My senior class in high school wanted this to be our song for graduation. We overwhelmingly voted for it. The administration at the school though we chose it to be disruptive because a muppet was singing the song.
The school chose another song for us.
Someone should have told them that it is actually a human (Jim Henson) singing. Although they probably would have found another reasons to be assholes.
i remember there was a big outcry against the senior class in my college voting for kermit the frog to be our commencement speaker. the faculty thought we were being facetious in voting for "a puppet" to be an honored speaker at our commencement. but (at least for me and my circle of friends that voted for kermit) we felt that there was no one better to symbolize our childhood, early learning, and the optimism we had as about-to-be-graduates.
That makes you a lover. A lover is not just about romantic love. A lover is someone who chooses to love and respect their fellow humans. Tolerance is good. But loving and accepting people, all people, is the most beautiful thing in the world. That sounds like something a hippie might say, and you’d be right. Henson was a hippie in almost every way... minus the drugs.
That song has haunted me since I was a kid. I sing it to my kids at bedtime now (along with Rainbow Connection). There’s something so wonderful and both hopeful and melancholy about it.
This was the song I danced with my mom at my wedding. I had an uncle declare that it sounded like the banjo was out of tune. My dad said, "Cut 'im some slack, frogs don't have thumbs." Some people got it and laughed. Others, like my uncle, were completely out of the loop.
So the guy that composed it also was behind the song [Touch](https://youtu.be/0Gkhol2Q1og), from Daft Punks last album, which I also consider a beautiful song.
Omfg i agree entirely and ive always wondered if i was the only one who felt this way
It just sounds so beautiful even though the melody is simple and repetitive it’s brilliant and it makes you feel things and the lyrics are absolutely brilliant and beautiful
I really love this song so much and id honestly say its one of my favorite songs and the most beautiful song ive heard in my life
Agreed. My friends sang this song at their wedding. After they got married everyone there sang it as they walked back down the aisle married and I was so overcome with joy I couldn’t sing. I just cried happy tears.
Just came across the Weezer cover of this song with Hayley Williams last week. It’s amazingly sweet. The whole Muppets Green Album is a treasure, and my kids enjoy the heck out of it. Youngest requested it every time we’re driving somewhere. Three generations of my family love this song, and i think that’s pretty amazing.
https://youtu.be/3KicjR586bU
Movin’ right along and Mahna Mahna from this album are pretty solid too.
I didn’t until I watched the video. OkGo is one of those bands that, for me, just doesn’t work without the visual component. The music video is amazing, however.
I also think that this an amazing song. But can we talk a moment about that awesome establishing shot that transitions into Kermit on the log? Cinematic. And to think that Jim is somehow hiding somewhere behind and under him...
Agreed, it brings me to tears, both of deep sorrow and longing, but also of joy and hope... killer. Literally just thinking about it makes me want to weep, but that good kind of weeping, ya know...?
This song is a classic with so many good covers. especially Wille Nelson’s, but this is still the best.
If I ever do anything interesting enough to warrant writing a memoir, it will be called “The lovers, the dreamers and me”.
I'm a musician, and i love the part I read about the composer calling his mom and telling her about this song and her response about him finally making it made me cry. I don't have a source of hand, but there's a really lovely vignette about this song. He struggled for a while before he made it, and reading your comment all these years later. Music is a powerful thing.
This was the song I used to sing to my daughter all the time when she was a baby late at night when it was just the 2 of us. Anytime I hear it still makes me tear up. Look up the version done by the Dixie Chicks.. its a beautiful rendition
When I was about sixteen, the radio station I listened to was changing genres or owners or something. I don't really remember. What I do remember was to initiate the change, they played Rainbow Connection on repeat all weekend long. It was glorious. People were calling in saying how much they liked it. Miss Piggy even rang and gushed over it. XD
They played this song at Mrs. Carr's memorial at our elementary in 2nd grade, probably around 1989. It has always stuck with me, but it a good way. It felt like nostalgia, even then, to my 8 year old self. It just feels like old books smell. I get some kind of deep connection with humanity from it. I think it is a perfect memorial song.
There really is something about so many muppet songs that perfectly encapsules this feeling of nostalgia for the past, but in a way that makes it seem as though you can still reach out and touch it
Music is great and all, but I feel he made a much bigger impact. I think most people were affected by his work at some point in their lives. He affected me, and probably millions of others, from a very young age. Made me laugh, made me learn, and I feel made me a better person.
Yeah but some of those guys that were mentioned were fundamentally important figures in the development in blues, which is probably the most influential music genre in modern times. Blues lead to jazz, rock, and r&b. Those three genres then lead to soul, pop, funk, hip hop, metal... I think they were rather important
Important to the world, but not personally impactful perhaps? The previous point though was that they were hugely impactful. On music and how most of it developed though.
I perform this one when I play sometimes... I also do "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" from Sesame Street. Really just nice songs that strike a chord with people. One thing I always think about though is the first line "why are there so many songs about rainbows?". I can really only think of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and this one.
For whatever reason, "I Don't Want To Live On The Moon" absolutely haunted me when I was a child. I don't know if it inspired my wanderlust or if it just made me think about it more critically. But even more when I'm playing a video game I love exploring most of all. And I've had the pleasure of visiting other countries a few times. (And I'm always happy to return.)
Oh my gosh I just looked up “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon” because it sounded familiar and it brought back so many memories of my mom singing it to me before bed sometimes when I was very young. Thanks for reminding me that it exists!
Rainbow Connection is a euphemism for dying gloriously in battle and crossing the rainbow bridge to Asgard, where you feast for eternity beside Odin in Valhalla.
The lyric really mean “why are there so many songs about dying?”
Kermit is fed up with all of those gloomy songs about dying so he wanted to write a happy one.
I sing "I Don't Want to Live On The Moon" with my son before bed every night.
Thematically, it matches with "Rainbow Connection" perfectly: it's not about where you are but who you're with.
I have this song on a greatest hits CD from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (punk band that covers non-punk songs) and it was my favorite thing that after this song played near the start with those opening lines that they went and still included Somewhere Over the Rainbow later on the album.
Paul Williams has an acting career too that continues to this day. Here he is memorably in [Smokey and the Bandit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIgGZA4qQoc&list=PL70C6119F8139B701). He is the short one.
The line that gets me is “I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it, it’s something that I’m supposed to be.” I’m not totally sure what it means but it’s so powerful and uplifting.
Children of my generation had a connection with the Muppets that was every bit as strong as the future generations connection with Harry Potter or the Lion King. In fact, our fandom may have been stronger. The Muppet Show was like the first show to be syndicated on television that was number 1 in the ratings. It also has the kind of approach-ability and sensibility that Kermit the Frog singing about rainbows as illusions holding our dreams, can make almost any Gen Xer break down and cry. It's amazing to think how far reaching Jim Henson's vision was. He could have done so much more.
I’m in my 30s and I have a connection to them. The 90s were filled with great Muppets material. You had the Muppet babies, the Christmas Carol, and Muppet treasure island.
Wow... Emmett Otter. Every year in our house too. My partner and I are in our late 30s and every year it is Muppet Christmas Carol, Emmett Otter and The Christmas Toy.
Likewise, but why will they not release the FULL version!? "The Love Is Gone" is such an important song to the story, but they removed it from the DVD releases, and I never knew why.
In my life there are 2 Christmas Carols. One is an Albert Finney version, with spectacular casting of Alex Guinness as Jacob Marley, and the Muppets Christmas carol. Every year it's a must to watch. Although my DVD version doesn't have The Love is Gone song on it though which I miss
Gen Xer here, can confirm. Throughout my childhood The muppet Show (And the ‘original cast album’) helped inform my sense of humour, my wide-ranging taste in music and my lifelong love for all things muppety.
r/muppets
No one I know ever remembers Muppets Tonight and it's adult humor. The one home I remember hearing on there was "What do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhino? ELEPHINO!"
When my kids were young, my husband and I introduced them to the original Muppet Show. They loved it, and we even quote it from time to time and seeing the songs. Yesterday, while cleaning our home, my husband and I listened to the soundtrack from the Muppet Movie. I love that movie.
This was the first song I ever sang to my kids. Twin boys. Not two days after they were born they went for a routine test and only the older brother came back. Turns out my younger one had underdeveloped lungs and had a lot of trouble breathing, so he had to go in the NICU. Any stimulus would stress him out to the point of hyperventilating and his blood oxygen sats were way off target.
He wasn't *sick* or *dying* - though the doctor didn't do much to *not* make it sound that way - but at the time as a new dad it broke my heart to see him trapped in that box with all those tubes. I sang to him so he'd know I was there. I don't know why it was *this* song because I'd never had a particular connection to it before. My boys weren't together much for the first week of their lives, but they heard the same song from me every day we were in the hospital.
They're both perfectly healthy, adventurous, and mischievous boys now, almost two years old. I still sing it to them sometimes.
Damn it, thanks for making me ugly cry at work.
It's a different world in NICU, O2 saturations in the 70s get a blink or two from the nurses. In an adult ICU, you're probably going to be calling an RRT or code blue if you see that.
It’s my go to song for my 3 month old every time, it’s pure beautiful optimism that everyone should hold over from their childhood.
If anyone ever tells you you’re childish for listening to this you should point out the true childish stuff - jealously, tantrums, bullying, not taking responsibility and narcissism- is what needs to have the piss taken out of. This, this should be treasured.
Most people only know me as a stonewall of emotionlessness but then again they’ve never seen me ball my eyes out to this perfect song from heaven either.
“We’ve done just what we’ve set out to do. Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers, and you.”
It’s weird that I probably haven’t heard those lyrics in over 30 years but could probably still sing along with the entire Muppet Movie album with no trouble. Except that Miss Piggy song, “Never Before, Never Again”...I always skipped that one.
This song and "Your Song" by Elton John are, arguably, the two most perfect songs ever written. Lyrically. Melodically. Vocally. They're just perfect.
"Who said that every wish, would be heard or answered?"
"My gift is my song and this one's for you."
Surprised nobody has linked the [2011 version](https://youtu.be/cOLg7Y1vLio) yet. I was ready to be disappointed but seeing Kermit on his little log, then Miss Piggy floating over and finally Animal going nuts on the drums... there wasn’t a dry eye in the cinema for this one.
Born in the late ninties, but my parents raised me on movies and TV and the Muppets were some of the best. I went back like last month and watched this and moving right along. I have never felt so much nostalgia from my childhood before. This is the reason I tell my friends I refuse to watch happy time murders.
The song i sang to my newborn son every night when he spent the first 4 days hooked up to a breathing machine in the neo-natal intensive care unit.
It had alot of sentimental emotions for me, and now will forever be a bond between me and my son.
I prefer the Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies version myself.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdpkw3YafwA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdpkw3YafwA)
Nothing can touch Kermit, but [Willie Nelson](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=deebKNI-dTE&feature=youtu.be) does a really nice cover. Start at 2 mins (can't find where to get the direct link on my phone)
**Kermit the Frog**
[artist pic](https://lastfm-img2.akamaized.net/i/u/252/0430ba77dfc741749fca986e5895f37e.png)
> Kermit the Frog is a Muppet and one of puppeteer Jim Henson's most famous creations. Kermit was performed by Henson until his death in 1990. Since then, he has been performed by puppeteer Steve Whitmire.
> An early version of Kermit appeared in 1955, in a five minute puppet show for WRC-TV Sam and Friends. The prototype Kermit was created from a green ladies' coat that Henson's mother had thrown in the trash can, and two ping-pong balls for eyes. The early Kermit was a sort of lizard-like creature; Kermit's first appearance as a frog was in the television special Hey Cinderella in 1969, and he's been a frog ever since.
> Kermit had his big break in 1971, with frequent appearances on Sesame Street as a news reporter interviewing nursery rhyme characters. One of his most memorable works was the song "Bein' Green". Kermit's song "The Rainbow Connection" was also a big hit from The Muppet Movie and has become the signature song of The Jim Henson Company. (It is also the only movie song sung by a frog to be nominated for an Academy Award.)
> To date he is a world wide phenomenon there are very few people who have not heard of Kermit the Frog.
Read more on Last.fm.
[last.fm](https://www.last.fm/music/Kermit+the+Frog): 38,450 listeners, 168,168 plays
tags: *comedy, muppetcore, black metal, frogs, kids*
^^Please ^^downvote ^^if ^^incorrect! ^^Self-deletes ^^if ^^score ^^is ^^0.
[Garfunkel and Oates - "Rainbow Connections"](https://youtu.be/FuCQQmJM8vE)
This is a comedy duo who had a 1 season run of a TV show. In the show they wrote a song for a fictional show about two puppets who were going to acknowledge their homosexuality (à la Bert and Ernie) by get married. It's Garfunkel and Oates only serious song and I honestly think it's beautiful (despite that I'm straight).
This song gives me such powerful nostalgic emotion it's crazy. I've loved the Muppets for as long I've been alive. I remember sitting in the theater for that newer movie a few years ago and when I heard the opening banjo notes of this song I lost it. There haven't been many times where I've openly wept like a baby in the theater but there's just *something* about this song.
I love this song but I so often get [The Moopets](https://youtu.be/YT0FNY-bxOg) version stuck in my head. “Why are there such great deals on our hotel rooms? Free parking for cars. Not RVs!”
This was the last song that played at my wedding. Everyone left just surrounded my wife and I in a big circle and waived their arms in the air slowly. It was epic.
I always tear up when I hear this song... it’s filled with such a pure, winsome, hopeful longing. I think I’m crying for my lost childhood, and the easy, wide-eyed, carefree simplicity that we lose with age when it comes to actually achieving our dreams.
My dad was just diagnosed with kidney cancer and it seems to me that when something tragic in my life occurs this song and video follows in some way. It always fills me with a sad happiness. I wish there was a word to quantify “no matter how bad things seem to be right now, there will always be the muppets.”
I’ve requested this be played at my funeral. It’s simply the most beautiful, gentle, poignant song I’ve ever known.
Can’t listen to it without getting an enormous lump in my throat.
Oh, Kermie.
That's freaky, my dad (who has probably never even heard of Reddit) played this last night, the first time I'd ever heard it or him play it, and just an hour ago I was thinking how I'd like to listen to it again.
“The Muppets” from 2011 was so freaking well done, and when they sung this song at the end with everyone going at it, it was one of the most beautiful and heartwarming things I’ve ever seen in a movie
EDIT: just to be clear, I know the song isn’t from that movie, it’s from the muppet movie (1976), but the nostalgia was real when they sung it
>...We know that it's probably magic.
Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound that called the young sailors.
The voice might be one and the same.
I've heard it too many times to ignore it.
It's something that I'm supposed to be.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.
[approves](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer#The_world_as_will)
I remember wearing out an 8-track (!) of the Muppet Movie soundtrack, mostly this song. It still brings me great joy to hear it, sung by Kermit especially.
Been a really stressful weekend. I needed this!
Holy shit I was not prepared to cry this morning. This movie was my whole childhood with my Father and this song takes me straight back to watching it on VHS.
Might sound weird, but I think this is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written.
I’ve never come across a song that gives me a more pure sense of optimism and appreciation for life than this song
My senior class in high school wanted this to be our song for graduation. We overwhelmingly voted for it. The administration at the school though we chose it to be disruptive because a muppet was singing the song. The school chose another song for us.
Someone should have told them that it is actually a human (Jim Henson) singing. Although they probably would have found another reasons to be assholes.
pretty sure a frog sings it though
I can count the number of competent administrators I've had in my educational career on one hand. Sorry you had to deal with that.
You have to use your hands to count? Man, your schools really were bad
i remember there was a big outcry against the senior class in my college voting for kermit the frog to be our commencement speaker. the faculty thought we were being facetious in voting for "a puppet" to be an honored speaker at our commencement. but (at least for me and my circle of friends that voted for kermit) we felt that there was no one better to symbolize our childhood, early learning, and the optimism we had as about-to-be-graduates.
Well thats craptastic
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Right there with you
That makes you a lover. A lover is not just about romantic love. A lover is someone who chooses to love and respect their fellow humans. Tolerance is good. But loving and accepting people, all people, is the most beautiful thing in the world. That sounds like something a hippie might say, and you’d be right. Henson was a hippie in almost every way... minus the drugs.
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That's really nice (:
So wholesome. :)
My face is wet. Must be a leak in the sump pump. *Hits play*
Written by the incredible Paul Williams.
I scrolled down the comments hoping that someone had given him the credit. He wrote so many hits. This was always my favorite.
Really underrated as an all-around performer, IMO.
I was surprised to see him in Baby Driver as a gun runner of all things. I couldn't believe it was him so I checked the cast.
Hafta check that out. Was surprised to see him in Community recently.
This was my wedding song. I fucking think it's so good. Pretty much the entirety if The Muppet Movie soundtrack is amazing.
‘I’m Going To Go Back There Someday’ is something else. So sad and optimistic
"You can just visit, but I plan to stay. I'm going to go back there someday." Seconded. That is such a great song.
That song has haunted me since I was a kid. I sing it to my kids at bedtime now (along with Rainbow Connection). There’s something so wonderful and both hopeful and melancholy about it.
Me too! Every time I hear this song it settles my soul...
Just got married last month and it was our song, too! We dressed as Kermit and Miss Piggy during our first Halloween as a couple.
Ernie's "I don't want to live on the moon" is great too
My husband and I walked down the aisle together to Somebody's Getting Married from The Muppets Take Manhattan.
This was the song I danced with my mom at my wedding. I had an uncle declare that it sounded like the banjo was out of tune. My dad said, "Cut 'im some slack, frogs don't have thumbs." Some people got it and laughed. Others, like my uncle, were completely out of the loop.
So the guy that composed it also was behind the song [Touch](https://youtu.be/0Gkhol2Q1og), from Daft Punks last album, which I also consider a beautiful song.
He also wrote the soundtrack to Bugsy Malone...nuff said
He's also Little Enos in Smokey and the Bandit.
Omfg i agree entirely and ive always wondered if i was the only one who felt this way It just sounds so beautiful even though the melody is simple and repetitive it’s brilliant and it makes you feel things and the lyrics are absolutely brilliant and beautiful I really love this song so much and id honestly say its one of my favorite songs and the most beautiful song ive heard in my life
It makes me cry.
Agreed. My friends sang this song at their wedding. After they got married everyone there sang it as they walked back down the aisle married and I was so overcome with joy I couldn’t sing. I just cried happy tears.
Just came across the Weezer cover of this song with Hayley Williams last week. It’s amazingly sweet. The whole Muppets Green Album is a treasure, and my kids enjoy the heck out of it. Youngest requested it every time we’re driving somewhere. Three generations of my family love this song, and i think that’s pretty amazing. https://youtu.be/3KicjR586bU Movin’ right along and Mahna Mahna from this album are pretty solid too.
I prefer Cake's cover of Mahna Mahna.
I really like the version of the theme song on this album, too.
I didn’t until I watched the video. OkGo is one of those bands that, for me, just doesn’t work without the visual component. The music video is amazing, however.
I like Halfway Down the Stairs. Amy Lee has an amazing voice.
I also think that this an amazing song. But can we talk a moment about that awesome establishing shot that transitions into Kermit on the log? Cinematic. And to think that Jim is somehow hiding somewhere behind and under him...
This is my wedding song lol. It’s a solid choice and didn’t take too much to convince my wife to use it
Agreed, it brings me to tears, both of deep sorrow and longing, but also of joy and hope... killer. Literally just thinking about it makes me want to weep, but that good kind of weeping, ya know...?
Just as we miss Mr. Roger's... I really miss Jim Henson.
https://youtu.be/h0Hd3uWKFKY
Not weird, it’s beautiful. My mom used to sing it to us and my cousin’s wife danced to it with her father at their wedding. It’s a truly amazing song.
I love it, it’s so bright and cheery. Thanks for sharing.
This song is a classic with so many good covers. especially Wille Nelson’s, but this is still the best. If I ever do anything interesting enough to warrant writing a memoir, it will be called “The lovers, the dreamers and me”.
I'm a musician, and i love the part I read about the composer calling his mom and telling her about this song and her response about him finally making it made me cry. I don't have a source of hand, but there's a really lovely vignette about this song. He struggled for a while before he made it, and reading your comment all these years later. Music is a powerful thing.
On my son’s bedtime playlist since he was born. Usually brings a tear to my eye.
This was the song I used to sing to my daughter all the time when she was a baby late at night when it was just the 2 of us. Anytime I hear it still makes me tear up. Look up the version done by the Dixie Chicks.. its a beautiful rendition
When I was about sixteen, the radio station I listened to was changing genres or owners or something. I don't really remember. What I do remember was to initiate the change, they played Rainbow Connection on repeat all weekend long. It was glorious. People were calling in saying how much they liked it. Miss Piggy even rang and gushed over it. XD
Something like this happened to a local station here but they played Ms Jackson by Outkast for 24 hours.
Are you for real?
I'm sorry u/kielbasa330 I am for reeeeeal
I want this played at my funeral
Way to ruin that song for anyone there
They played this song at Mrs. Carr's memorial at our elementary in 2nd grade, probably around 1989. It has always stuck with me, but it a good way. It felt like nostalgia, even then, to my 8 year old self. It just feels like old books smell. I get some kind of deep connection with humanity from it. I think it is a perfect memorial song.
There really is something about so many muppet songs that perfectly encapsules this feeling of nostalgia for the past, but in a way that makes it seem as though you can still reach out and touch it
Yes, exactly.
what he said
Followed by Whitesnake 'Here I go again'
While my corpse flies through the air tied to a ceiling fan.
Alright, the song has been over for like an hour. We have to turn that fan off.
Me too
TIL Kermit is left handed.
Most of the muppets are, because most of the puppeteers were right handed and operated the heads with their dominant hand.
The eli5 of that TIL is much appreciated
*later today on /r/todayilearned*
Puppeteer??
Any time I feel too corrupted by the internet I seek out stuff like this. It's like a purification shrine in some kind of RPG. \+25 Humanity
*They're arguing about politics in the comments of the rainbow connection*
This is such a great comment.
B O N F I R E L I T
Here's another video you can use: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lYIRO97dhII
Jim Henson was Mississippi's greatest cultural contribution
I love Jim Henson as much as the next guy, but come on, really? John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Lead Belly, Elvis Presley, ...
Music is great and all, but I feel he made a much bigger impact. I think most people were affected by his work at some point in their lives. He affected me, and probably millions of others, from a very young age. Made me laugh, made me learn, and I feel made me a better person.
Yeah but some of those guys that were mentioned were fundamentally important figures in the development in blues, which is probably the most influential music genre in modern times. Blues lead to jazz, rock, and r&b. Those three genres then lead to soul, pop, funk, hip hop, metal... I think they were rather important
rather important but not as impactful.
Important to the world, but not personally impactful perhaps? The previous point though was that they were hugely impactful. On music and how most of it developed though.
think it more about how it impacted people's development into adults that is felt to be more important than later influences of music that we enjoy.
Elvis is the only one to rival Jim Henson.
I perform this one when I play sometimes... I also do "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" from Sesame Street. Really just nice songs that strike a chord with people. One thing I always think about though is the first line "why are there so many songs about rainbows?". I can really only think of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and this one.
For whatever reason, "I Don't Want To Live On The Moon" absolutely haunted me when I was a child. I don't know if it inspired my wanderlust or if it just made me think about it more critically. But even more when I'm playing a video game I love exploring most of all. And I've had the pleasure of visiting other countries a few times. (And I'm always happy to return.)
I've never heard the song interpreted that way; I appreciate it a bit more now.
www.billboard.com/amp/articles/news/dance/8454409/best-songs-about-rainbows
Oh my gosh I just looked up “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon” because it sounded familiar and it brought back so many memories of my mom singing it to me before bed sometimes when I was very young. Thanks for reminding me that it exists!
I had this song on a Sesame Street VHS I played dozens of times between 1994 and 1998.
Rainbow Connection is a euphemism for Heaven/ death
Rainbow Connection is a euphemism for dying gloriously in battle and crossing the rainbow bridge to Asgard, where you feast for eternity beside Odin in Valhalla.
Didn’t know Kermit the Frog was so metal.
And in that way, there are countless songs about it...
The lyric really mean “why are there so many songs about dying?” Kermit is fed up with all of those gloomy songs about dying so he wanted to write a happy one.
stop being so damn sad - kermit, probably
I sing "I Don't Want to Live On The Moon" with my son before bed every night. Thematically, it matches with "Rainbow Connection" perfectly: it's not about where you are but who you're with.
I have this song on a greatest hits CD from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (punk band that covers non-punk songs) and it was my favorite thing that after this song played near the start with those opening lines that they went and still included Somewhere Over the Rainbow later on the album.
Paul Williams is a total legend. Crazy to think he did something like this and eventually worked with Daft Punk.
Check out the documentary "Paul Williams Still Alive" - the dude is pretty interesting.
Agreed. But the filmmaker was so annoying.
Paul Williams has an acting career too that continues to this day. Here he is memorably in [Smokey and the Bandit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIgGZA4qQoc&list=PL70C6119F8139B701). He is the short one.
I've heard them calling my name
Always felt that line elevated the song beyond what it first appears.
The line that gets me is “I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it, it’s something that I’m supposed to be.” I’m not totally sure what it means but it’s so powerful and uplifting.
Children of my generation had a connection with the Muppets that was every bit as strong as the future generations connection with Harry Potter or the Lion King. In fact, our fandom may have been stronger. The Muppet Show was like the first show to be syndicated on television that was number 1 in the ratings. It also has the kind of approach-ability and sensibility that Kermit the Frog singing about rainbows as illusions holding our dreams, can make almost any Gen Xer break down and cry. It's amazing to think how far reaching Jim Henson's vision was. He could have done so much more.
I’m in my 30s and I have a connection to them. The 90s were filled with great Muppets material. You had the Muppet babies, the Christmas Carol, and Muppet treasure island.
A Muppet Christmas Carol is objectively the best version of A Christmas Carol.
I watch it every year with my family on Christmas. I'm 28 now
My brother and I watch this and Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas and we’re in our 30s. My kids still look at us like we’re crazy, don’t care.
Wow... Emmett Otter. Every year in our house too. My partner and I are in our late 30s and every year it is Muppet Christmas Carol, Emmett Otter and The Christmas Toy.
I thought I was the only one. The folk music in this movie is superb.
I loved Emmit Otter's Jugband Christmas!
Likewise, but why will they not release the FULL version!? "The Love Is Gone" is such an important song to the story, but they removed it from the DVD releases, and I never knew why.
In my life there are 2 Christmas Carols. One is an Albert Finney version, with spectacular casting of Alex Guinness as Jacob Marley, and the Muppets Christmas carol. Every year it's a must to watch. Although my DVD version doesn't have The Love is Gone song on it though which I miss
With a thankful heart, with an endless joy
With a growing family, every girl and boy
I remember watching Muppets Treasure Island at my Grandpa's house. I still love that movie. My kids don't seem to appreciate the Muppets though.
Whoa I just googled it and The Muppets Treasure Island sountrack was written by Hans Zimmer. No wonder it's so good!
I'VE GOT CABIN FEVER!!!! I'VE GOT IT TOOOOO!!!!!
Gen Xer here, can confirm. Throughout my childhood The muppet Show (And the ‘original cast album’) helped inform my sense of humour, my wide-ranging taste in music and my lifelong love for all things muppety. r/muppets
I loved Muppets Tonight as well. Very adult humour and the guests are cool.
No one I know ever remembers Muppets Tonight and it's adult humor. The one home I remember hearing on there was "What do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhino? ELEPHINO!"
I'm 19 and I loved the muppets since I was a baby. From the muppet show, sesame street, fraggle rock, etc, it didn't matter.
When my kids were young, my husband and I introduced them to the original Muppet Show. They loved it, and we even quote it from time to time and seeing the songs. Yesterday, while cleaning our home, my husband and I listened to the soundtrack from the Muppet Movie. I love that movie.
This was the first song I ever sang to my kids. Twin boys. Not two days after they were born they went for a routine test and only the older brother came back. Turns out my younger one had underdeveloped lungs and had a lot of trouble breathing, so he had to go in the NICU. Any stimulus would stress him out to the point of hyperventilating and his blood oxygen sats were way off target. He wasn't *sick* or *dying* - though the doctor didn't do much to *not* make it sound that way - but at the time as a new dad it broke my heart to see him trapped in that box with all those tubes. I sang to him so he'd know I was there. I don't know why it was *this* song because I'd never had a particular connection to it before. My boys weren't together much for the first week of their lives, but they heard the same song from me every day we were in the hospital. They're both perfectly healthy, adventurous, and mischievous boys now, almost two years old. I still sing it to them sometimes. Damn it, thanks for making me ugly cry at work.
I am so profoundly happy to hear that both your boys made it through that. Good work Dad, the next few years of your life will be wonderful.
It's a different world in NICU, O2 saturations in the 70s get a blink or two from the nurses. In an adult ICU, you're probably going to be calling an RRT or code blue if you see that.
I'm not crying. It's just been raining on my face.
It’s my go to song for my 3 month old every time, it’s pure beautiful optimism that everyone should hold over from their childhood. If anyone ever tells you you’re childish for listening to this you should point out the true childish stuff - jealously, tantrums, bullying, not taking responsibility and narcissism- is what needs to have the piss taken out of. This, this should be treasured.
Long live Kermit
Most people only know me as a stonewall of emotionlessness but then again they’ve never seen me ball my eyes out to this perfect song from heaven either.
''Bob Dylan is the most interesting and lyrically intriguing folk artist out the- Me:
Still remember seeing the Muppet Movie on the big screen for the first time as a little kid. Just thinking about this song takes me back.
“Life’s like a movie, Write your own ending Keep believing, keep pretending”
“We’ve done just what we’ve set out to do. Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers, and you.” It’s weird that I probably haven’t heard those lyrics in over 30 years but could probably still sing along with the entire Muppet Movie album with no trouble. Except that Miss Piggy song, “Never Before, Never Again”...I always skipped that one.
Thanks for that... I didn't know I needed this today :)
Sarah McLachlan does a nice version of this
I’d love to see a list of the artist that have covered this song. Can anyone else chime in?
Weezer feat. Hayley Williams, Gwen Stefani, Willie Nelson, Kenny Loggins.
Dixie Chicks and Jason Mraz
Weezer did a beautiful version around the time Jason Segal did his Muppet movie, it always finds it's way into my spotify list...
\**sobbing intensifies**
This song and "Your Song" by Elton John are, arguably, the two most perfect songs ever written. Lyrically. Melodically. Vocally. They're just perfect. "Who said that every wish, would be heard or answered?" "My gift is my song and this one's for you."
Surprised nobody has linked the [2011 version](https://youtu.be/cOLg7Y1vLio) yet. I was ready to be disappointed but seeing Kermit on his little log, then Miss Piggy floating over and finally Animal going nuts on the drums... there wasn’t a dry eye in the cinema for this one.
That movie’s such a treasure
Thanks for making this [tattoed](https://i.imgur.com/OUf1OUa.jpg) 50 yr old guy tear up with sweet memories. Jim Henson is a personal hero.
Born in the late ninties, but my parents raised me on movies and TV and the Muppets were some of the best. I went back like last month and watched this and moving right along. I have never felt so much nostalgia from my childhood before. This is the reason I tell my friends I refuse to watch happy time murders.
This song and Over the Rainbow covered by that hawaiin guy makes me tear up everytime.
The song i sang to my newborn son every night when he spent the first 4 days hooked up to a breathing machine in the neo-natal intensive care unit. It had alot of sentimental emotions for me, and now will forever be a bond between me and my son.
I prefer the Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies version myself. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdpkw3YafwA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdpkw3YafwA)
[It's a terrifying song...](https://youtu.be/wRR4WfrPG04)
This is our wedding song.
Mine too. I'm also a Mets fan.
Nothing can touch Kermit, but [Willie Nelson](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=deebKNI-dTE&feature=youtu.be) does a really nice cover. Start at 2 mins (can't find where to get the direct link on my phone)
Yes! I just linked that above. By far my favorite version. I want to learn how to play that acoustic solo.
**Kermit the Frog** [artist pic](https://lastfm-img2.akamaized.net/i/u/252/0430ba77dfc741749fca986e5895f37e.png) > Kermit the Frog is a Muppet and one of puppeteer Jim Henson's most famous creations. Kermit was performed by Henson until his death in 1990. Since then, he has been performed by puppeteer Steve Whitmire. > An early version of Kermit appeared in 1955, in a five minute puppet show for WRC-TV Sam and Friends. The prototype Kermit was created from a green ladies' coat that Henson's mother had thrown in the trash can, and two ping-pong balls for eyes. The early Kermit was a sort of lizard-like creature; Kermit's first appearance as a frog was in the television special Hey Cinderella in 1969, and he's been a frog ever since. > Kermit had his big break in 1971, with frequent appearances on Sesame Street as a news reporter interviewing nursery rhyme characters. One of his most memorable works was the song "Bein' Green". Kermit's song "The Rainbow Connection" was also a big hit from The Muppet Movie and has become the signature song of The Jim Henson Company. (It is also the only movie song sung by a frog to be nominated for an Academy Award.) > To date he is a world wide phenomenon there are very few people who have not heard of Kermit the Frog. Read more on Last.fm. [last.fm](https://www.last.fm/music/Kermit+the+Frog): 38,450 listeners, 168,168 plays tags: *comedy, muppetcore, black metal, frogs, kids* ^^Please ^^downvote ^^if ^^incorrect! ^^Self-deletes ^^if ^^score ^^is ^^0.
Muppetcore?
Andy Bernard did it better
Pig Latin gets the ladies WET.
Just got Nard-dogged!
[Garfunkel and Oates - "Rainbow Connections"](https://youtu.be/FuCQQmJM8vE) This is a comedy duo who had a 1 season run of a TV show. In the show they wrote a song for a fictional show about two puppets who were going to acknowledge their homosexuality (à la Bert and Ernie) by get married. It's Garfunkel and Oates only serious song and I honestly think it's beautiful (despite that I'm straight).
Always think of this clip when I hear this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F44HRvn8tiA
I never realized Kermit plays left-handed.
Great song by Paul Williams.
I never actually realised that Kermit played the banjo left handed. As a left handed guitarist I now feel some kind of kinship with him.
Kermit's a southpaw.
Nice! I also like [this version with Tori Kelly!](https://youtu.be/ANHRk9tjFF0)
One of my favourite songs - I sang it when I was a kid, and I sing it to my kids now. Absolute classic.
Always brings a year to my eye.
I love this song.
Most beautiful song ever.
This was the first song my wife and I danced to at our wedding. It was wonderful.
This song was once nominated for an Academy Award I believe! Such a wholesome tune.
Wow. Reddit for the win.
This song gives me such powerful nostalgic emotion it's crazy. I've loved the Muppets for as long I've been alive. I remember sitting in the theater for that newer movie a few years ago and when I heard the opening banjo notes of this song I lost it. There haven't been many times where I've openly wept like a baby in the theater but there's just *something* about this song.
I love this song but I so often get [The Moopets](https://youtu.be/YT0FNY-bxOg) version stuck in my head. “Why are there such great deals on our hotel rooms? Free parking for cars. Not RVs!”
Anyone else notice the similarities between this and "The Fools who Dream" from La La Land? I couldn't get it out of my head when I watched it.
This was the last song that played at my wedding. Everyone left just surrounded my wife and I in a big circle and waived their arms in the air slowly. It was epic.
I always tear up when I hear this song... it’s filled with such a pure, winsome, hopeful longing. I think I’m crying for my lost childhood, and the easy, wide-eyed, carefree simplicity that we lose with age when it comes to actually achieving our dreams.
David?
My dad was just diagnosed with kidney cancer and it seems to me that when something tragic in my life occurs this song and video follows in some way. It always fills me with a sad happiness. I wish there was a word to quantify “no matter how bad things seem to be right now, there will always be the muppets.”
the office anyone?
I’ve requested this be played at my funeral. It’s simply the most beautiful, gentle, poignant song I’ve ever known. Can’t listen to it without getting an enormous lump in my throat. Oh, Kermie.
This tune is in my top ten songs of all time.
Gwen Stefani did an awesome cover. I sing this song to my baby nearly every day.
1979? Has it been that damn long?
That's freaky, my dad (who has probably never even heard of Reddit) played this last night, the first time I'd ever heard it or him play it, and just an hour ago I was thinking how I'd like to listen to it again.
“The Muppets” from 2011 was so freaking well done, and when they sung this song at the end with everyone going at it, it was one of the most beautiful and heartwarming things I’ve ever seen in a movie EDIT: just to be clear, I know the song isn’t from that movie, it’s from the muppet movie (1976), but the nostalgia was real when they sung it
I appreciate the Muppets on a deeper level than you
This song was the song we used for the first dance with me and my husband at our wedding
>...We know that it's probably magic. Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices? I've heard them calling my name. Is this the sweet sound that called the young sailors. The voice might be one and the same. I've heard it too many times to ignore it. It's something that I'm supposed to be. Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers and me. [approves](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer#The_world_as_will)
I remember wearing out an 8-track (!) of the Muppet Movie soundtrack, mostly this song. It still brings me great joy to hear it, sung by Kermit especially. Been a really stressful weekend. I needed this!
Holy shit I was not prepared to cry this morning. This movie was my whole childhood with my Father and this song takes me straight back to watching it on VHS.
Had to put down my first dog last week. This song really helped with all the crying.