Ed Mitchell (Henry Edward Mitchell III) is a composer, arranger, and music producer who started working on several Sesame Street projects, and now works on the majority of the Disney-produced projects starring the Muppets, including scoring the 2015 TV series.
Mitchell began his association with Sesame Street in the 1990s, producing several compilation albums (including Sesame Road and CD re-issues of older titles) and book and audio sets. He also produced the classical music story album Elmo and the Orchestra and the sing-along album Kids' Favorite Songs, among others. This led to music consultation for the special Elmopalooza.
Concurrent with his earliest Sesame work, Mitchell was also producing music and story albums for other companies, including The Muppet Christmas Carol Story Album and Inside Fraggle Rock for BMG Kidz. Since the 2000s, he has worked on several Muppet projects, including the album A Green and Red Christmas and the various musical viral videos. Mitchell's work as an album producer has won two Grammy Awards for Best Musical Album for Children (for Elmo and the Orchestra in 2001 and Green and Red Christmas in 2008).
Apart from the Muppets and Sesame, Mitchell was an in-house producer on nearly all of Sony Wonder's children's titles, including music for home video releases and audio production for read-alongs, for several years, from Beginner's Bible releases to nature videos to The Ren & Stimpy Show albums. He also produced albums featuring the puppet casts of The Puzzle Place and Gullah Gullah Island. He later moved to Disney, producing and sometimes composing for Baby Einstein albums and various projects starring Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, and others. He is also production manager for music production company Music Realized.
Audio credits[]
- Sesame Road (1993) - Producer
- The Muppet Christmas Carol Story Album (1993) - Producer
- Inside Fraggle Rock (1993) - Producer
- The Magic Shoes audio book (1996) - Producer
- Monster Melodies (1996) - Compilation producer
- Sing Along Travel Songs (1996) - Producer
- Big Bird's Band Plays Together audio book (1996) - Producer
- Elmo's Sleepytime Stories (1996) - Producer
- The Emperor's New Fur (1997) - Producer
- Kids' Favorite Songs (1997) - Album concept/producer, keyboards, percussion, background vocals
- Elmo Saves Christmas: Holiday Favorites (1998) - Producer, arranger, keyboards, percussion, background vocals
- Let's Eat audio book (1999) - Producer
- Noisy Colors audio book (1999) - Producer
- Elmo and the Orchestra (2001) - Producer
- Kids' Favorite Songs 2 - Producer, arranger/adapter
- A Green and Red Christmas (2006) - Producer, songwriter (with Tom Armbruster)
Production credits[]
- Elmopalooza (1998) - Music coordinator
- Kids' Favorite Songs (1999) - arranger
- Muppet viral videos (2008-2010) - Music producer/arranger,[1] including:
- The Muppets (2011) - Song/vocals producer (select songs), composer of orchestra cues
- Muppet vocals producer for "Pictures in My Head", "Rainbow Connection"
- Producer for "The Muppet Show Theme", "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Forget You"
- "The Muppets Pit Band Music" (with Steve Morrell)
- Disney Drive-On with The Muppets (2014) - Music director/producer, theme song/underscore composer (with Steve Morrell)
- Lady Gaga & the Muppets' Holiday Spectacular (2013) - music director for the Muppets
- Muppets Most Wanted (2014) - music producer (select songs), composer of orchestra cues
- "The Muppets Pit Band Again" (with Steve Morrell)
- "Total Mayhem" (with Steve Morrell)
- Producer for "The Muppet Show Theme" (Spanish arrangement), "Blue Danube," "Macarena (Bayside Boys Remix)", "End of the Road," "I Hope I Get It," "Moves Like Jagger," "My Heart Will Go On," "Working in the Coal Mine"
- Muppet Moments - background score[2]
- The Muppets (2015) - score (with Steve Morrell), including "Up Late with Miss Piggy" theme
- Muppets Now (2020) - original music
- Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) - Music (with Steve Morrell)
Sources[]
- ↑ BMI Repertoire - registration for arrangements of various viral video songs
- ↑ BMI entry