Michael Wermuth - Jim Henson: A Sesame Street Celebration is a 1991 Sesame Street compilation album spotlighting performances from Jim Henson's characters, especially Ernie and Kermit. I have this album on cassette, and side A is basically a "best of Ernie and friends" side while side B is basically "the best of Kermit and friends."The track listing is as follows:
1. Rubber Duckie - Ernie
2. But I Like You - Ernie and Bert
3. Ma Nah Ma Nah - Ma Nah Ma Nah
4. One Fine Face - Ernie and Elmo
5. Air - Guy Smiley
6. Imagination - Ernie with Bert, Big Bird, Grover, Prairie Dawn, Oscar, and Herbert Birdsfoot
7. The Honker-Duckie-Dinger Jamboree - Ernie, the Honkers, and a Dinger
8. Share - Ernie and Cookie Monster
9. Captain Vegetable - Captain Vegetable with Andy and Eddie
10. Dance Myself to Sleep - Ernie and Bert
11. I Don't Want to live on the Moon - Ernie
12. Bein' Green - Kermit the Frog
13. African Alphabet Song - Kermit and Ladysmith Black Mambazo
14. Big Round Nose - An Anything Muppet
15. If I Were - Kermit
16. Five People in My Family - An Anything Muppet Father and his family
17. Tadpole - Kermit
18. Caribbean Amphibian - Kermit
19. The Frogs in the Glen - Kermit
20. I Wonder 'Bout the World Above Up There - Kermit and the Kids
21. This Frog - Kermit
This is a great album. It features the songs fans would expect ("Rubber Duckie," "Bein' Green," "Imagination"), fan favorites ("This Frog," "Captain Vegetable"), and songs that might be a bit more obscure ("Big Round Nose," "Share"). In fact the packaging mentions that a number of the songs had never been released before. When I first got this album in 1994, I thought that line about previously unreleased tracks meant the album was the first time they were heard (and wondered why very few songs had a 1990 copyright date), as opposed to it meaning the songs hadn't been released on previous albums.
While there are many great songs sung by Jim Henson's characters that were omitted from this collection, I'd say that the biggest omission is "Do De Rubber Duck," which would have been an ideal choice since it features Jim Henson's three major Sesame Street characters (Ernie, Kermit, Guy Smiley). Additionally, I feel like almost every Kermit song not included should have been. At the time I got this there were quite a few Kermit songs I was seeing a lot, either on video releases or on the show, while most of the songs included are songs I either don't remember seeing before or hadn't seen in a long time and couldn't remember the lyrics.I recommend this album if you are a fan of Sesame Street, Jim Henson, Ernie, Kermit, or all of the above. There may be some classics left out, but none of the tracks included seem out-of-place at all.
The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, muppetmindset@gmail.com