Now That's Edutainment!

Over at I Dig Worms, the latest post features Sesame Street Fever, a disco Sesame Street album sporting a cover with a vaguely disturbing image of Grover striking a John Travolta stance -- disturbing, I think, mainly because a full-bodied muppet is a little creepy. Ernie looks unsettlingly dispropotionate too... but I digress.

The highlight of the post is a full 2:41 version of the Pinball Number Count! Remember the animated pinball rolling through a plethora of obstacles to the beat of the funkiest little number ditty imaginable? Rock on. Here it is in all its glory. I remember several years ago going on a mission to find this song and eventually downloading a shortened version (just the number 4) through Napster. This was also pre-"google-takes-over-the-world", so I never did really find out anything more about it. What a difference a few years makes. Inspired by I Dig Worm's uncovering of this long-lost childhood relic, I googled "Pinball Number Count" and found this swack of cool links:

1. A Letter from Walt Kraemer
This guy composed and produced the Pinball Number Count. A couple years ago, some guy (obviously way more determined than I was) tracked this guy down and e-mailed him about the song. Here's his response, which details the hitherto secret history of the Pinball Number song. I didn't know this, but the vocals on the track are, in fact, The Pointer Sisters. Nice!

2. The Dead Hensons
A Muppets/Sesame Street cover band... bloody brilliant. Guess what: a cover of the Pinball Number song. Get it here. There's even a cover of "Can You Picture That?". This made my day. Possibly my month.

3. whytheluckystiff.net
Year-old blog entry on the Dead Hensons and the jackpot: a 26Mb avi movie of the Pinball Number Count. I am currently wallowing in nostalgia.

4. Hockey Night - For Guys' Eyes Only
A couple weeks back I downloaded this awesome track by Hockey Night, which I admittedly only downloaded because the band was called Hockey Night. About 1:30 into the song, an unexpected quotation of the Pinball Number Count. Must have been an omen.

Some related tracks:
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra - Sesame Street theme
Captain Vegetable [from Sesame Street]
Goodness - Electricity, Electricity [originally from Schoolhouse Rocks]
Deluxx Folk Implosion - I'm Just a Bill [originally from Schoolhouse Rocks]
Moxy Früvous - Photosynthesis [re-lyricization of their own Jenny Washington]


"Out of his secret garden somewhere in New Jersey..."