Music has been a part of the children's television showSesame Street since its debut onPBS in 1969. For the first time, music was used as a teaching tool on a TV program for children; the songs written and performed on the show fulfilled specific purposes and supported its curriculum. The music onSesame Street consisted of many styles and genres, but was consistent and recognizable so that it could be reproduced. The producers recorded and released dozens of albums of music; many songs became "timeless classics".[1] In order to attract the best composers and lyricists, CTW allowed songwriters to retain the rights to the songs they wrote, which allowed them to earn lucrative profits.Sesame Street Book & Record, recorded in 1970, wentgold and won aGrammy. As of November 2019,Sesame Workshop has partnered withWarner Music Group's Arts Music division to reform Sesame Street Records to make the music of Sesame Street fully available.[2]
Sesame Street's songwriters included the show's first music directorJoe Raposo,Jeff Moss, andChristopher Cerf, and scriptwriters like Tony Geiss and Norman Stiles. Raposo and his musical team created a huge amount of music for the show, including dozens of unique songs per show. Raposo was inspired by the goals ofSesame Street, especially in the early days of the show's production, and composed hundreds of curriculum-inspired songs. Raposo won three Emmys and four Grammys for his work on the show. The show's theme music, "Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?", which has been called "a "siren song for preschoolers",[3] was written by Raposo, directorJon Stone, and writerBruce Hart. Raposo also wrote "Bein' Green," "Somebody Come and Play" and "C is for Cookie". "Sing" became a hit forThe Carpenters in 1973. Moss wrote "I Love Trash", which was included on the first album ofSesame Street songs, and "Rubber Duckie", which was performed by theBoston Pops Orchestra and hit #11 on the USBillboard Hot 100 chart in 1971, "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" and "People in Your Neighborhood".
Artists likeBarbra Streisand,Lena Horne,Dizzy Gillespie,Paul Simon, andJose Feliciano have recorded Raposo'sSesame Street songs. By 2021,Sesame Street had been honored with 11Grammys.
Sesame Street, from its earliest planning and development stages before its debut onPBS in 1969, has used music as a teaching tool. The show's creators recognized that children responded to commercial jingles, so they wanted to use their characteristics, which included repetition, clever visuals, brevity, and clarity, in what they presented to young viewers.[4][5] For the first time in children's television, the show's songs fulfilled a specific purpose and supported its curriculum.[6] The show's creators understood that music and sound effects provided a direct means of teaching children basic skills, and that children learned more effectively when new material was accompanied by a song.[7] Co-creatorJoan Ganz Cooney observed in her proposal for the new show, written in 1967, that children had an "affinity for commercial jingles",[5] so many of the show's songs were constructed like television ads. Critic Peter Hellman put it this way: "If [children] could reciteBudweiser jingles from TV, why not give them a program that would teach the ABCs and simple number concepts?"[8]
The music onSesame Street consisted of many styles and genres, but it retained its own distinctive sound, which was consistent and recognizable so that it could be reproduced.[9] "There was no other sound like it on television", Jon Stone, the show's first director, said.[10] Music was used to encourage children's dual-attention abilities by allowing them to attend to the show's action even when not actively watching. In order to be effective, however,Gerald S. Lesser, who supervised research forSesame Street, stated that because music and sound effects naturally evokes physical participation, they need to be carefully integrated with visual movement. As a result, the songwriters avoided pairing music with static visual presentations. Auditory cues in the form of music or sound effects signaled the entrance of a character or the end and beginning of a sequence.[11]
The producers recorded and released its musical content early in the show's history, to reinforce its curriculum lessons for children when they were not watching it, and for entertainment.[12] Recording albums of the substantial amount of music written for the show, along with publishing books, was the first attempts to generate income and tofund the show and other projects of theChildren's Television Workshop (the CTW, later renamed the Sesame Workshop, or the SW), the organization that oversaw the production ofSesame Street.[13]
Many of the songs written for the show have become what writer David Borgenicht called "timeless classics".[1] In order to attract the best composers and lyricists, CTW allowed songwriters to retain the rights to the songs they wrote. For the first time in children's television, the writers earned lucrative profits, which helped the show sustain public interest.[14]Sesame Street Book & Record, recorded in 1970, the first of dozens of albums made up ofSesame Street songs, was also the show's first cast album.[15] The album wentgold and won aGrammy.[16][17] The final track "Rubber Duckie", written by Jeff Moss, was released as a single, appeared on the United States'Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was nominated for a Grammy.[15] TheBoston Pops performed with the show's cast in a television special that aired in 1971.[9]
Sesame Street's songwriters included the show's first music directorJoe Raposo;Jeff Moss, whom Michael Davis called a "gifted poet, composer, and lyricist";[18] andChristopher Cerf; whom Louise Gikow called "the go-to guy onSesame Street for classic rock and roll as well as song spoofs".[19] Scriptwriters such asTony Geiss, who wrote approximately 150 songs for the show, andNorman Stiles often also wrote their own lyrics to accompany their scripts.[6]
Raposo was brought toSesame Street by producer Tom Whedon, who was his friend and college roommate, and by Stone, who had worked with Raposo on other productions.[20] Stone found Raposo's music brilliant, melodic, and sophisticated, yet simple enough for children to recognize and sing. According to writer Michael Davis,Sesame Street's signature sound grew out of sessions with a seven-piece band consisting of a keyboardist, drummer, electric bass player, guitarist, trumpeter, a winds instrumentalist, and a percussionist.[21] One of these musicians was drummerDanny Epstein, who became the show's music coordinator in 1970 and performed for the show since its inception.[22] Stone reported that a typical recording session with Raposo, which would often last three days,[22] was "an on-the-fly, off-the-cuff experience".[3]
Raposo and his musical team created a huge amount of music in order to accompany 130 episodes a year, which often included dozens of unique songs per show. Raposo, who wrote over 2,000 compositions forSesame Street, called it a "sausage factory".[16] Raposo was inspired by the goals ofSesame Street, especially in the early days of the show's production, and responded by composing, as Davis put it, "a stack" of curriculum-inspired songs.[23] Davis also stated, "In the early days of production, nobody 'got' the gestalt ofSesame Street faster or better than Raposo".[23] The show's researchers reported that they enjoyed working with Raposo, and he enjoyed working with them. They also reported that he would change his songs based upon the researchers' needs and suggestions, and on the goals of the show's curriculum.[24] Raposo won threeEmmys and four Grammys for his work on the show.[25]
Raposo wrote the music to the theme music, which Davis called "jaunty" and "deceptively simple".[10] Stone and writerBruce Hart were listed as the song's lyricists; Stone considered the song "a musical masterpiece and a lyrical embarrassment".[21] Epstein was responsible for bringing in jazz musicianToots Thielemans to play harmonica for the song.[22] The song's arrangement has changed about six times, but the words have remained the same throughout the years.[26] This became what Davis called a "siren song for preschoolers".[3]
Epstein called Moss "a true gentleman",[27] and Cooney called him "a true music visionary".[27] He wrote "I Love Trash" for Oscar the Grouch, which was included on the first album ofSesame Street songs. One of Moss' best-known compositions for the show wasRubber Duckie; it was performed by Henson for theMuppetErnie and also appeared on the album. The song was performed by theBoston Pops Orchestra and hit #11 on the USBillboard charts in 1971, and became a hit in Germany in 1996.[18][28] Moss also wrote "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" and "People in Your Neighborhood". Epstein called his music "simple" but "not simplistic".[27] Moss co-wrote over 70 songs with Raposo.[27]
Raposo also wroteBein' Green in 1970, again performed by Henson, but this time forKermit the Frog. Davis calls it "Raposo's best-regarded song forSesame Street",[14] and it has been recorded by several singers, includingFrank Sinatra,Van Morrison andRay Charles.[29] Raposo's other notable songs written for the show include "Somebody Come and Play" and "C is for Cookie". "Sing", which Epstein called "a monument",[16] became a hit forThe Carpenters in 1973.[30]Barbra Streisand,Lena Horne,Dizzy Gillespie,Paul Simon, andJose Feliciano also recorded Raposo'sSesame Street songs.[25]
By 2019, 180 albums had been produced, andSesame Street had been honored with 11Grammys.[31] In 2010, Time Magazine compiled a list of the Top Ten celebrity songs to be featured on the show. The list included older artists such asSmokey Robinson,Johnny Cash andCab Calloway as well as newer performers likeNorah Jones andFeist.[32] In late 2018, SW announced a multi-year agreement withWarner Music Group's Arts Music division to re-launch Sesame Street Records in the U.S. and Canada. For the first time in 20 years, "an extensive catalog ofSesame Street recordings" was made available to the public in a variety of formats, including CD and vinyl compilations, digital streaming, and downloads.[2]
| Product type | Music |
|---|---|
| Owner | Sesame Workshop Arts Music |
| Introduced | 1974 |
| Markets | North America |
Sesame Street Records is a label ofSesame Workshop, distributed byArts Music, that was revived in 2019. The label existed previously from 1974 to 1984 as an independent label.
Children's Television Workshop (CTW; now Sesame Workshop) started releasing Sesame Street albums in 1970. Sesame Street Records label started in 1974. The label was discounted in 1984. CTW continued issuing Sesame Street music in partnership with labels including parody-titles likeSesame Road andBorn to Add, which spoofedAbbey Road andBorn to Run.[33]
Sesame Street Records in the U.S. and Canada was relaunched in November 2019 via a multi-year agreement withWarner Music Group's Arts Music division. The full catalog ofSesame Street recordings would be fully available for the first time in 20 years in various formats.[2] The catalog was released via streaming and download platform at the time of the announcement.[34] The first releases in 2019 were theLetters series on September 21 thenAll-Time Favorites series followed in November with a new holiday compilation.[35] The label plans to origin cover songs and parodies outside the series and thematic compilations around the show's various topics.[2]
