Muzak?

[erracht]

Some of the instrumental music in Sesame street sounded
a lot like muzak (elevator music). Think, for example, of the
sound of "If Moon was Cookie". Was the music provided by
the Muzak company, or was there a band proper to the
show. In general, it might be interesting to discuss how
Sesame Street music is produced.

 

[ssetta]

Actually, a lot of the films with music used library music, or music from outside of Sesame Street. Like the film with the Dragon Kite that had guitar music. And do you remember "Operation Playground" where they renovate the playground at P.S. 87 in NYC? It was done in about 1987. The music used in it sounds like the music that would be used in an infomercial. And there were these films that were shot a few years ago with a kid going to the doctor's, and there were a few of them. The music that was used there did sound sort of like "doctor's office music" or elevator music, I heard it on a radio commercial for a hospital. I always wondered about that.

 

[ssetta]

Hey, I just found some information about the music from the clips I just mentioned. The "Operation Playground" film had 2 pieces of music. The one used in the first part was called "Ragtime and Smiles", and the second one was called "Hopscotch. At least I think that's correct. I might have the 2 mixed up. But I know that both of them come out of the Corelli-Jacobs Library, which is a very large library of music, I think it's owned by DeWolfe Music. They provide music for things like commercials, news shows, infomercials, etc. But because of this, that music may very well been used somewhere else. I would LOVE to actually hear "Hopscotch" sometime, because it was very upbeat, and I have always loved that piece. It sort of reminded me of the now-gone Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyworld.

The same can be true with the "Double Dutch Jump Rope Competition" from 1988. That film had 2 pieces of music as well. "Sand Castles" and "Night Hawk." Now, "Sand Castles" was like a very athletic piece of music, it sounds like it could be for Sega Genesis.

And the music used in the films with kids going to the doctor's was called "Life is Great", and it was written by Steve Baker. It was actually published by APM Music. If you go onto the APM website (www.apmmusic.com), click on Guest Music Search, (you have to have Macromedia Flash Player to do this) click on the Advanced Search Tab, and type in the title "Life is Great" in the title box, and check the "Track Title" box, and then click on search. If you do that, you'll be able to listen to the piece.

Another film with production music was the "Paper Recycling" film from the 70s. It had a slow piece of music in the beginning called "Lazing", and the second piece was called "Blue-Nosed Gopher." And about "Blue-Nosed Gopher," a friend told me that he heard that exact same piece of music used in some current series on Cartoon Network.

So, has anyone heard any film music from SS used elsewhere?

 

[mikebennidict]

link doesn't work.

 

[ssetta]

link doesn't work.

Oh, you know why? It was because of the end parenthese. Just type it in to the address bar without it.

 

[dustinrn]

SS music on MTV

Anyone remember the skit of the beekeeper mom from the mid to late 80's? It's where she goes out and collects honeycombs then they squeeze them in a press and pour it on pancakes? The little bit of music where the mom is in the beekeeper's outfit and pouring smoking on the beehives was also used during the original "Spankin' New" commericials on MTV.....i don't know how to describe that little piece of music except that it is "surreal" sounding....

 

[ssetta]

That actually REMINDS me of something! Remember the overplayed skit from the 90s with the 3 chairs painted to look like taxis and that hip-hop music that played on it? Well, it was actually sometimes used on MTV bumpers when they would go to a commercial break back in the mid 90s. But it didn't have the "3!" part, so it probably wasn't originally written for SS.