so i recently made a trip to my folks crib. i spent many of my teenage years in this house and as i always do when i get there i eat some griot, watched some on demand and of course reminisce. so as i went digging in the crates i found an old drawing that i made of bert and ernie from sesame street. i was a huge fan of that handsome couple and all of their antics. thinking about them got me to thinking about more sesame street and songs came to mind. sesame street over the years musically (pardon my french) is fucking amazin! and thus I present to you my TOP 5 FAVORITE SESAME STREET SONGS OF MY YOUTH

5. BERT’s BLANKET feat bert and the sheep
now from jump i initially remember this song because ernie was sleeping at the count’s crib. then moments of straight soul. these sheep harmonize on another level. they were hitting philip bailey-esque high note through out. my hear felt warm listening to this song. warm as if I wrapped in a… i don’t know a blanket perhaps. oh yeah fyi, i’ve def downloaded this song to my media player asap.

4. DOO WOP HOP feat kermit
now I never looked at kermit as a sesame street regular. he was that celebrity character bigger than the block that came home every now and then to give turkey’s to the hood on thanksgiving and put on summer bball tournaments. but instead of this hood classics he dropped musical classics, this being one of them. the dance moves.the athleticism. the beat. the background singin and dancin cows. this uptempo track is bananas. there’s a slow motion scene of kermit jumping at the end. MUST SEE.

3. AFRICAN ALPHABET feat kermit
kermit is such a stud with two songs on this list. this track is arguably the most creative joint on the sesame catalog. i assume this is the great ladysmith black mambazo on the vocals. they’ve always killed it on sesame street so I would be surprised. having them on the track alone is enough as they recite the alphabet. then all of a sudden when you think it’s over, kermit starts spittin words to every letter of the alphabet. Before papoose became famous for this kermit was ahead of the game. This song is incredible.

2. 12345…PINBALL
this song makes the list without a single character in the video. i would have to say this is the most memorable sesame street song to me. for many years i counted to the number 12 in this exact cadence. the funky jazz riffs throughout blow me away. there’s a trumpet solo in there that would make miles smile. a steel pan comes in towards the end that freaks it. the random voices and random yelling of numbers is totally outrageous. counting never and i mean never sounded this good. and if you peep in the beginning , the hand that pulls the pinball machine is a black hand. that’s how one ends up with all that jazz and funk. damn near flawless.

1. DO DE THE RUBBER DUCK feat ernie and friends
this was tough because ernie has about 4 songs about that damn duck. this one though takes it for me. they straight reggae it out. the baseline is a little barrington levy cats are in the tub rocking it out. they are dancing to the beat. oscar’s appearance in the tub! now that’s shocking. every bar and I mean every bar had me bopping. the count provides a bridge right into the hook that takes us right into the club! hoots the owl shows up and closes the show with the last bar. “come and be a bath time bopper/don’t pull out stopper!” they move the whole room! i was definintely busting out the bogle to this. no lie!

them muppets can sannnngggg!
what’s your 5?

peace.love.funk.
j/d