Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?
| "Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Language | English |
| Recorded | 1969 |
| Genre | Television, theme song |
| Composer(s) | Joe Raposo |
"Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?" is the theme song of the children's television series Sesame Street. It is the oldest song in Sesame Street's history, dating back to the show's very beginning on July 21, 1969.
The Sesame Street theme song was composed by Joe Raposo, a writer and composer of many of television shows' songs. The opening riff is a variation from the Good Vibrations song by The Beach Boys, which was released 3 years prior. 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".
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 melody 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, 1992, a newer, and slightly faster version of the theme surfaced. The theme song was re-recorded for the opening credits with a more upbeat, calypso, island like tune instead of the harmonica-themed melody of the previous versions with children singing. This version was heard 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. Also during season 24, the harmonica music used at the beginning and end of each episode still remained throughout most of the season until the last few weeks when the harmonica music was changed to calypso, accompanied by a piccolo and ukulele.
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