Top 20 Sesame Street Songs

You know, for many of us, the first show that we ever grew up watching was "Sesame Street". I'm sure many of us have grown up watching "Sesame Street" at some point in our childhood. That show is very well known by us nostalgics for its memorable muppets, educational values, sketches and songs. There were a lot of songs on that show that I enjoyed, and some of them scared me a little bit, but now that I'm an adult, looking back on them now, they were actually pretty awesome songs. One thing that was nice about "Sesame Street" was that whenever they made a new song, they always tried to make sure it was mainstream, that way, they could always get the new generation of kids involved in it. So, without further ado, I have compiled a list of my personal Top 20 Sesame Street Songs. Let's take a look...


#20 - Honk Around the Clock
I think a nice way to start off this list is with a classic that I'm sure everyone is familiar with. This song features the Honkers honking around a big clock to a parody on "Rock Around the Clock". I think this song came out in the late 70's, but it may have been the early 80's. I put this song at the lowest position in my list because it's a very simple and kind of repetitive song. Regardless, this is still the one sketch from Sesame Street that the Honkers are most known for.


#19 - The Letter N
This song, performed by Nick Normal, came out in the mid 80's. It's sort of a style parody of Billy Squeir or Falco. Basically, in the song, he tells these different stories that involve a negative word that begins with the letter N. This particular sketch also pokes fun at MTV with an intro saying that you were watching NTV, and it ends by showing a letter N that looks a lot like the MTV logo.


#18 - Don't Walk
When I used to watch it, I didn't really understand it that much, but now that I'm older, I get it a little better. This song is basically about a groom who is across the street from a chapel where he's about to get married, but he can't cross the street because of a "Don't Walk" sign that's preventing him from doing so. He sings to his bride this Meatloaf-styled song about how much he loves her and wants her to understand why he's not there. I've seen a lot of weddings go wrong, but this one is pretty tough not to cry at.


#17 - Imagine That
Now, it's time for a more basic song. This is pretty much a song about Ernie telling the viewers about his imagination. Of course, all his imaginations end with him becoming successful and tipping his hat. Yeah. Not much else to say about that.


#16 - Kids Just Love to Brush
In this mid 80's song, we have a song done by a muppet known as Candi Looper, obviously a spoof on Cyndi Lauper. The song's basically about how much kids love oral hygiene more than anything; I honestly don't think that is true in any way, but it seems like a good way to tell kids the importance of it. The song title is sort of a reference to Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", and the song plays out sort of similarly. As ridiculous as it may be, it's still a pretty bouncy song.


#15 - Danger's No Stranger
This song is performed by a band known as How Now Brown and the Moo Wave, kind of a strange-looking band that's supposed to be parodying the new wave bands of the time. This is kind of a spooky song, which sets the mood perfectly for the subject matter. It kind of reminds me of Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me" in some ways.


#14 - Cereal Girl
Obviously, this song is a parody on Madonna's "Material Girl". It's a song about a girl talking about how she became so obsessed with cereal. If you like Madonna, then I'm sure you'll like this song.


#13 - Telephone Rock
This is one of the earlier songs from Sesame Street. It was released around 1974 and was performed by Little Jerry and the Monotones. This Happy Days-esque song is basically a rock and roll song performed by the group inside a phone booth, and Little Jerry is singing lead while on the phone. Strangely, musical numbers like these get people wondering what this would be like if it happened in real life, but this one actually answers that question by displaying a lady on the other line who gets annoyed by them and calls the cops on them! I love it when the shows do that kind of stuff.


#12 - I Don't Want to Live On the Moon
Here, we have another Ernie song. This one, released in 1978, has Ernie singing about how he'd like to visit the moon but doesn't want to live on it because he'll miss all his friends and his home. He does another verse about the sea and giving the same reasons. Well, I don't want to live in those places either, because they don't have any oxygen! Regardless, this is a very tear-jerking song, and it's also a fun song to make up your own lyrics to.


#11 - Disco Frog
Okay, this is a weird one. I assume this one came out in the late 70's, because after all, that's when Disco was around (not the 80's, as most people think). This song features Kermit the Frog in a swamp at night time talking about a frog that dances to Disco music, and while he does this, we see another silhouette of Kermit dancing around like crazy. This song reminds me a lot of Mickey Mouse Disco; maybe it's the lyrics. I think this song probably would have been more appropriate to have on The Muppet Show, but whatever, I'll still accept it for what it is.


#10 - Put Down the Ducky
Here is another classic song that a lot of fans are familiar with. A jazzy song where Ernie tells Mr. Hoots about a problem he has: whenever he plays the saxophone, he hears a funny squeaking sound. Mr. Hoots gives the solution to put down his rubber ducky. Of course, Ernie can't bear to part with his rubber ducky until Mr. Hoots tells him he can pick it back up when he's done playing. One thing I never liked about this Louis Armstrong impersonating owl is that he's known for performing songs where he tells another Sesame Street character to let go of his/her obsession. He did one for the Cookie Monster too (no wonder he changed).


#9 - Rebel L
Now, as you may have guessed, this song is a parody on Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell". This song is about a guy (who even looks like Billy Idol) who is awakened by a rebellious letter L on his lawn making all this noise. Obviously, this one came out in the 80's, there's no question. I don't think I was able to count the number of L words used in this song, but I'm sure the Count can!


#8 - Do De Rubber Duck
I'm not sure when exactly this song came out, but it was probably around the time when Reggae was popular. This is a pretty popular song from the show which has Ernie doing a song about taking a bath in a Reggae style, and periodically, other characters would appear in the tub with him. There were two things about this number that seemed kind of strange to me. For one thing, Ernie had a really huge bathtub! Also, one of the characters who joins Ernie is Oscar, and I thought grouches hated baths! Well, regardless, this was a catchy song, and it was a strong follow-up to the Rubber Ducky song that Ernie is most known for.


#7 - Easy Going
Okay, I know it doesn't seem fair to put this song on the list, but it is part of the franchise, and I love it. This song from the Sesame Street movie, "Follow That Bird", is a very likable upbeat song that Big Bird sings with the two kids he befriends on the farm he comes across. This has always been my favorite song from the movie, so that's why I couldn't resist putting it on my list.


#6 - A New Way to Walk
This Disco-styled song came out in the early 80's sometime. This song is performed by these three pigs known as the Oinker Sisters (obviously parodying the Pointer Sisters), one of them is singing about a new walking style she has while the other two back her up. When I was young, this song used to annoy me a little, but looking back on it now, it's awesome. This is quite possibly one of the best songs ever made for Sesame Street. And don't even get me started on that Destiny's Child remake! When you think of retro, think of this. The funny thing is, it's songs like this that make me wonder how the writers of Sesame Street come up with stuff like this.


#5 - Wet Paint
Another song performed by How Now Brown and the Moo Wave, though I think this one came out before the one I mentioned earlier. When you watch this video, you can easily tell that it has 80's written all over it (or should I say "Wet Paint")! This song really defined what the decade was all about. While I do admit, this used to scare me a little bit when I was little, but I've grown to love 80's music so much, and looking back on it makes me place it as one of my favorite Sesame Street songs of all time. Actually, now that I think of it, the name of this song could actually make a pretty cool band name.


#4 - Letter B
As far as Sesame Street songs go, this one defines the word, "classic". This beautiful song performed by the band known as the Beetles (obviously spoofing the Beatles) is a parody on the Beatles' classic hit, "Let It Be". I put this one really high on my list not only because I'm such a big Beatles fan, but if you listen carefully to the words, it actually sounds very similar to "Let it Be"; even the arrangement of the song is almost identical! The Beetles did two other songs, but I didn't include them on my countdown. One of the others was "Thinking of U", which is a style parody of the Beatles' early stuff, which I find to be very catchy, but it has a really freaky climax. The other one is "Hey Food", which is a parody on "Hey Jude" that they perform with the Cookie Monster, but I left this one exempt because it's not all that pleasing to the ear in a lot of places. Overall, I find "Letter B" to be a masterpiece.


#3 - Born to Add
I'm pretty sure this one came out in the mid 70's. This is a song about addition, and it's done in the style of Bruce Springsteen. I am a huge Springsteen fan myself, so I can recognize the style, and the title, "Born to Add", is a play on the Boss' timeless classic, "Born to Run". This beautiful song was such a big hit that it was even released as a title track on a Sesame Street album. Ironically, the name of the artist performing this song was Bruce Stringbean and the S Street Band. In case you didn't know, that's supposed to be a reference to the E Street Band, and I'm assuming the S stands for "Sesame". Brilliance! Absolutely pure brilliance!


#2 - Doo Wop Hop
Released in the early 80's, this upbeat pop song features Kermit the Frog singing about the stuff he can't do because he's a frog, and the one thing he can do is hop. Also, for some unknown reason, he's being backed up by two cows, who I swear are the same backup singers from the Moo Wave. This is overall, a truly awesome song, and I'm sure that if you listen to it long enough, you'll find yourself getting up and dancing to it. I don't know why Kermit doesn't sing songs like these anymore. Lately, his songs have gotten a little sappy. Well...*sniff*...rest in peace, Jim Henson.

And my pick for the #1 best Sesame Street song is...


#1 - The Monster in the Mirror
I'm sure a lot of you are surprised. I made a whole list containing songs that came out in the 70's and 80's, but I end my countdown with a song from the early 90's. If you're a big fan of Grover, as I am, then I'm sure that you'll love this song. It's basically about Grover telling the story of a monster he sees in the mirror, but he isn't scared of it, because he knows that the monster is his reflection. There were two different versions of this song, but I think the one that everyone's more familiar with is the later one, which, in addition to Grover and two other monsters, features a cast of celebrities. How cool would that be to start singing a song about a day in your life, and then out of nowhere, a whole bunch of celebrities jump in and sing the song with you? The celebrities included in this song were Robin Williams, Glenn Close, Whoopi Goldberg, Ray Charles, Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert, and they even managed to throw in the Simpsons! It just doesn't get any better than that!

Well, that concludes my Top 20 Sesame Street songs. I know, I probably left off some well-known classics, but remember, these are just my personal favorites. I also apologize for the blurry pictures, but hey, it's kind of hard to capture those muppets if they keep moving around all the time! Most importantly, I hope this brought back a lot of memories to everyone who grew up watching Sesame Street back in the days when Jim Henson was still around and Elmo was only used seldomly. This article was brought to you by the letters D and L, and by the number 73.