The Muppets -- The Muppet Show Theme

 

It's safe to say that generations of people have grown up with "Sesame Street" including yours truly. Since 1969, I got to know about the safest and friendliest inner city neighbourhood in existence and its mix of human and Muppet residents ranging from Gordon and Susan to Ernie and Bert. But arguably, it can be said that one of those characters made it big outside of the area and that would be Kermit the Frog.

In fact, I think Kermit was able to inherit a huge if somewhat dilapidated playhouse and a new cast of characters (Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Bunsen Honeydew, Beaker, Fozzie, etc.) along with some famous human guests to create "The Muppet Show" in 1976. Of the many guests that appeared on the show, I remember Roger Moore, Elton John and Mark Hamill. I can't quite remember when on the weekly TV slate it appeared on CBC but it was must-see TV for me for a good long while during those five years.

Strangely enough, this is where I first got to know Gilda Radner. Gilda WHO was what I'd thought when I saw her in the above sketch. I hadn't started watching "Saturday Night Live" back then since I simply wasn't allowed to stay up past 10 back then so it would be a few years before realizing that she'd been part of the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players. Also one other interesting observation is that I think this sketch with the snobby carrot was perhaps the only time that I'd ever seen Gilda sing.

Of course, there were the regular segments on the show such as "At the Dance" where the participants got to crack wise while tripping the light fantastic on the ballroom floor. I think it may have been inspired by a similar segment from the American comedy-variety show "Laugh-In". 

But one thing that was the constant (although it also evolved throughout the years) was the theme song. Matching its Vaudevillian setting, the "Muppet Show" theme by Jim Henson and Sam Pottle was good ol' smacking jazz. It just welcomed all of us in like the friendliest usher in the house and I'm sure the kids loved to hum and sing to it. I have to admit hearing and seeing the intro again in that recent "Muppet Show" redux special brought some thrills back to me.

I kinda wonder what it must have been like to work with Peter Sellers. Anyways, the show premiered on September 5th 1976, so what was at the top of the Oricon chart on the 6th? We have the Top 3.

1. Teruhiko Aoi -- Anata dake wo (あなただけを)

2. Momoe Yamaguchi -- Yokosuka Story （横須賀ストーリー）

3. Kozue Saito -- Yamaguchi Sanchi no Tsutomu-kun（山口さんちのツトム君）

ABBA -- Dancing Queen

 

To their fans all over the world, ABBA's first single in around 40 years, "I Still Have Faith In You", which was released last week, was probably one early and wonderful Xmas present. I've enjoyed my ABBA songs over the years and I have their BEST compilation up on the shelves but I think it'll take a bit of time for me to warm up to this new song.

On today's Reminiscings of Youth though, I'm going to go back even further into the mid-1970s. My memory of the famed Swedish super group begins with those ancient K-Tel LP commercials which featured ABBA's "SOS" hit. However, the one song that I'm going to start the ABBA file here is "Dancing Queen", which according to Wikipedia, is the group's most famous hit worldwide. It is certainly a favourite at the Japanese karaoke joints which is why I chose "Dancing Queen".

The single was released in August 1976 which is a bit earlier than I had expected, and though I had heard it before on radio here in Toronto, it was during my time in Japan that I heard the song over and over again since it seemed to be mandatory singing at places like Shidax and Karaoke Kan. No matter which group I was with, there would always be one person who selected "Dancing Queen"; maybe none of us were hitting the dance floor anymore but there would be some vicarious enjoyment of the disco days via this song, and "Dancing Queen" was all about the enjoyment of dancing back then for the young and fancy-free.

From seeing the world record charts, "Dancing Queen" spun a pirouette right up to the top in many nations including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and of course, ABBA's home of Sweden. Now that ABBA has been resurrected, I wonder if a concert tour (or a concert) may now be in order although I realize that the members are well into their seventies.

Anyways, what was coming out during August 1976 according to Showa Pops?

Keiko Maruyama -- Douzo Kono Mama (どうぞこのまま）

Kozue Saito -- Yamaguchi Sanchi no Tsutomu-kun（山口さんちのツトム君）

Masumi Hoshi -- Nagisa Douri no Disco House（渚通りのディスコハウス）

Keishi Kawahashi/Kozue Saito -- Yamaguchi Sanchi no Tsutomu-kun（山口さんちのツトム君）

 

(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)

On TV Japan, we often get a cute little musical interlude via the long-running NHK "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）series of children's songs, and the videos that we see have usually been those released in the last five years or so. However, once in a while, we even get to see some of the really old footage and songs. Incidentally, the above opening sequence is for the series back in the 1990s.

Case in point: one night we saw this twangy tune which first premiered in April 1976. "Yamaguchi Sanchi no Tsutomu-kun" (The Yamaguchis' Tsutomu) is this folksy kids' song about a girl relating the story of her buddy, Tsutomu, who has suddenly become rather distant and mopey for some reason. It isn't made crystal clear in the lyrics by Ranbo Minami（みなみらんぼう）, who also took care of the country-fresh music (a good harmonica goes a long way), but the animation by Keiko Tanaka（田中ケイコ）gives that nudging wink that young Tsutomu has developed more complex feelings for the young lass.

According to the J-Wiki article for "Yamaguchi Sanchi no Tsutomu-kun", the song was performed by Keishi Kawahashi（川橋啓史）, a member of the NHK Tokyo Children's Choir（NHK東京児童合唱団）. That boy's name was a bit hard to track down since there were different readings for both first and last names, but one site has given its romaji so I will go with that. 

The song became a tremendous runaway hit as, according to a 1976 issue of "The Sunday Mainichi"（サンデー毎日）newspaper, NHK was suddenly flooded with tons of postcards asking for requests of it. As a result, no less than 9 record companies put out their own recordings of "Yamaguchi Sanchi no Tsutomu-kun" with different singers including young Kawahashi. The version sung by Kozue Saito（斉藤こず恵）, who was all of 8 years old when she recorded it but is now a blues singer and actress, and released by Philips Records in June that year had the highest ranking of No. 3 on Oricon. This version is in the video immediately above this paragraph. Altogether the different versions managed to sell over 1.5 million records. Puppy love can be so adorable and profitable.