Library of Congress Immortalizes Joe’s Sesame Street Work

A shout-out to the Library of Congress for protecting America’s priceless music legacy: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2015/15-041.html

“The sounds of a pioneering children’s program are among the recordings recently selected for induction into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today named 25 new sound recordings to the registry that have been recognized for their cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation’s audio legacy.

“Congress understood the importance of protecting America’s aural patrimony when it passed the National Recording Preservation Act 15 years ago,” said Billington. “By preserving these recordings, we safeguard the words, sounds and music that embody who we are as a people and a nation.”

Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian, with advice from the Library’s National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB), is tasked with annually selecting 25 recordings that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and are at least 10 years old. The selections for the 2014 registry bring the total number of recordings on the registry to 425, a small part of the Library’s vast recorded-sound collection of nearly 3 million items.

“Sesame Street: All-Time Platinum Favorites” (album)—Various (1995)
With its catchy, jazzy, infectious theme song, “Sesame Street” burst onto television screens in the early morning of November 1969. Composers and lyricists Joe Raposo, Jon Stone, Bruce Hart, Christopher Cerf and many others used music as an integral part of educational development for young children. Never content with writing “kid songs,” they wrote complex, humorous, inventive musical compositions that covered a wide range of genres such as country-western, jazz, opera, Latin dance tunes and even Romanian fiddle tunes. The quality of music attracted to the show a diverse mix of stars such as B.B King, Lena Horne, Los Lobos, R.E.M, Diana Krall and the Dixie Chicks. Altogether, the music of “Sesame Street” became the most culturally significant children’s recordings of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. “Sesame Street: All-Time Platinum Favorites,” released in 1995, is a collection of 20 beloved classic recordings, including “Doin’ the Pigeon,” “The People in Your Neighborhood,” “Rubber Duckie,” “I Love Trash,” and “Bein’ Green.”

Joe’s songs on the album include:

The Sesame Street Theme – The Kids

ABC-DEF-GHI – Big Bird

Doin’ The Pigeon – Bert

C is for Cookie – Cookie Monster

Sing – The Kids

Bein’ Green – Kermit the Frog

Little Things – Prairie Dawn