Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the debut of the show, which embedded so many songs into our subconscious.
Featuring:
1 |
|
2 |
|
3 |
|
4 |
|
5 |
|
6 |
|
7 |
|
8 |
|
9 |
|
Sponsor: Introducing The AudioEngine P4: The high-performance bookshelf speaker pair with the same great looks and sound as their powered speakers, but without the built-in amplifiers. Beautiful, small, and affordable, AP4 is the perfect choice for your living room, bedroom or office and an ideal surround speaker for use with other Audioengine speakers in your home theater or stereo system!
[starratingmulti id=9]
Subscribe: (MP3 feed) | (AAC feed)
if you were any more topical, you'd be a cream! Great cover story brian.. I was going to post a link to 3 videos on youtube of the original pitch films to PBS, but they have been taken down 🙁
Are you sure about the Randy Newman cover? I know the song was done by Scooter and Fozzie in the first season of The Muppet Show, and is available on the Muppet Show 25th Anniversary CD, but I haven't been able to find any reference to him doing this song on Sesame Street. Similarly, IMDB doesn't include Sesame Street in his list of appearances (unlike, say, James Taylor).
Randy Newman wrote the original song. He hasn't preformed it on Sesame Street or the Muppet how.
Great show again, Brian.
I would like to recommend a song for the extras podcast for the Sesame Street Show. Michael Franti & Spearhead released a live album via iTunes on which they covered What I Got by Sublime (studio version is available on the Sublime tribute CD), but in the middle of their What I Got tribute he tells a cute story and then goes into a Sesame Street Medley before returning to What I Got. I don't know. Maybe it'll be more appropriate for another themed show (cover within a cover?) but it's my suggestion.
You could even put that in the next Beatles show, since What I Got is a rip-off of Lady Madonna…!
Going through a bit of an emotionally trying time, and it was really wonderful to find this little oasis in my podcast feed. Thanks so much—-love the speciality shows!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! for the Joshua Radin cover. I have had this song bubbling in the back of my mind since it aired on Scrubs nearly a year ago. I thought I would never hear a version of this song without the Scrubs dialog in it, but you delivered as usual! Thanks for your hard work!
I must take you to task and demand a correction!! Okay, I just think you should know. Mahna Mahna was originally written for and premiered on the Ed Sullivan Show back in 1969 as the act Mahna Mahna and The Snowths. Back in those days The Muppets would regularly appear on Sullivan, as well as other variety shows like The Tonight Show and The Smothers Brothers. The piece was written to be performed in front of a live audience – it plays very differently without their reaction.
Many people don't remember/realize that The Muppets were originally a very adult, "hip" act. They'd make comments about pop culture, politics, even sex, though in a 60's frame of reference. It wasn't until The Muppet Show that the act became child-oriented. Do you remember the Saturday Night Muppets (Scred, Vazh, Mighty Favog…)? I guess I was part of a small minority who liked the sketches.
Mahna Mahna was so wildly popular that it appeared on Sesame Street shortly after Sullivan. I don't know for certain, but it may have been the first instance of a non-Sesame Street Muppet appearing on the show (with the exception of Kermit, of course). CTW was/is very careful to avoid crossovers between Sesame Street and the "commercial" characters.
So i have to call you out on both getting the origins wrong AND including it as a Sesame Street song!
I will agree with you about the muppet origins, but the song was originally recorded by Piero Umiliani for a Swedish soft-core porn film called "Heaven and Hell". And thanks to Andrew and Patrick, here's a safe-for-work clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoheVioD3Bg
Strictly speaking, it was an Italian film set in Sweden, but otherwise this is correct. 🙂 The IMDB page might be of interest: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063660/
The Sesame Street series back in 1971 was how I actually learned English and references to American pop culture. There was no bilingual ed/ESL for me as a 3 year old getting ready to enter the American education system. Great memories and a special part of my history and our childrens' history. BTW the Pinball Numbers Song here sounds like Paddy McAloon and Wendy Smith took it over and worked it into a Prefab Sprout version, no?
Everyone sing along now:
Why are there so many
songs about rainbows?
Yet none on Coverville?
Would have loved to hear Jason Mraz's version of Rainbow Connection!
Ah, well this is a case where I _was_ trying to be faithful to the purists! I've got just under a dozen great covers of "Rainbow Connection", and almost included one in the show, but the song made its first appearance in the Muppet Movie, not on Sesame Street!
lol, guess I'm showing my age. Grew up about 3-4 years too old for Sesame Street when it began and didn't recognize the difference. all in all a VERY enjoyable episode!
If you do additional songs some time I'd love to hear the Andy Hallet version of the Being Green that he song on Angel as the karaoke demon.
Were you kidding about "Letter B"? That was one of my favorite Sesame Street parodies growing up, but it was a parody of The Beatles' "Let It Be". Not sure if you were being sardonic or not…
I was remembering something else. I do remember a parody of Hootie & Co.'s "Let Her Cry", which I thought was from a Sesame Street, but I might have been mixing it up with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B3P-WANiQk
Here's the original one. I didn't remember that it was a sound-alike and not a direct parody. This is a newer Sesame Street episode with footage of the old song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fei0SCasFcQ&fe…