Little Chrissy and the Alphabeats

Countithigher1976 — The group's first single, "Count It Higher"/"Exit".

Little Chrissy and the Alphabeats are a Sesame Street rock group that first appeared in season 5 in 1973. The leader is Little Chrissy, backed up by Green and Lavender Anything Muppets in red shirts with pompadour hairstyles known as the Alphabeats.

The performers for the group included Christopher Cerf as Little Chrissy. The voices of the back-up Alphabeats varied, including Christopher Cerf, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson and Jeff Moss.

In the group's first appearance, "Count it Higher," the band appeared as a quartet, including an extra Hot Pink Anything Muppet (voiced by Jerry Nelson) with orange hair and a blue-and-white striped shirt, and the Green and Lavender Alphabeats had a wilder look, with wider eyes and messier hair. The color of their hair was also different, with the Green Alphabeat sporting spiky black hair and the Lavender one with an unkempt blond hairdo. The following season, the Hot Pink Alphabeat was dropped, and the band was reduced to a trio with the Green and Lavender Alphabeats given their primary looks with the pompadours and eyelids. In a later appearance in Episode 1815, the band appears as a quartet again to perform "You Got a Nose," which features an extra female Alphabeat (voiced by Ivy Austin).

In addition to performing their own numbers, Little Chrissy and the Alphabeats have occasionally provided back-up music for Don Music in "Sesame Street News Flash" segments in the 70s. In the early 1990s, Big Jeffy (often appearing alongside Little Chrissy in street scenes as a duo at this point) appeared in place of the lavender Alphabeat on a number of occasions, in the songs "Gonna Rock You to Sleep," "I Go to School," and "Startin' Kindergarten."