Sesame Street

Sesame Street is a long-running American children's television series created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. The program is known for its educational content, and creativity communicated through the use of Jim Henson's Muppets, animation, short films, humor, and cultural references. The series premiered on stations on November 10, 1969 to positive reviews, some controversy, and high ratings.

Since the premiere of the children's television show Sesame Street in 1969, music has always been an important component of the show. It was the first children's show to use its songs for a specific purpose and to support its educational curriculum. Co-creator Joan Ganz Cooney, in her initial proposal for Sesame Street, recommended that music be used educationally and that its songs be constructed like television jingles. The show had a recognizable, signature sound and many of its songs became timeless classics. Its first musical director, Joe Raposo, who was inspired by the show's curriculum, wrote many of Sesame Street's most recognized songs, such as the "Sesame Street Theme", "Bein' Green", and "Sing". Raposo and other songwriters retained the rights to the songs they wrote, making it possible, for the first time, to earn lucrative profits from writing music for a children's music show. Many of the show's songs became hits, and were later recorded by other artists such as Frank Sinatra and The Carpenters.

The first six albums were released by Columbia Records and Warner Bros. Records, both major labels with many years of experience. These were deluxe albums, issued in colorful gatefold covers, usually with bonus material such as posters, lyric booklets, and photos and drawings of the show's characters. This arrangement lasted for the first five years of the show. During the summer of 1970, as The Sesame Street Book & Record became a best seller, Bob McGrath and Loretta Long also released their own children's albums. While not part of the Sesame Street canon (even though they both mention Sesame Street on their covers), they also became well-known albums because of the show's huge popularity.

In 1974, Sesame Street created its own series of records, on an independent label that was called Sesame Street Records, with a custom record label logo of the Sesame Street sign. These albums were manufactured by Children's Records of America from 1974 to 1976, and by Distinguished Productions from 1977 to 1984. Over 70 titles were produced over the ten-year run of the label. The catalog included reissues of all of the previous Columbia and Warner Bros. albums, although in less lavish packages than their original editions. At first, titles were only issued on vinyl, but over the years, they were also produced on cassettes and 8-track tapes.

The Sesame Street Records label was shut down around 1984. Soon after, many Sesame Street titles began to be reissued on cassettes by an educational company called Sight & Sound. While some tapes used the original cover pictures, others had new cover pictures. An important historical footnote during this period is that in 1987, the very first Sesame Street CD was produced, called The Best of Sesame Street, and it would be the only CD produced until the early 1990s. In 1990, titles began to appear on Golden Music, which was the music division of Golden Books. A mix of new titles appeared, beginning with tributes to Jim Henson and Joe Raposo, along with reissues of older titles. Golden's license lasted until 1994.

In 1995, Sony Wonder began issuing a new series of titles. This was looked on with interest by some Sesame collectors, since Sony owns the back catalog of Columbia Records, who put out the very first Sesame Street LP in 1970. While that album has not yet been reissued on CD in its entirety, the second Columbia album, The Muppet Alphabet Album, was reissued as Sing the Alphabet. However, one section of dialogue was cut which referred to turning the record over, which wouldn't make any sense to CD listeners.

The Sony Wonder years culminated with Songs from the Street, an elaborate 3-CD boxed set produced in association with Sony Music's Legacy Recordings. This set was full of classic and rare tracks both from records and from live performances on the show. It also contained a detailed booklet about the history of the show, written by Christopher Cerf. It was the first time Sesame Street had received the boxed-set treatment from a major label, although several multi-LP boxed sets had been released over the years on Sesame Street Records.

In 2007, Koch Records announced that it would begin distributing Sesame Street titles. The first titles began to appear in 2008, with reissues of albums that had previously been released on Sony Wonder. In addition to the main library of Sesame Street music, over the years, original cast albums have been sold at the Sesame Street Live shows.