Sing (song)
Encyclopedia
"Sing" is a popular song created for Sesame Street
that gained popularity when performed by The Carpenters
who made it a #3 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts in 1973. It has become one of the most performed songs on Sesame Street, sung in English, Spanish, and sign language
.
"Sing" was written by Joe Raposo
, the staff songwriter for the popular children's TV show Sesame Street. In its initial appearance, the song was sung by adult human cast members of the show (the most frequent lead singer was Bob McGrath
), and Muppets, including Big Bird
. "The Kids" sang "Sing" for The Sesame Street Book & Record, a recording re-released on the 2003 Songs from the Street CD set.
had had an Easy Listening
hit in 1972 with "Sing", Karen
and Richard Carpenter
heard the song for the first time as guests on ABC television special Robert Young with the Young in 1973. The Carpenters loved the song and said in retrospect that they knew it would "be a hit". Their associates thought they were "nuts". The song acted as their debut single from the LP album Now & Then, released in 1973. "Sing" reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100
chart and number-one on the easy listening
chart, and it became the group's seventh gold single.
Their recording of the song was produced and arranged by Richard Carpenter, and engineered by Ray Gerhardt. The lead vocal was sung by Karen Carpenter, with backing vocals by Karen and Richard Carpenter and the Jimmy Joyce Children's Choir. Keyboards were by Richard Carpenter, bass by Joe Osborn
, drums by Karen Carpenter, and recorders by Tom Scott
.
In 1974 while touring Japan
, The Carpenters recorded their first live album in Osaka. The album contained a new version of "Sing" with the children's chorus sung by the Kyoto Children's Choir. The song is featured on the album Live In Japan
which was recorded in June 1974 and released in Japan only on March 7, 1975. This album has since been released on CD
and is available as an import.
The 1991 box set From the Top
contains a "spanglish" version of the song. The title is listed as "Canta/Sing", and is sung with the Spanish and English versions switching off between certain lines of the song.
An additional recording and remix of the Carpenters version was done in 1994, that time with sound engineer Roger Young.
sang and signed this song to a group of deaf children on Sesame Street in 1975. In 1976, on the eleventh episode of The Muppet Show
, guest Lena Horne
sang this song. Later, Alaina Reed
(in her character of Olivia) sang this song, while Linda
(Linda Bove
) signed the lyrics. After the hurricane struck Sesame Street in 2001, Big Bird
sang "Sing" in celebration of his nest being rebuilt.
As an iconic Sesame song, "Sing" was used to close many of the show's anniversary specials, including Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting, Sesame Street's All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever and Sesame Street's 25th Birthday: A Musical Celebration. It was used for the title of the 1990 documentary that eulogized Raposo, Sing! Sesame Street Remembers Joe Raposo and His Music.
The original and subsequent Sesame Street recordings were released on Sesame Street Concert/On Stage - Live! (1973), Sing the Hit Songs of Sesame Street (1974), Bert & Ernie Sing-Along
(1975), Sesame Street Silver - 10th Anniversary Album (1978), Sesame Street Disco (1979), Sing: Songs of Joe Raposo (1992), Sesame Street Platinum: All Time Favorites (1995), The Bird Is the Word - Big Bird's Favorite Songs, Songs from the Street: 35 Years of Music (2003), and The Best of Elmo. A Spanish version was included in Fiesta Songs! (1998).
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
that gained popularity when performed by The Carpenters
The Carpenters
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...
who made it a #3 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts in 1973. It has become one of the most performed songs on Sesame Street, sung in English, Spanish, and sign language
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
.
"Sing" was written by Joe Raposo
Joe Raposo
Joseph Guilherme Raposo, OIH was a Portuguese-American composer, songwriter, pianist, television writer and lyricist, best known for his work on the children's television series Sesame Street, for which he wrote the theme song, as well as classic songs such as "Bein' Green" and "C is for Cookie"...
, the staff songwriter for the popular children's TV show Sesame Street. In its initial appearance, the song was sung by adult human cast members of the show (the most frequent lead singer was Bob McGrath
Bob McGrath
Robert Emmet "Bob" McGrath is an American singer and actor best known for playing the human character Bob on Sesame Street. He was born in Ottawa, Illinois. McGrath was named for Irish patriot Robert Emmet....
), and Muppets, including Big Bird
Big Bird
Big Bird is a protagonist of the children's television show Sesame Street. Big Bird, like many of the other Sesame Street characters, is a Muppet character. He is sometimes referred to simply as "Bird" by his friends....
. "The Kids" sang "Sing" for The Sesame Street Book & Record, a recording re-released on the 2003 Songs from the Street CD set.
Background of The Carpenters version
Although Barbra StreisandBarbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
had had an Easy Listening
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
hit in 1972 with "Sing", Karen
Karen Carpenter
Karen Anne Carpenter was an American singer and drummer. She and her brother, Richard, formed the 1970s duo The Carpenters. She was a drummer of exceptional skill, but she is best remembered for her vocal performances of idealistic romantic ballads of true love...
and Richard Carpenter
Richard Carpenter (musician)
Richard Lynn Carpenter is an American pop musician, best known as one half of the brother/sister duo The Carpenters, along with his sister Karen Carpenter. He was a producer, arranger, pianist and keyboardist, and occasional lyricist, as well as joining with Karen on harmony...
heard the song for the first time as guests on ABC television special Robert Young with the Young in 1973. The Carpenters loved the song and said in retrospect that they knew it would "be a hit". Their associates thought they were "nuts". The song acted as their debut single from the LP album Now & Then, released in 1973. "Sing" reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart and number-one on the easy listening
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
chart, and it became the group's seventh gold single.
Their recording of the song was produced and arranged by Richard Carpenter, and engineered by Ray Gerhardt. The lead vocal was sung by Karen Carpenter, with backing vocals by Karen and Richard Carpenter and the Jimmy Joyce Children's Choir. Keyboards were by Richard Carpenter, bass by Joe Osborn
Joe Osborn
Joe Osborn is an American bass guitar virtuoso, notable for his work as a session musician in Los Angeles and Nashville during the period from the 1960s through the 1980s. Osborn's work is widely admired by fellow musicians.Osborn began his career working in local clubs, then played on a hit...
, drums by Karen Carpenter, and recorders by Tom Scott
Tom Scott (musician)
Tom Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader of the west coast jazz/jazz fusion ensemble The L.A. Express.-Biography:Scott was born in Los Angeles, California...
.
In 1974 while touring Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, The Carpenters recorded their first live album in Osaka. The album contained a new version of "Sing" with the children's chorus sung by the Kyoto Children's Choir. The song is featured on the album Live In Japan
The Carpenters discography
The discography of the American pop group the Carpenters, consists of twelve studio albums, two christmas albums, two live albums, forty-six singles, and numerous compilation albums. The duo made up of Karen Carpenter and her elder brother Richard Carpenter .The siblings started their musical...
which was recorded in June 1974 and released in Japan only on March 7, 1975. This album has since been released on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
and is available as an import.
The 1991 box set From the Top
From the Top
From the Top is a national program and initiative to develop and showcase young classical musicians. It is best known for its NPR radio and PBS television programs hosted by pianist Christopher O'Riley, which celebrate the passion, dedication and personal stories of America's best young classical...
contains a "spanglish" version of the song. The title is listed as "Canta/Sing", and is sung with the Spanish and English versions switching off between certain lines of the song.
An additional recording and remix of the Carpenters version was done in 1994, that time with sound engineer Roger Young.
Subsequent "Sesame Street" versions
Lily TomlinLily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
sang and signed this song to a group of deaf children on Sesame Street in 1975. In 1976, on the eleventh episode of The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...
, guest Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
sang this song. Later, Alaina Reed
Alaina Reed Hall
Alaina Reed Hall was an American actress best known for her roles as Olivia, Gordon's younger sister, on the long-running children's television series Sesame Street, and Rose Lee Holloway on the NBC sitcom 227.-Early life and career:Born Bernice Ruth Reed in Springfield, Ohio, she began her career...
(in her character of Olivia) sang this song, while Linda
Linda (Sesame Street)
Linda, played by Linda Bove was one of the most innovative characters on the children's program Sesame Street. She was the first deaf regular in a television series...
(Linda Bove
Linda Bove
Linda Bove is a deaf American actress who played the part of Linda the Librarian on the children's television program Sesame Street from 1971 to 2003.-Sesame Street:...
) signed the lyrics. After the hurricane struck Sesame Street in 2001, Big Bird
Big Bird
Big Bird is a protagonist of the children's television show Sesame Street. Big Bird, like many of the other Sesame Street characters, is a Muppet character. He is sometimes referred to simply as "Bird" by his friends....
sang "Sing" in celebration of his nest being rebuilt.
As an iconic Sesame song, "Sing" was used to close many of the show's anniversary specials, including Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting, Sesame Street's All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever and Sesame Street's 25th Birthday: A Musical Celebration. It was used for the title of the 1990 documentary that eulogized Raposo, Sing! Sesame Street Remembers Joe Raposo and His Music.
The original and subsequent Sesame Street recordings were released on Sesame Street Concert/On Stage - Live! (1973), Sing the Hit Songs of Sesame Street (1974), Bert & Ernie Sing-Along
Bert & Ernie Sing-Along
Bert and Ernie Sing Along is a Sesame Street album released in 1975 that involved the entire cast of humans and Muppets doing a sing-a-long in Bert and Ernie's bathroom....
(1975), Sesame Street Silver - 10th Anniversary Album (1978), Sesame Street Disco (1979), Sing: Songs of Joe Raposo (1992), Sesame Street Platinum: All Time Favorites (1995), The Bird Is the Word - Big Bird's Favorite Songs, Songs from the Street: 35 Years of Music (2003), and The Best of Elmo. A Spanish version was included in Fiesta Songs! (1998).
Covers
- In 1972 Barbra StreisandBarbra StreisandBarbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
had a single release of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" in a medleyMedley (music)In music, a medley is a piece composed from parts of existing pieces, usually three, played one after another, sometimes overlapping. They are common in popular music, and most medleys are songs rather than instrumental. A medley which is a remixed series is called a megamix, often done with tracks...
with "Sing" which became an Easy Listening hit (#28) but only reached #94 on the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. - In 1975, Shirley BasseyShirley BasseyDame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...
recorded the song on her album Good, Bad but BeautifulGood, Bad but BeautifulGood, Bad but Beautiful is a 1975 album by Shirley Bassey. In the first half of the decade, Bassey recorded nine albums, with three making the top ten. In March 1975, Bassey released a compilation that became her highest-charting album to date, The Shirley Bassey Singles Album , and reflects the...
, and also performed it in concert several times in the 1970s. - In 1976 Donnie Harper and the Voices of Tomorrow performed a Gospel cover of the song on episode 13 of season 2 of Saturday Night Live.
- In 1979, Sammy Davis, Jr.Sammy Davis, Jr.Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
performed it as part of his live show. - In 1996, Dutch group Nakatomi produced a happy hardcoreHappy hardcoreHappy hardcore, also known as happycore, is a genre of music typified by a very fast tempo , often coupled with solo vocals and sentimental lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat "happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of hardcore techno, which tend to be "darker". It is typically in...
version of this song. - The Dixie Chicks once recorded a version of this song, and there was also an all-celebrity version, featuring such celebrities as R.E.M., Conan O'BrienConan O'BrienConan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
, Ben StillerBen StillerBenjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....
, and, again, The Dixie Chicks. - In 2008, Kristin ChenowethKristin ChenowethKristin Chenoweth is an American singer and actress, with credits in musical theatre, film and television. She is best known on Broadway for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown , for which she won a Tony Award, and for originating the role of Glinda in the musical...
covered this song with new additional holiday lyrics on her latest Christmas albumChristmas AlbumChristmas Album may refer to:* Christmas Album , a 1968 album by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass* Christmas Album Christmas Album may refer to:* Christmas Album (Herb Alpert album), a 1968 album by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass* Christmas Album Christmas Album may refer to:* Christmas Album (Herb...
, A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas. - In the mid-1990s, American power band Autumn Teen Sound often played the song live.
- In 2009, Pink MartiniPink MartiniPink Martini is a 13-member "little orchestra" from Portland, Oregon, formed in 1994 by pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale. They draw inspiration from music from all over the world – crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop.-History:...
included an English and Spanish language version of the song on their album Splendor in the GrassSplendor in the Grass (album)Splendor in the Grass is the fourth full-length album from the band Pink Martini. It was released in October 2009 on their own label Heinz Records....
. - MoccAMocca (band)Mocca is an Indonesian four-member band formed in 1997 in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. The band's musical style is inspired by the retro sounds of the 70s, with influences of swing, bossa nova, Swedish pop, and jazz. The core of the band is Arina Ephipania Simangunsong, Riko Prayitno, Achmad ...
, IndonesiaIndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n Story-Telling Pop Band, covered the song on their album Colours. - In 2010, the song was prominently featured in the video game Metal Gear Solid: Peace WalkerMetal Gear Solid: Peace Walkeris a video game produced by Konami and Kojima Productions that was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2010. Peace Walker is the fourth Metal Gear title for the PSP, although it is only the second to be considered part of the series' main canon, following Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops...
.
Charts
Placement on the Charts: Carpenters' Version| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 3 |
| U.S. Billboard Easy Listening | 1 |
| Record World | 4 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 4 |
| Oricon International Singles Chart | 1 |
| Oricon (Japanese) Singles Chart | 18 |