Written by | Jim Henson |
Date | 1960 |
Publisher | The B. F. Wood Music Company |
Format | 45 rpm single |
Label | Signature Records |
Cat no. | 12023 |
"The Countryside" is a novelty song written and performed by Jim Henson, and it was the flip side of his song "Tick-Tock Sick" on Signature Records. Showing influences from Spike Jones and Stan Freberg, it tells the story of a man from the countryside who moves to the city upon the recommendation of a friend. However, he gets so fed up with the noises of the city, that he decides to move back to the country. But the country now also has a bunch of noisy mechanical devices of its own. This annoys him so much that he moves back to the city.
Throughout the song, which is entirely in spoken rhyme, multiple sound effects are heard, punctuating the sounds described by the narrator.
The track was lip-synced in the January 20, 1960 episode of Sam and Friends.[1]