That is what my youth was for

July 16, 2008 5:39 PM

1 2 3 4: Feist visits Sesame Street, the latest artist to send up her work for an adoring audience of (what else?) furry happy monsters.

The best part, if you ask me, is the split-second clip of her squealing with joy at the very end.

And now, commence the obligatory YouTube link dump.

posted by bicyclefish (41 comments total)

S'cute.
posted by bardic at 5:44 PM on July 16, 2008

Aww!
posted by pxe2000 at 5:44 PM on July 16, 2008

So good.

Also:
James Taylor - Jelly Man Kelly
Stevie Wonder - Sesame Street
Johnny Cash - Don't Bring Your Ones to Town
Andrew Bird - Dr. Stringz (on Nickelodeon)
posted by The White Hat at 5:51 PM on July 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

The Norah Jones one and the James Blunt one remind me of How I Miss My X by Patti LaBelle.
posted by lampoil at 5:54 PM on July 16, 2008

I would ONLY get famous just so I could go on Sesame Street.

(And then Letterman, because my wife wants me to read aloud from her "enemies of the people" shit list before they dragged me off stage)
posted by tkchrist at 6:05 PM on July 16, 2008

We've seen this one before, but it jus' don't stop, ya know?
Stevie Wonder - Supersition
posted by carsonb at 6:05 PM on July 16, 2008

Context: Feist
posted by DU at 6:06 PM on July 16, 2008

I sure could use some help learning how to count to four!

Seriously though, this was wonderful. Strangely, a friend-of-a-friend who I rarely get to talk to sent me the Feist video earlier today, and I had somehow never heard of Feist before. I think I've got a new musical obsession.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:11 PM on July 16, 2008

I swear... for a second I thought Andrea Bocelli was going to totally start mauling Elmo. I really, really, would not like for him to read me a bedtime story. Ever. I'd be like... "MOVE AWAY FROM MY BED, CREEPY, TOUCHY BLIND DUDE! I'M NOT KISSING YOU! AND WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING RIGHT WHEN I FINALLY FALL ASLEEP? GET OUT OF MY ROOM!"

YMMV.

Also, Miss Lynnster wishes Elmo would stop talking in third person.
posted by miss lynnster at 6:23 PM on July 16, 2008

Oh someone's gotta say it: are you shitting me with the James Blunt, children watch that? Not mine, man. No. I'm out. That's just all kinds of wrong.

The Feist was cute, tho, made sense.
posted by DenOfSizer at 6:27 PM on July 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

Another from James Taylor: Your Grouchy Face (with guest vocalist)
posted by evilcolonel at 6:28 PM on July 16, 2008

We've got The Sesame Workshop bookmarked for my 15 month old. It has saved my life a few times. Her favorite is Kingston's House Party - which is particularly awesome.
posted by weezy at 6:35 PM on July 16, 2008

Killer live cover of Ron Sexsmith's "Secret Heart". This one's a must-see.
posted by davebush at 6:37 PM on July 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

That Feist video is a great thing. Thank you!
posted by rtha at 6:37 PM on July 16, 2008

I find it ironic, though, that the Sesame Street version of "1, 2, 3, 4" actually has less counting than the original.
posted by arto at 6:38 PM on July 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

I've worked shows with Muppets a few times, and each time I've loved watching how much care, effort and time they take with the characters to try and ensure that few to no people see them "deanimated." They don't put them down until they're on the actors hand, and keep them in a black bag until the last minute. It's pretty neat.

Until once a handler was grabbing Fozzie from one of the actors, and held him by the neck for a minute while the actor got situated. Hanging there, a hand around his neck, limp, empty, those goggle eyes just staring off blankly into space. I started thinking of it in context of something like the CIA. Then all I could think about was the Fox style news report about it, with ominous music and the deep-voiced commentary of how they grabbed him by the neck, stuffed him into a black bag and spirited him away, back to the headquarters of PBS....the People's....Broadcasting...System......

I also heard a great story where a buddy of mine was working with Frank Oz, and asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up (he was in his mid-twenties at the time). He apparently launched into a pretty moving 15 minute monologue on the subject. At one point he realized that nothing was happening, so he looked up to ask what was going on. The director came over the studio loudspeaker and said quietly: "We were all waiting for you to finish."
posted by nevercalm at 6:48 PM on July 16, 2008 [11 favorites]

That REM video cracks me up every time I watch it.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 6:51 PM on July 16, 2008

I find it ironic, though, that the Sesame Street version of "1, 2, 3, 4" actually has less counting than the original.

Unfortunately, the "counting" parts of the original consist of the lyrics "One, two, three, four, five, six, nine and ten."

This presents a particular pedagogical challenge.
posted by bicyclefish at 7:51 PM on July 16, 2008 [9 favorites]

Fiddle-diddle-deeeeeeeEEEEEeeeEEEeeeEEeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
posted by dirigibleman at 8:08 PM on July 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

there's a joke there about how 7 8 9, but I'm not sure how to make it work out.
posted by empath at 8:17 PM on July 16, 2008

With the Rebel L, she cried more, more, more...
posted by jonp72 at 8:48 PM on July 16, 2008

My all time favorite:

Smokey Robinson's " 'U' Really Got A Hold On Me"
posted by ShawnStruck at 8:49 PM on July 16, 2008

Makes sense. My 2 year old adores that song.

They get all self righteous, though when she sings "1 2 3 4 5 6 9 and ten." Like, you can't cut corners just to make it rhyme.
posted by fungible at 9:24 PM on July 16, 2008

But does she declare a thumb war?
posted by tapeguy at 11:09 PM on July 16, 2008

I think I'd rather hear some crazy electro group do a version of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 (you know, the drugged out pinball clip) I bet JUSTICE would do it well.
posted by braksandwich at 11:34 PM on July 16, 2008

I thought the skipping of seven and eight was to fit the signature, not really to make it rhyme. If I am counting this right, the original is written in 4/4; something had to go and I think it was seven's two syllables that did it in.
As for the video, the Sesame Street rendition has a couple throwbacks to the original, which I thought was well-done.

I've caught myself counting Feist-style as I close up at the bookstore I work in, usually with dimes (which I hate counting, the fuckers). My coworkers have taken to making sure I'm not counting under my breath in any sort of time, just to be on the safe side.
posted by heeeraldo at 11:46 PM on July 16, 2008

Zoilus has a post with a nice roundup of other counting songs on Sesame Street, plus this lovely bit of commentary on "1 2 3 4":

"it seems like a revelation of the real nature of the song - it's always been a counting song (a form found all over the world - music and math being a natural marriage). It was just disguised as a love song. So the self-parody is an improvement, as if the original version had just been an excuse to get to this point."

I love that.
posted by dropkick queen at 11:53 PM on July 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

Shawn Colvin & Ernie - I Don't Want To Live On The Moon
posted by ZachsMind at 11:54 PM on July 16, 2008 [3 favorites]

Gotta disagree with you MissLynnster. I'm not a big fan of opera, but of the four videos posted by BicycleFish, Andrea Bocelli's was the one that gave me goosebumps. I think partly because Bocelli seemed to enjoy it the most. Norah Jones seemed distracted. Leslie Feist was trying too hard. Andrea Bocelli seemed for the most part to sincerely be in the moment when performing with Elmo, even though it seemed pretty clear he was lip synching. It was well staged and Bocelli was having fun with it. Touching piece there. Oh. And the James Blunt one wasn't terrible bad, but I've never liked Telly. So it's Bocelli FTW!
posted by ZachsMind at 12:50 AM on July 17, 2008

Every time I hear Feist sing "1 2 3 4 tell me that you love me more" I expect the next line to be 5 6 7 8 schlemiel schmozel Hossenfeffer Incorporated".
posted by Daddy-O at 1:05 AM on July 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

The Smokey Robinson one is even creepier than I remembered. Geez Louise, they show this stuff to kids?! That big foam-rubber U molested Smokey Robinson on TV repeatedly throughout my formative years! Do you know what I blame this on the general decline of? Society!




OTOH, I really, really love that song. So ... Smokey Robinson gets groped by a piece of foam rubber, lasting musical legacy left, maybe ... not so bad. I hope they bought him dinner and a movie first though.

Later on, Sesame Street also did a pretty good thing with the Goo Goo Dolls (I didn't even mind that it's got Elmo in it again).
posted by eritain at 2:20 AM on July 17, 2008

Oh, and Daddy-O: Here's your daily ration of yiddishkeit: schlimazel.
posted by eritain at 2:27 AM on July 17, 2008

it's the wrong fuzzy creatures, but we could put some muppet show guys in here, yeah?

peter sellers - cigarettes and whiskey and wild, wild women - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d05TjG_Sifo
posted by nadawi at 2:48 AM on July 17, 2008

I love Canadians. They're just so cute when they're proud.
posted by gleuschk at 10:44 AM on July 17, 2008

I was about to step in here and deliver some schooling, but carsonb beat me to it.
posted by invitapriore at 11:11 AM on July 17, 2008

Ok, so, inspite of myself, I feel pretty happy right now. Thanks.
posted by slimepuppy at 1:18 PM on July 17, 2008

Oh eritain... Sesame Street can get much more risqué than that.
posted by miss lynnster at 1:27 PM on July 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

They're just so cute when they're proud.

That makes front page? Must be very quiet in the north.

Is that video was any cuter I could easily see myself up all night peeing rainbows and shitting unicorns.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 2:33 PM on July 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

I was hoping to find Paul Simon singing 'Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,' and totally getting upstaged by a little girl. But here he is getting upstaged by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. He got even, though.
posted by box at 3:47 PM on July 17, 2008

Buddy Rich vs. Animal! Ooh, and Cab Calloway's appearance. And here's some music that Philip Glass composed for Sesame Street.

Best show in the history of television.
posted by box at 3:52 PM on July 17, 2008

For What It's Worth! Being Green with Lena Horne! Mahna Mahna!

Everybody Run! Run! Run!
posted by box at 4:07 PM on July 17, 2008