Little Jerry and the Monotones



Little Jerry and the Monotones is a rock group on Sesame Street that first appeared in 1970.

The members of the band were Little Jerry as the frontman, and backup singers Big Jeffy, Chrissy and Rockin' Richard. All members of the band are named after the people who served as their original (and primary) voices: Little Jerry is named after Jerry Nelson,Jeff Moss supplied the bass voice for Big Jeffy, Rockin' Richard's by Richard Hunt, and Christopher Cerf was Chrissy. The individual members introduced themselves by name in the song "4," while the group name first appeared on The Official Sesame Street 2 Book-and-Record Album. In some later skits, the names and voices for the back-ups, especially the latter two, were swapped.

Although there were usually four members of the band, an extra member, a nameless Purple Anything Muppet, appeared in the song "A Body Full of Rhythm".

The group appeared in new wraparound footage in the 1990 video Rock & Roll. In a 2000 episodeof Sesame Street, the group, with the Pumpkin Monotone absent, made a comeback appearance in a concert to perform "When You Move the Mouse, It Makes the Arrow Go." The group's previous hippie-style clothes were replaced by more contemporary yet still flashy clothes. Big Jeffy was performed in this appearance by Kevin Clash. The Lavender member of the band appeared with an Elvis-like pompadour and was introduced by Little Jerry as "Richie".

Members of the band appeared in two early 70s sketches with Grover, as background characters. In one sketch, Grover demonstrates the word "Exit", with the band exiting and entering the door where the exit sign is. In another sketch, Grover demonstrates the word "Walk", with the band holding up the letters representing the word (the lead singer from "Surprise!" appears in this sketch, but is seen with a different wardrobe, and was performed by Caroll Spinney instead of Jerry Nelson). The other members also had different voice performers than usual.

Songs

 * "A Body Full of Rhythm"
 * "Danger"
 * "Mad"
 * "Mountain of Love"
 * "Proud"
 * "Sad"
 * "When You Move the Mouse, It Makes the Arrow Go"
 * Album only
 * "Four"
 * "With Every Beat of My Heart"
 * Two performances
 * "Telephone Rock"''
 * Album credit only
 * "Surprise!"

The Monotones, (without Little Jerry), also sang back-up for Don Music, in the song "Mary Had a Bicycle."

Book appearances

 * Big Bird's Busy Book (1975)
 * The Sesame Street Dictionary (1980)