Sesame Street Theme
Encyclopedia
"Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?" is the theme song
of the children's television series Sesame Street
.
, a writer and composer of many of television show's songs. In his book on the history of Sesame Street, Michael Davis called the theme "jaunty" and "deceptively simple". Raposo wrote the lyrics to the song with Jon Stone
and Bruce Hart
. Stone considered the song "a musical masterpiece and a lyrical embarrassment". Raposo enlisted jazz harmonica player Jean "Toots" Thielemans
, as well as a mixed choir of children, to record the opening and closing themes.
"Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street" has since become a "siren song for preschoolers".
played by Thielemans while children sing the lyrics
. In each episode's beginning storyline, a slower instrumental version of Thielemans's tune is heard.
Beginning in season 24, a newer version of the theme surfaced. To coincide with the Sesame Streets move to Kaufman Astoria Studios
, the theme song was re-recorded for the opening credits with a more upbeat, calypso
-like tune instead of the harmonica
-themed melody of the previous versions with children singing. This version remained during the show's opening for six more seasons. Like the previous version, this arrangement also had an instrumental version that closed every episode, and would continue to do so until season 38, outlasting the vocal version.
Other versions and alterations to the theme song were made to reflect changes in the show's locale. When the show did a season in New Mexico
, the song was augmented to reflect its setting so that New Mexico was incorporated into the song's lyrics.
For the second half of the series' 30th season, the tune went back to a more conservative tone. Using again a harmonica-style tune by Thielemans, the theme was a throwback to the show's early seasons. Unlike the first version, though, this version was much slower and had additional notes added particularly in the beginning. This version remained for three seasons. Still, the instrumental calypso version used since November 1992 remained as the show's closing theme.
Again, the theme was given a complete makeover in season 33 to coincide with the revamping of the show's structure. This version had a much rapid, more energetic feel to the song. Also the line "Can you tell me how to get/How to get to Sesame Street" was repeated twice in this incarnation rather than the traditional repetition of "How to get to Sesame Street" at the end.
Drastic changes were once more instituted for the opening song for season 38. The song again was upbeat, but it now had a style that has a kiddie pop
/hip hop
tune. Another change was the instrumental opener which now had a softer version of the new rendition.
In season 38, a new melody
was used to complement the opening and closing sequences. The style seemed to be an instrumental version of the opening (see above).
rave group The Smart E's
. "Sesame's Treet
" reached #2 on the UK singles chart
. A further remixed uptempo eurodance
/happy hardcore
version played by The Smart E's themselves was recorded for the 2000 Dancemania
compilation Speed 5
.
In a single released in 2000 and produced by The Alchemist
, underground rapper Agallah
sampled the Sesame Street theme on "Crookie Monster". Agallah also rapped in the voice of Cookie Monster on the track, and the track used other vocal samples from other Sesame Street characters such as Grover and Herry Monster.
American officials indicated U.S. interrogators subjected prisoners to the Sesame Street theme song in long sessions during the Iraq War.
In 2009, Joshua Radin
performed a cover version of the song for the episode "My ABC's
" of Scrubs
.
In a Malcolm in the Middle
episode, this song could be heard playing the background of a party.
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
of the children's television series Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
.
Overview
The Sesame Street theme song was composed by Joe RaposoJoe Raposo
Joseph Guilherme Raposo, OIH was a Portuguese-American composer, songwriter, pianist, television writer and lyricist, best known for his work on the children's television series Sesame Street, for which he wrote the theme song, as well as classic songs such as "Bein' Green" and "C is for Cookie"...
, a writer and composer of many of television show's songs. In his book on the history of Sesame Street, Michael Davis called the theme "jaunty" and "deceptively simple". Raposo wrote the lyrics to the song with Jon Stone
Jon Stone
Jon Stone is best known for writing and producing Sesame Street, and is credited with helping develop characters such as Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch. He is regarded by many as one of the best children's television writers. He started working for children's programs in 1955...
and Bruce Hart
Bruce Hart (songwriter)
Bruce Hart was an American songwriter and screenwriter perhaps best known for composing the lyrics to the theme song to Sesame Street.-Biography:...
. Stone considered the song "a musical masterpiece and a lyrical embarrassment". Raposo enlisted jazz harmonica player Jean "Toots" Thielemans
Toots Thielemans
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans , known as Toots Thielemans, is a Belgian jazz musician well known for his guitar and harmonica playing as well as his whistling. Thielemans is credited as one of the greatest harmonica players of the 20th century...
, as well as a mixed choir of children, to record the opening and closing themes.
"Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street" has since become a "siren song for preschoolers".
Opening sequences
For the first 23 seasons of Sesame Street the theme song in the opening credits and the show's start was untouched. The first version in the opening credits has the melodyMelody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
played by Thielemans while children sing the lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
. In each episode's beginning storyline, a slower instrumental version of Thielemans's tune is heard.
Beginning in season 24, a newer version of the theme surfaced. To coincide with the Sesame Streets move to Kaufman Astoria Studios
Kaufman Astoria Studios
The Kaufman Astoria Studios is an historic movie studio located in the Astoria section of the New York City borough of Queens.-History:It was originally built by Famous Players-Lasky in 1920 to provide the company with a facility close to the Broadway theater district. Many features and short...
, the theme song was re-recorded for the opening credits with a more upbeat, calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
-like tune instead of the harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
-themed melody of the previous versions with children singing. This version remained during the show's opening for six more seasons. Like the previous version, this arrangement also had an instrumental version that closed every episode, and would continue to do so until season 38, outlasting the vocal version.
Other versions and alterations to the theme song were made to reflect changes in the show's locale. When the show did a season in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, the song was augmented to reflect its setting so that New Mexico was incorporated into the song's lyrics.
For the second half of the series' 30th season, the tune went back to a more conservative tone. Using again a harmonica-style tune by Thielemans, the theme was a throwback to the show's early seasons. Unlike the first version, though, this version was much slower and had additional notes added particularly in the beginning. This version remained for three seasons. Still, the instrumental calypso version used since November 1992 remained as the show's closing theme.
Again, the theme was given a complete makeover in season 33 to coincide with the revamping of the show's structure. This version had a much rapid, more energetic feel to the song. Also the line "Can you tell me how to get/How to get to Sesame Street" was repeated twice in this incarnation rather than the traditional repetition of "How to get to Sesame Street" at the end.
Drastic changes were once more instituted for the opening song for season 38. The song again was upbeat, but it now had a style that has a kiddie pop
Bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop is a genre of pop music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers.Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972...
/hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
tune. Another change was the instrumental opener which now had a softer version of the new rendition.
Closing sequences
For the closing scenes that preceded the credits and a list of underwriting sponsors, an instrumental version of the old harmonica-style version in the opening sequence was first used. This version remained intact for 23 seasons. Starting in season 24 and through season 37, an instrumental version of the calypso rendition was used, and the closing credits were separated from the closing scenes of the show.In season 38, a new melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
was used to complement the opening and closing sequences. The style seemed to be an instrumental version of the opening (see above).
Uses in popular culture
The theme was "remixed" in 1992 by BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
rave group The Smart E's
Luna-C
Luna-C is a British DJ and record producer, known for his work in breakbeat hardcore music. He made up a third of the rave group Smart E's in 1992, which had a number 2 hit in the UK with a remix of the Sesame Street theme song .Luna-C founded the Kniteforce Records label in 1992, which has...
. "Sesame's Treet
Sesame's Treet
"Sesame's Treet" is a 1992 remix of the "classic" Sesame Street theme song by the English rave group Smart E's. The song reached #2 on the UK Singles Chart....
" reached #2 on the UK singles chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. A further remixed uptempo eurodance
Eurodance
Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...
/happy hardcore
Happy hardcore
Happy hardcore, also known as happycore, is a genre of music typified by a very fast tempo , often coupled with solo vocals and sentimental lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat "happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of hardcore techno, which tend to be "darker". It is typically in...
version played by The Smart E's themselves was recorded for the 2000 Dancemania
Dancemania
Dancemania is a series of remix compilation albums by i-DANCE. The series deals primarily with dance music, especially eurodance. Despite its tracks have been made by various musicians from all over the world mainly from the European continent, the albums have been released exclusively in Japan.The...
compilation Speed 5
Dancemania Speed
Dancemania Speed is a sub-series of Toshiba EMI's Dancemania compilation series. This series features faster, further remixed versions of recordings from previously released Dancemania albums or faster remixed covers of various famous songs...
.
In a single released in 2000 and produced by The Alchemist
The Alchemist (producer)
Alan Daniel Maman , better known as The Alchemist, is an American hip hop producer, DJ and rapper. He hails from Beverly Hills, California...
, underground rapper Agallah
Agallah
Agallah , born Angel Aguilar, is a Puerto Rican and Filipino-American rapper who was a member of the The Diplomats-affiliated group Purple City and the group Propain campaign. He was formerly known as 8-Off Agallah, but changed the name because it was controversial; 8-Off is a variation of the name...
sampled the Sesame Street theme on "Crookie Monster". Agallah also rapped in the voice of Cookie Monster on the track, and the track used other vocal samples from other Sesame Street characters such as Grover and Herry Monster.
American officials indicated U.S. interrogators subjected prisoners to the Sesame Street theme song in long sessions during the Iraq War.
In 2009, Joshua Radin
Joshua Radin
Joshua Radin is an American recording artist, songwriter and actor. He was born and raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and is of Swedish, German, Polish, Russian, and Austrian descent. He studied drawing and painting at Northwestern University, following his college years with stints as an art...
performed a cover version of the song for the episode "My ABC's
My ABC's
"My ABC's" is the 155th episode of ABC Studios television series Scrubs, and the fifth episode of the series' eighth season. It was broadcast on January 27, 2009-Plot:...
" of Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
.
In a Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Network. The series was first broadcast on January 9, 2000, and ended its six-and-a-half-year run on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes...
episode, this song could be heard playing the background of a party.