studio, and the lip sync video, which includes little sister, Cassidy, a third-grader at Mechanics Grove Elementary School, were done in a couple of takes.

From start to finish, writing and recording the song, shooting the video and editing - done on an iPhone - took five or six hours, Paul Langford said.

Rafalowitz said the submission demonstrates Chloe's strong family values, writing ability, musical talent and singing voice, and was "far and away above my expectations."