Telephone Rock

Music by	Christopher Cerf
Lyrics by	Norman Stiles
Date	1974
Publisher	Splotched Animal Music Company Sesame Street Inc.
First	Episode 0733

Rock & Roll home video.

"Telephone Rock" is a Sesame Street song performed by Little Jerry and the Monotones in Season 6.

Little Jerry gets into a telephone booth, where he (joined by the Monotones) starts singing to the operator. They end up harassing her until she shows up with a cop, who arrests them (by shutting the telephone booth door and carrying it away as they continue the song).

Notes

• Jon Stone directed this segment.

• In initial airings of the segment in Season 6, the song audio becomes intentionally muffled when the officer closes the doors of the phone booth. Subsequent airings leave the audio untouched.

• Jerry Nelson voices Big Jeffie in both the televised and album versions of the song.

• The police officer has no dialogue in the original sketch, but has a spoken line on the Signs! album (voiced here by Jerry Nelson). He reappears with the band at the end of the Rock & Roll! video (where he was performed by Martin P. Robinson). Both performers gave the character an Irish accent.

Releases

Audio

• Signs! (1977)
• Letters, Numbers and Signs (1977)

Video

• Rock & Roll! (1990, new sound effects added, beginning and ending cut)
• Shalom Sesame: Aleph-bet Telethon (1991, edited)
• Old School: Volume 2 (2007)
• Old School: Volume 3 (2012)
• 50 Years and Counting (2019)