The younger brother of the late Harry Chapin, singer/songwriter Tom Chapin carried on his sibling's legacy admirably, becoming a popular children's entertainer. The son of jazz drummer Jim Chapin, he was born in New York City in 1945; he and his brothers performed music together regularly during their adolescence, later earning acclaim on the Greenwich Village club circuit.

The Chapin Brothers band dissolved during in 1964, when Tom left the country; upon returning a decade later, he issued the 1976 solo LP Life Is Like That. In 1979, he released Mother Earth, the first of his many children's recordings; in the years to follow, Chapin moved back and forth between music for adults and kids, and for five years also hosted the children's TV series Make a Wish.

Among his many albums are In the City of Mercy (1982), Family Tree (1988), Moonboat (1989), This Pretty Planet (1992), Billy the Squid (1992), Zag Zig (1994) and Common Ground (2001).