A Continuation of Toots' Tune?

[D'Snowth]

I justfound this on YouTube today, and it really tickled my mind...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7ALoejUjEo

This is an excerpt of the end titles of Canadian Sesame Street... the theme played during the credits seems to be a dead ringer for Toots' tune that we heard during the end titles of our own SST during the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, doesn't it? Just... not quite... something seems to be off... mainly because, we never really heard this kind of arrangement before... but at the same time, I don't believe we may have really even heard the entire arrangement before.

I got curious, and recorded this tune in Audacity, and adjusted the speed to 4% (like PAL format does to film in a lot of overseas countries), because this video not only was of somewhat poor quality, it didn't seem to be playing at the proper speed... so again, I increased the seed 4%, and was astounded to hear it sounds like the work of Toots Thielemans... either that, or the composers for Canadian SST did an eerily great job at recreating a Toots tune... but I suspect the first... mainly because, also looking on YouTube, Canadian SST had their own version of funding credits that utilized the exact same funky chimes our SSTfunding credits had (and their funding credits was pretty much the same as ours, only an added disclaimer regarding the production of Canadian segments being produced by CBC in various cities such as Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg)... so why would they use the same funky chimes as us, but go to extratrouble to recreate the closing theme?

Again, my theory is that is perhaps a taste of Toots Thielemans' theme that we may never had heard before... whenever we heard it for Friday Credit Crawls, it almost always faded in from a playing of "It's a magic carpet ride / every door will open wide / to happy people like you...", maybe perhaps this is what we never heard play before the fade in on the Friday Credit Crawls... if only there was a completely full version of Toots' closing tune we could hear to confirm something like that.

 

[gbrobeck]

Yes, that is the end of the first verse and the beginning of the second of the full track of Toots Thielemans' theme. The actual composition has two verses, then a bridge (where the on air version usually fades in), then two more verses that are more improvised, the bridge again, then another verse.

Somewhere, I have a copy of the full thing that I cobbled together from multiple sources. I'm in the process of moving to a new house (ugh... who would have thought that moving from one side of Knoxville to the other would be so difficult), but as soon as I get settled, I can re-upload that here.

 

[D'Snowth]

That would be awesome, thanks!

BTW, what part of Knoxville are you moving from and to?

 

[gbrobeck]

West to north.

 

[D'Snowth]

Sometimes I wish I lived out in West Knoxville, mainly because West Knoxville's happenin'! Lol. Plus, so much is out there that isn't in any other parts of town, like BAM, Best Buy, Jo-Ann's, West Towne Mall (East Towne's virtually a ghost town anymore), among other things, but I bet West is expensive living, heh. But, yeah, North's a lot more residential and "small town"-esque, at least you're not moving East (the sticks) or South (rural and desolate).

 

[gbrobeck]

Finally have gotten around to uploading this. It's a little crude, as it is edited together from multiple sources of varying quality, but it is the complete piece.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/2daRm-0u/ssclosingthemeedit.html

PS - Loving North Knoxville. Only 5 minutes from work, and I feel closer to the heart of the city. West was a little too busy and too disconnected for me.

 

[D'Snowth]

It says I need a password to access it...

And that's great to hear... I was surprised to see Jacksboro Pike just recently became it's own succeeded community (like Powell or Farragut)... I guess they got cocky and decided that didn't want to be a part of Fountain City anymore.

 

[gbrobeck]

The password should be gone now. No wonder no one has downloaded it!

 

[D'Snowth]

This is fantastic, I love it, thanks a lot!

 

[Mike Beckwith]

The password should be gone now. No wonder no one has downloaded it!

Hi, Greg is it? My name is Mike. I grew up in that era of the 70s and 80s in Canada. You are an amazing man! I've been looking for the full classic end theme for S. St. for years! I just signed up so I could let you know how thankful I am! Growing up in Canada gave me and others a unique prespective to this theme as sometimes like my other favourite show of the time, the soap, The Edge of Night, the originating network would supply the theme in this case PBS or Children's Television Workshop and like the soap , the CBC in Canada would use the theme when there is trouble with the feed and a graphic of the show would be put up and the theme played. I wish I had better recording equipment back in the day because most of the theme would play quite often without voice over! To cut this short I am glad to be a member,I watched Sesame St . for years and loved the muppet series and movies!! I found your theme on youtube but quite often the quality can be tinny with uploads there as opposed to a direct link like yours. The person on youtube gives you credit . Does your link give one a better quality even though your source tapes might be a little muffled in spots. I was so excited. I was listening to it over and over with my headset and my girlfriend asked what are you listening to. I lol. Your link still asks for a password could you give that to me so I could download it directly, it would be appreciated.
thank-you.....an avid Sesame Street and Muppet Show fan....Mike