![]() I don’t know if we would have been prepared if we hadn’t grown up singing in the church. When we got to the studio and they presented us with “ Pinball Number Count”, we looked at each other: “Are you kidding?” That song was really difficult! Gospel, jazz - we had to sing it in parts. When I was a boy in the ’70s, I watched Sesame Street every day, twice a day. The first time my dad was on Sesame Street, I was 3 and very confused on set when Big Bird took off his head. John Carter Cash, Producer Son of Johnny Cash ![]() Old people, young, white, black - everybody was grooving. Stevie Wonder came on in 1973 and did “ Superstition”. Sesame Street was a breakthrough in designing what we call a ‘co-viewing experience’: Children learn best when adults are co-engaged - and celebrities helped bring in those adults. Pete Seeger was so fascinated that he stopped singing, gazed up and said, “I’m working with Big Bird! I can’t believe it.” Big Bird can be a distraction. The second was the “American Pie” guy, Don McLean. When I first heard “Rubber Duckie” , I could see a nightclub singer doing that song. It’s a great gig when they say, “Please welcome Big Bird’s best buddy, Bob!” and you get a standing ovation from the introduction. ![]() I can carry a tune.Īs soon as I started singing on Sesame Street, I got calls from symphonies to do family pops concerts. I got the job when I was 35. I didn’t think of myself as a singer, but Jim Henson expected I would sing, so I didn’t get all fussy about it. “C Is for Cookie”? That’s a literacy moment.Ĭaroll Spinney, Big Bird Oscar The Grouch Rosemarie Truglio, senior vp, curriculum and content for Sesame Workshopįrom the beginning, Sesame was innovative for using music to teach curriculum goals. We wanted kids to hear all different music: R&B, opera, show tunes, folk, world music.ĭr. Joe Raposo, the first musical director, decided very early there would not be one music style. (Raposo died in 1989.)Ĭhristopher Cerf, editor-in-chief of books, records, and toys division?, Children’s Television Workshop (1970-1979) c omposer-songwriter (1973-1999) “ Prince was the only person besides Raposo who could make simple melodies so universal,” says Questlove, who wrote a song for Pharrell Williams’ appearance in 2016. Led by founding musical director Joe Raposo, Sesame Street introduced new standards to the American songbook, including its theme, “Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?” the title song for the segment One of These Things (Is Not Like the Others) Kermit the Frog’s signature ballad “Bein’ Green” and Muppet Ernie’s buoyant ditty “Rubber Duckie,” a 1970 Billboard Hot 100 top 20 hit. Along with a neighborly cast of adults and Muppets - puppets created by a young visionary named Jim Henson - music was core to the show’s identity, producing more than 2000 original songs and more than 140 LPs over the years. ![]() From its November 1969 debut, Sesame Street sought to reflect the sensibilities of broader American culture: The show’s hour-long premiere included a six-minute Simon & Garfunkel-esque tribute to milk’s suppliers called “ Hey Cow” and a psych-jazz composition featuring the voice of Grace Slick, who’d already notched two Billboard 200 Top 10s with Jefferson Airplane, counting from one to 10. Public reaction to these changes was a sign of just how much Sesame Street is revered by both boomers and millennials, but the show has always evolved with the times. That wasn’t exactly true - and Workshop CEO Jeff Dunn quickly apologized for the “misunderstandings” in a statement, saying the three were still “a key part of the Sesame family.” (Season 47 airs on HBO in January special guests will include James Corden, Sia, Jason Derulo, Tori Ke lly and Little Big Town.) And in July, another controversy arose when veteran cast member Bob McGrath told a fan-convention audience that he, Gordon and Luis (respectively, Roscoe Orman and Emilio Delgado) were “graciously let go” from the show. (New episodes premiere on the pay-cable channel and then, after a nine-month window, re-air on PBS.) The partnership’s symbolic gentrification initially caused an online hullabaloo: A public television series founded expressly to teach inner-city preschoolers the ABCs would now premiere on premium cable. ![]() This month, Sesame Street’s 46th season rolls out on PBS - its first since Sesame Workshop, the show’s educational production nonprofit, announced a five-year deal with HBO. ![]()
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