 | |
| Written by | Christopher Cerf |
| Date | 1979 |
| Publisher | Splotched Animal Music Co. |
| First | Episode 1495 |
"Letter B" is a song parody of The Beatles' song "Let It Be," sung on Sesame Street by The Beetles. Richard Hunt provided lead vocals. As the title implies, the song teaches about B words.
Christopher Cerf, who had lost his voice at the time, later sung a portion of the song during an appearance at the Brooklyn Public Library on November 21, 2009. He later performed the song live, accompanied by Ivy Austin (backing vocals) and Paul Rudolph (percussion), at the "Sing: The Music of Sesame Street" event at the Museum of the Moving Image on August 18, 2019.
Notes[]
- When the Beatles' catalogue was still owned by Northern Songs, the company attempted to sue Christopher Cerf and Norman Stiles (who co-wrote the "Hey Jude" parody "Hey Food"). They cited that the songs were too derivative of the originals, while the songwriters' request for dismissal was denied.[1] Before the case came to trial, Michael Jackson purchased the Lennon/McCartney catalogue and the suit was dropped. According to Cerf, the Children's Television Workshop was only fined $50, which was paid out of his own pocket. Paul McCartney, who was not involved in the lawsuit, wrote to Cerf saying that he liked the song.[2]
- On the home video Count It Higher: Great Music Videos from Sesame Street, the segment has faux MTV-style credits which mention Sesame Road from Lemon Records (parodying Abbey Road and Apple Records). Sesame Road would become an actual Sesame Street album release in 1993, featuring "Letter B" as the opening track.
- Puppeteers for the segment include Hunt, Jim Henson, Jerry Nelson, and Frank Oz.[3]
Releases[]
- Audio
- Born to Add (1983 edition only)
- Sesame Road (1993, additional introduction by Big Bird)
- Sesame Street Best (1997)
- Video
- Count It Higher: Great Music Videos from Sesame Street (1988, intro cut)
- Old School: Volume 3 (2012)
- Awesome Alphabet Collection (2019, Count It Higher edit)
- Other
- Letters (computer game) (released as audio)
Sources[]
- ↑ Casemine.com. Northern Songs, Ltd. v. Distinguished Productions. 1984.
- ↑ Chris Cerf at a book signing for Street Gang, 1/5/09 [1]
- ↑ Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street end credits