I'd planned to post this song as part of the 2009 Christmas mix (theme: colors) but I haven't gotten around to compiling them yet, so I'll just post this one track while I'm watching Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. That's a 1978 special wherein Big Bird has to find out how Santa gets down chimneys, and Bert and Ernie reenact "The Gift of the Magi."The first voice you'll hear on this song is Alaina Reed-Amini, who played Olivia until 1988, and who died one week ago. A lot of us grew up with Olivia as one of our TV friends, and it feels a lot like we've been losing more and more of our childhood friends lately. (If you need help mourning, she played a nice part in Sesame Street Episode 1839, which you can watch on YouTube by clicking. But warning -- you'll need a box of tissues -- that's the Mr. Hooper Memorial episode.)
2 comments:
Perhaps my favorite Christmas special, and one we watch every year without fail. This song remains my favorite from the record, and I continue to wonder why there haven't been any covers of it.
Thanks, too, for the notice of Olivia's passing. She will be missed.
I think it gets ignored a lot because the Muppets aren't singing it. But my two favorite songs from the special are this and "Keep Christmas With You," which also has no Muppets.
If you aren't in a particularly fragile state of mind, you might want to investigate the OTHER Sesame Street Christmas special that year, which only features Big Bird, Oscar, and Barkley with an all-star guest cast: Imogene Coca, Michael Jackson, Anne Murray, Ethel Merman, Henry Fonda, and one Smothers Brother.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Special_Sesame_Street_Christmas
It's truly awful, and can be watched in its entirety on YouTube with a minimum of searching. If you've ever wanted to watch Oscar sing "Yakety Yak," or Ethel Merman sing "Tomorrow," this is the special to watch. If you care about Sesame Street, or Christmas, or just basic human decency, then stay away.
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