Puppet Music That Gets Stuck in Your Head!
In response to Floyd’s earlier post today about catchy music and childhood memories, here’s one version of Mahna Mahna, performed by the Muppets.
So that I don’t get off that easy blogging today, I did a little research about the song. It was written by Italian musician Piero Umiliani for an Italian faux-documentary/softcore porno movie called Sweden, Heaven and Hell (1968). I am not making this up!
Hear the original recording on the Piero Umiliani MySpace page. (It’s the second song. There are other versions including a samba and one that mixes in snippets of Christmas carols.)
You can buy the soundtrack of Sweden, Heaven and Hell from Dusty Groove, which is, by the way, my favorite groovy online music store.
Mahna Mahna was first performed by The Muppets on the Ed Sullivan Show. The scat-singing puppet’s name was officially Bip Bippadotta (voiced by Jim Henson). There were numerous Muppet versions after that including the one up top from The Muppet Show. By then, the long-haired dude was renamed Mahna Mahna (Jim Henson) and he was backed by the Snowths (Frank Oz).
Some folks who have performed the song: Sandra Bullock, Ruth Buzzi, Goldie Hawn, Johnny Carson, characters on the British version of The Office, and the band Cake.
After the jump, a 1969 version.
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