JUST what is it, exactly, about goofing around with those furry monsters on Sesame Street that musicians seem to love so much?
Leaked recently on YouTube was Feist's appearance on the show, in which she keeps the melody the same but alters the words of her hit single 1-2-3-4 to teach young viewers to count to, you guessed it, four.
"Oh you're counting, counting with me,"
sings the indie-pop superstar, "to one less than five and one more than three".
The Nova Scotian, whose song was a worldwide hit last year and was featured in an iPod Nano commercial, is to appear in the first episode of the show's new season (its 39th, which will also feature guest appearances by Jessica Alba, David Beckham and Heidi Klum), which focuses on maths and literacy. She also performs an original duet with muppet Elmo.
The question begs of what attracts musicians to Sesame Street, because Feist is far from the first musician to offer up her services. Other singers to have found their inner bairn on the popular show include Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash, Destiny's Child and Norah Jones.
Jones did Don't Know 'Y' about being stood up by the absentee letter, while country legend Cash performed Don't Take Your Ones to Town with Big Bird, a child-friendly play on his song Don't Take Your Guns to Town.
Even celebrated classical names have been drawn to the long-running show over the years. Andrea Bocelli sang Elmo to sleep with a modified version of his hit pop-opera song Time to Say Goodbye.
Yo Yo Ma has also made an appearance, performing 'the Beethoven quartet for two honkers, dinger and cello', along with several Muppets who pressed their noses to produce his accompaniment. The song, Ma joked to the show's viewers, was composed by the famous Muppet Murray Beethoven.
In the case of REM, a band often accused of taking itself too seriously, appearing on the show was a great opportunity to show they do indeed have a sense of humour. The boys from Athens, Georgia redid their hit Shiny Happy People as Furry Happy Monsters, and the new version was better than the original.
You can see the attraction of it all for the young ones, for whom it's a fair bet a song like Feist's 1-2-3-4 is going to sound a lot more pleasing on the ear than, say, a track like Rage Against The Machine's Killing In The Name Of. But that still doesn't explain the attraction for the performers themselves – just what is it?
Could it be that parents are far more likely to be endeared to them knowing their beloved ankle-biters are digging their songs?
In most cases, probably. Or in the case of Major Blunt, well, anything to make him more endearing to the public had to be worth a shot.
Still not entirely convinced, though, I decided to ask Feist herself what it was that made her want to appear on the show.
"It was just pure joy, simple, ridiculous fun, stupid joy," she says of her appearance with Kermit, Elmo and friends on Sesame Street.
"I'm on Sesame Street, and I'm walking around with all these monsters, Elmo and his buddies, a whole bunch of chickens, a whole bunch of penguins and a number four dancing about."
When put like that, it does sound a lot of fun.
The full article contains 583 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
