Music by | Joe Raposo |
Lyrics by | Raposo, Jon Stone, Bruce Hart |
Date | 1969 |
"One of These Things" was a song regularly used on Sesame Street for sketches where viewers would be shown a group of four items, one of which was different from the other three, and they would have to identify the item which didn't belong. In a 1999 episode, in which the Dingers plan on having a ding-a-long, the cast sang a variation called "One of These Dings".
A similar game was played to two different songs written by Joe Raposo and Jeff Moss in 1970 and called "Three of These Things Belong Together", with variations such as "Two of These Things", "Here Are Some Things", and "Three of These Kids Belong Together". (The last version involved a four-way split screen with three children performing one activity, plus a fourth child "doing his own thing". Sometimes it was called "One of These Kids".) In some instances of the game, kids were encouraged to find more than one different answer, depending on how the things could be categorized.
This game has been used in segments starring William Wegman's dogs, and in animated form, melody only, with footprints. It was also the basis for a game in one "Journey to Ernie" segment. A line of the song is included in the theme for the "This is the Game Today" segments, and some of the games from "This is the Game Today" include this song.
Versions
Picture | Singer | Earliest Known Appearance | Subjects | Variations |
---|---|---|---|---|
Susan | Episode 0001 | W and three Twos | One of These Things | |
Susan and Oscar the Grouch | Episode 0013 | Ice cream cone sizes | One of These Things | |
Susan | Episode 0043 | Shoe sizes | ||
Susan | Episode 0054 | Shapes | ||
Susan | Episode 0083 | Silverware and a clock | ||
Susan | Episode 0123 | Capital and lower-case R's. | ||
Susan, Bob and Grover | Episode 0131 | Circles | One of These Things | |
Oscar the Grouch | Episode 0135 | Rancid sneaker, tattered glove, messed up sock, and nice hat. | Three of These Things | |
Episode 0136 | Hot dog, mustard, bun, and flower. | Three of These Things | ||
Bob | Episode 0158 | Fruit | Some of These Fruit | |
Bob | Episode 0158 | Knick-Knacks | Some of This Stuff | |
Cookie Monster | Episode 0174 | Number of cookies on each plate | One of These Things | |
Mr. Hooper | Episode 0179 | Groups of candy | Three of These Groups | |
Ernie | Episode 0267 | Plates full of cookies | One of These Things Belongs with the Others | |
Kermit the Frog and Susan | Episode 0276 | Hammer, shoe, pliers, and a saw | Three of These Things | |
Kermit the Frog and Susan | Episode 0276 | Three birds and a frog | ||
Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus | Episode 0298 | Three cut-out drawings of Snuffleupaguses and a cup | ||
Grover and Susan | Episode 0406 | Car and three animals | ||
Luis | Episode 0408 | Three Policemen, one fireman. (all Kids) | Three of These Kids | |
Luis | Episode 0413 | Upside-down kids, right side up kids | Three of These Kids | |
Luis | Episode 0418 | Basketball and Baseball | Three of These Kids | |
Luis | Episode 0463 | Three kids wearing winter clothes, and one kid not in winter clothes | Three of These Kids | |
David | Episode 0536 | Three starfish and one crab | ||
Bob | Episode 0536 | Football and Baseball | Three of These Kids | |
Bob and Maria | Episode 0592 | Three triangles and 23 | One of These Things | |
Bob and the kids | Episode 0597 | Shovels | Three of These Things | |
Bob, Luis and David | Episode 0598 | A scarf, hat, glove and book | One of These Things | |
The kids | Episode 0825 | Three kids riding one seat bicycle, and two kids riding two seat bicycle | Three of These Things | |
Linda | Episode 0901 | Fruit and a shoe | Three of These Things | |
The adults, Gladys the Cow, and the kids | Episode 1056 | People and a cow | One of Us Here | |
David | Episode 1733 | Three kids are jumping rope, but the fourth one is sitting down and reading a book. | Three of These Kids | |
Luis | Episode 2238 | Three kids holding umbrellas, and one kid not holding an umbrella | Three of These Kids | |
Edith Prickley (Andrea Martin) | Episode 2459 | Boots and Pumps | Three of These Things | |
Snuffy and Alice | Episode 2477 | Brussels Sprouts and Balls | One of These Things | |
The Big Bad Wolf, The Three Little Pigs, and Kermit the Frog - Sesame Street News Flash | Episode 2567 | Three pigs and one frog | Three of These Things | |
Uncle Wally, horses | Episode 2578 | Uncle Wally and a singing group of horses. | One of Us Here is Not Like The Others | |
Maria, Gina, and Telly Monster | Episode 2746 | When Oscar shows up while Maria, Gina, and Telly are making Oscar's favorite dish - a hat with ice cream and a fish inside - they play an impromptu game of this, featuring a hat, fish, ice cream, and apple. | Three of These Things | |
Big Bird and the adults | Episode 2747 | Big Bird, Susan, Luis, and Linda. | Three of These Things | |
Big Bird, Bob, Luis, Maria, and Gabriella | Episode 2747 | Three adults and a child | Three of These Things | |
Big Bird and the adults | Episode 2747 | One bird and six adults | Six of These Things | |
Sidney | Episode 2755 | Three cans, one cup | One of These Things | |
Telly, Savion, and Kids | Episode 2953 | A toy rocket ship, a pair of tap-shoes, a toy airplane, and a toy helicopter. | Three of These Things | |
A penguin | Episode 3145 | Four penguins - one of which has a clown nose on its beak, and one of which is Wolfgang in disguise. | One of These Things | |
Ruthie, Telly Monster, Merry Monster, and The Kids | Episode 3164 | A roller skate, towel, soap, and a Rubber Duckie. | Three of These Things | |
Gina, Kids, Elmo and Baby Bear | Episode 3410 | A blue ball, a yellow ball, a blue pull-duck, and a blue block. | One of These Things | |
Big Bird and Gordon | Episode 3540 | The Squirrelles and a rabbit. | One of These Things | |
Gina, Zoe, Alice, and kids | Episode 3757 | A squirrel, a teddy bear, a penguin, and a drum. | Three of These Things | |
Elmo and Zoe | Episode 3872 | A number 1 and three socks. | One of These Things | |
Cookie Monster and Ernie | Episode 3943 | A hamburger, a cookie, pizza and a fajita | Three of These Things | |
Elmo and viewer | Episode 3967 | A soccer ball, a jump rope, jacks and Stinky the Stinkweed | Three of These Things Belong Here | |
Big Bird and Cookie Monster | Episode 3981 | A cookie, a hat, a t-shirt, and a shoe | Three of These Things | |
Big Bird and Snuffy | Episode 3992 | Oscar, a hat, a mat, and a cat (Little Murray Sparkles) | Three of These Things | |
Maria and Kids | Episode 3993 | A kangaroo, a rabbit, a fish and a grasshopper | Three of These Things | |
Big Bird, Elmo, Zoe, Luis, Maria, H-Man | Episode 4115 | A helicopter, a hippopotamus, a ball and a hexagon | Three of These Things | |
Oscar the Grouch and Alan | Episode 4118 | Food scraps and a button | Three of These Things | |
Jay Leno and Big Bird | Three triangles and one circle | |||
Bob (pretending to be John-John) and John-John (pretending to be Bob)[1] |
Versions (animated)
A series of animated segments from season 4 featured an instrumental of the song over visuals of footprints or shoes in a graph.
Releases
- Audio
- The Sesame Street Book & Record (1970)
- One of These Things/Up and Down (single, 1970)
- Susan Sings Songs from Sesame Street (1970)
- Somebody Come and Play (1974)
- 60 Favorite Songs from Sesame Street (1975)
- 25 Greatest Hits (1975)
- Susan and Bob Sing: One of These Things/What Are Kids Called (single, 1976)
- 10th Anniversary Album (1978)
- Platinum Too (1997)
- Video
- Play-Along Games and Songs (Cookie Monster version)
- Old School: Volume 1 (in episodes 0001, 0131, 0276, 0406, and 0536)
- Old School: Volume 2 (in episode 1056)
- Let's Play Games (kids with umbrellas version) (on bonus CD-ROM)
- 40 Years of Sunny Days (Cookie Monster version)
- Publications
- Sesame Street Songbook Vol. 1
- The Sesame Street Songbook (1971, 1992 and 2007 editions)
- Online
- YouTube (Cookie Monster version) (YouTube)
Mentions
- This song was included in a 2004 Subway commercial, where it was called "One of These Subs".
- Dave Grohl, from the Foo Fighters, admits that he was influenced by "One of These Things" while writing the song "The Pretender". (YouTube)
- The Mindless Self-Indulgence song "Unsociable" has the line: "One of these shapes is not like the other holes," which is very similar to this song.
- In the tour Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity, Peanut comments on Jose Jalapeno calling Jeff "Senor Heff" and then "Senor Cheff". Jeff Dunham says it's the same thing and Peanut replies "No it's not! Didn't you watch Sesame Street?" Then he sings a short clip of "One of These Things" singing "One of these things just doesn't belong here". Then he parodies the end of the show by saying that "this show was sponsored by the sound CH."
- Taylor Swift's song "ME!" references the song in the lyrics. (YouTube)