Fan Favorites: “The Sesame Street Carry About”

Today we start a new segment entitled "Fan Favorites" where fellow fans have the 

opportunity to express their thoughts or experiences about a favorite Muppet, Henson, or Sesame item.  

Our friend Melissa (aka MelissaY1 on the Muppet fan sites) kicks thing off with a look at an early Sesame Street item. 

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“The Sesame Street Carry About”

By Melissa Scopelitis

When The Children's Television Workshop first presented their new concept in teaching inner city kids basic letters, numbers and fundamentals to in order to better prepare them for school, it was a new venture not only in using television to teach children, but also a new venture in how to promote a show that was on public television. Remember, this was in 1969 and they had limited funding, no commercials for revenue, or social media to help expand awareness to the masses the way most productions can today. Since they didn’t have any of that, they first relied on printed promotional materials to spread the show, and in 1970, released a 45 RPM set of some early songs from show in a neat little record collection called “The Sesame Street Carry About” released by Columbia Records.

I was lucky enough to score most of the records in this set at a garage sale in the mid-90s. I am a huge fan of early Sesame Street in general, so any related memorabilia is a must have for me. There were actually some the seller had that were so beyond the condition of playing, I was afraid it would destroy my turntable, and I left them behind. According to the pretty thorough info on Muppet Wiki, it looks like only I'm missing one or two records from the set. 

The ones I did buy, I treasure and the track listings for them are listed as follows:
(Editors note: The track list made us so nostalgic we included one track from each record, be sure to give them a listen)

The Sesame Street Book & Record:
"Sesame Street theme" on side 1, and "Hello" on the B
(Note: Who remembers what "On the B" means these days!)

Feeling:
"Nearly Missed" on Side 1 and "A Face" on Side 2



Letters: 
"ABC-DEF-GHI" on Side 1 and "J-Jump" on Side 2

Shapes & Up and Down: 
"One of These Thing's" on Side 1, and "Up and Down" on Side 2

People & Play: 
"People In Your Neighborhood" on Side 1, and "Somebody Come and Play" on Side 2

Numbers: 
"Five People in My Family" on Side 1, and "I've Got Two" on Side 2

The best part about these records, for me, anyway, is the wonderful artwork and photos of the early Sesame characters and human cast members. 

All the sleeves also contain the song lyrics and an interesting look at the original Children's Television Workshop logo, which was a little marching soldier with one leg and arm raised, marching with a very "Nutcracker" type feel to it.

These records are definitely a fun find if you happen to come across them at a garage sale, flea market, or used record store, especially if you are a serious early Sesame Street collector and love photos of Oscar when he was orange, and Bob and Susan when they were young spring chickens. 

The set also really gives you a feel into what the show was trying to accomplish at the time for its target audience, so there's definitely a spirit about them while flipping through the booklets, and listening to them that I miss about that era. 

Thank you for reading and if any other Muppet fan sites like what I wrote, please feel free to contact me, I would love to write a review for your site as well!

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Thanks, Melissa. If you have a favorite item you'd like to share, send us an email or a message on Facebook, along with some photos of the item, and we'll feature it in an upcoming "Fan Favorite" article!