regular characters didn't sing much in first season

[minor muppetz]

Whenever I see a track listing for the first Sesame Street album, it makes me think about how most of the main Muppets didn't sing much in the first season. For the first album, Kermit only get's one song, Big Bird, Oscar, and Ernie only get one solo song each, and Bert only get's one song (shared with Ernie). Other songs are sung by the cast, and most of the humans got quite a few solo songs. The Kids and Anything Muppets (listed as Anything People on the album) got to sing quite a few songs, though, and one song was sung by "Two Monsters" (one of which was Cookie Monster).

So I wonder what the deal is with the lack of major characters singing during the first season. I can't think of any songs that Grover sang during the first season, and I can't think of any other songs sung by any of the Muppets who sang on the first album. I know that Jim Henson and Frank Oz were initially uncomfortable with their singing voices, which could explain why Ernie, Bert, and Kermit didn't sing much in the first season, but then there were a lot of songs during the first season that were sung by one-shot anything muppets (Everyone Likes Ice Cream, I Am a Fine Musician, Lulu's Back in Town, etc) that were performed by them. Of course, there weren't many main performers in the first season, and the human cast members occassionally performed voices of anyhting Muppets, but Jim and Frank still did a lot of the voices for anything muppets (and it seems like Caroll Spinney usually only performed Anything Muppets if more than two performers were needed for a scene).

It is strange that the regular muppet characters didn't sing much. Maybe it was thought that the humans were better singers, or maybe somebody thought that the regular Muppets didn't lend themselves well to singing (what I mena is, maybe somebody thought that Kermit only worked well for giving lectures and Ernie and Bert only lended themselves well for comedy).

Anybody want to comment?

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I think it's just the opposite today. The Muppet's sing all the song's and you never hear the human cast sing on albums anymore.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Oops posted twice.

 

[minor muppetz]

During the early years it seems like the Muppets and Humans (and even the animated segments) were treated equally, both on the show and in merchandise. Bob, Susan, and David all had their own albums during the early years, before any of the Muppets starred in their own albums. The Muppets, like the animated segments, were originally going to just appear in their own segments, and not on the street (and probably not interracting with the humans), and looking at some episode pages on Muppet Wiki, it kind of shows that the Muppets were originally only planned to be in segments, even though they did appear on the street, too.

 

[mikebennidict]

Whenever I see a track listing for the first Sesame Street album, it makes me think about how most of the main Muppets didn't sing much in the first season. For the first album, Kermit only get's one song, Big Bird, Oscar, and Ernie only get one solo song each, and Bert only get's one song (shared with Ernie). Other songs are sung by the cast, and most of the humans got quite a few solo songs. The Kids and Anything Muppets (listed as Anything People on the album) got to sing quite a few songs, though, and one song was sung by "Two Monsters" (one of which was Cookie Monster).

So I wonder what the deal is with the lack of major characters singing during the first season. I can't think of any songs that Grover sang during the first season, and I can't think of any other songs sung by any of the Muppets who sang on the first album. I know that Jim Henson and Frank Oz were initially uncomfortable with their singing voices, which could explain why Ernie, Bert, and Kermit didn't sing much in the first season, but then there were a lot of songs during the first season that were sung by one-shot anything muppets (Everyone Likes Ice Cream, I Am a Fine Musician, Lulu's Back in Town, etc) that were performed by them. Of course, there weren't many main performers in the first season, and the human cast members occassionally performed voices of anyhting Muppets, but Jim and Frank still did a lot of the voices for anything muppets (and it seems like Caroll Spinney usually only performed Anything Muppets if more than two performers were needed for a scene).

It is strange that the regular muppet characters didn't sing much. Maybe it was thought that the humans were better singers, or maybe somebody thought that the regular Muppets didn't lend themselves well to singing (what I mena is, maybe somebody thought that Kermit only worked well for giving lectures and Ernie and Bert only lended themselves well for comedy).

Anybody want to comment?

Sine you weren't around in 1969, how do you know who sang and who didn't and without meaning to sound rude, why is it such a big deal?

 

[minor muppetz]

Sine you weren't around in 1969, how do you know who sang and who didn't and without meaning to sound rude, why is it such a big deal?

I just think it's a bit odd, not a big deal. I mentioned stuff that I knew about the first Sesame Street album, where most of the main Muppets only got one big solo song. At Muppet Wiki there are pages for various Sesame Street episodes, and all first season episodes listed had clips listed, and going by that list there weren't really any first season songs outside of what's on the album that Big Bird, Oscar, Ernie, Bert, or Kermit sang (heck, most of the songs that they sang on the album weren't even in any of the first season episodes shown on Noggin). I don't know of any other first season songs that these characters sang, and if there were a lot of songs with the main muppets then I think I would have heard about at least a few of them somehow.

 

[Censored]

Sine you weren't around in 1969, how do you know who sang and who didn't and without meaning to sound rude, why is it such a big deal?

I find it odd that you would turn this harmless and interesting thread into an argument, Mike (Then again, you always do that). Anyone at any age who has access to old record albums or has seen the reruns that used to play on Noggin can have knowledge of the old days on Sesame Street and an opinion about them. Get a clue.

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder if any of the early anything muppet songs would have been too hard to write for any of the regular characters? I imagine that Five People in My Family wouldn't have worked for any of the regular characters, at least not in the first season. I mean, what would be done, suddenly introduce Bert's (or Ernie's) family? I think that Lulu's Back in Town wouldn't have worked with any regular characters singing, except maybe Bert.

Then again, Everyone Likes Ice Cream would have worked with Ernie, Bert, and Oscar. Oscar would have been the one who hated ice cream, though maybe in the end, instead of having Cookie Monster show up, Oscar could have decided that there was an ice cream that he likes (something rotten and disgusting). Or maybe it could have been sung by Ernie, Bert, and Betty Lou, and Bert could have been the ice cream hater.

Goin' For a Ride could have been sung by Bert, Kermit, and either an anything muppet or a monster. Kermit could have sung Octopuses Garden, and maybe also Yellow Submarine.

As for songs that the humans sang, maybe Kermit and Grover (or Ernie and Bert) could have sung One of These Things, Ernie could have sung Nearly Missed, and Big Bird could have sung Somebody Come and Play.

 

[mikebennidict]

I find it odd that you would turn this harmless and interesting thread into an argument, Mike (Then again, you always do that). Anyone at any age who has access to old record albums or has seen the reruns that used to play on Noggin can have knowledge of the old days on Sesame Street and an opinion about them. Get a clue.

Un stay out of it GB.

 

[Censored]

Un stay out of it GB.

Shut up, you little twerp.