I sang at the same time I learned to talk too, Crowhugger. I agree with you.
I couldn't learn a song without the music because the two are intertwined. It looks as though singing uses a different part of the brain to spoken words. Work with people who have had strokes seems to suggest that.
On the original advice -- We were told to sing as we would speak, in the 1950s, by school teachers. They explained that they meant phrasing.
Cheers, Joy