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Essential Vintage Sesame Street on YouTube

June 14th, 2007

I first got hooked on YouTube by searching for old Sesame Street clips from the ’70s. I watch plenty of current Sesame Street these days, and it’s perfectly fine, but somehow the magic of the show has waned over the years. I remember watching it as a kid and thinking it was hilarious and weird and entrancing and pretty much the best thing ever. Now, it’s sweet and still very educational, but it’s lost a lot of its spark, its edge, and its pure wacky psychedelia. In a quest to bring my kids the magic of the original Street, I purchased the Sesame Street Old School DVDs, but of course they don’t cover everything. Here’s a list of the absolute best vintage Street on the block. (Hooray for YouTube!)

Classics:

• Ernie and Rubber Duckie
• C is for Cookie
• La La Lemon
• Alphabet with Kermit
• Ladybug Picnic
• Pinball Countdown (1-2-3-4-5…)
• Mahna Mahna
• Yip Yip Martians and the Phone
• People in your Neighborhood

Letters:

• Fairy Alphabet
• Noonie Noonie Noon (C)
• Dee Dee Dee
• E (imagination)
• Francis Fairy
• Capital I
• J Song
  
• R is for rabbit
• Willamena
• Zizzy Zoomers
• Psychedelic morphing alphabet
• Construction workers alphabet

Numbers:

• Jazz #2 (Grace Slick singing)
• 2 girls with a dollhouse
• Two toucan two-step
• Ringmaster (4)
• Alligator King (7)
• Number 9 cutie
• Number 10 song
• Baker (10) - YouTube has the rest of the numbers for this sketch
• 11 morning
• Counting 1-10 with Nobody

Muppets:

• Do De Rubber Duck
• Ernie & Bert Go Fishing
• Fuzzy and Blue
• Doin’ the Pigeon
• Monsterpiece Theater (Chariots of Fur)
• Supergrover
• Kermit News Flash

Guest Music:

• Stevie Wonder, Superstition (hands down the BEST CLIP EVER)
• Stevie again, 123 Sesame Street
• James Taylor, Jelly Man Kelly
• REM, Furry Happy Monsters (after my time, but still great)
• Many celebrities, Put Down the Duckie

Obscure yet wonderful:

• 1-2-3 Rolling Ball
• A baby and her cookie
• There Are Chickens in the Trees
• Loaf of Bread…
• Striped Balls
• Yo-Yo Master & Lost Kid
• That’s About the Size
• Billy Joe Jive
• Orange sings Carmen
• Subway song
• Telephone Rock
• Count it Higher
• Some and None
• Clap, Clap, Clap
• Apples and Bananas in Spanish
• Sad Flower Song

Bonus Electric Company stuff:

• Electric Company credits
• Silent E song
• LY song
• C-AN, Can!

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