Hooray for the Octopus 1 Man Band

[bigbird]

This was always a funny one with me. A cartoon in which each arm of an octopus played a different musical instrument while a narrator described each one...does anyone remember the dialogue for this other than "Hooray for the octopus one man band"? the sequence repeated itself after the first go-round.

 

[Soul H]

Ah yes. I remember it clearly. It went:

1 for the bass
2 for the bow
3 for the trumpet
4 for the blow
5 for the drum
6 for the stick
7 for the guitar
8 for the pick
9 for the piano
10 for the hand
Hooray for the octopus one man band

Classic.

 

[jeffkjoe]

One of the classic 1969-1970 Sesame Street animation segments!

 

[Soul H]

Correction, it's "1 for the fiddle". I found that confusing at first to the fact it sounds more like a bass than a fiddle.

Ah yes. I remember it clearly. It went:

1 for the bass
2 for the bow
3 for the trumpet
4 for the blow
5 for the drum
6 for the stick
7 for the guitar
8 for the pick
9 for the piano
10 for the hand
Hooray for the octopus one man band

Classic.

 

[SesameMike]

You know the 4-note lead-in that's played at the start of the first (but not the second) time the musical phrase is played by the "one-man band"? It goes "da-da da DA".

Those same notes were later reused in one of those short "commercial" letter animations. Typically these went:

<letter>.
<word starting with letter>.
(funny animation involving said word).
<letter>.

The musical notes -- probably the original ones -- were played after the final recitation of the letter. I think it was the letter K, but I'm not sure. Anyone know?

While the original Octopus animation was never used AFAIK after about the second season, the letter animation in question was used for many years after. Hearing those notes always reminded me of a vague, distant memory of that song, which I finally got to hear again when Noggin first came along.