The Decline of the Original Muppet Song
The Muppets and music have always been entwined. Every Muppet film has featured music as a way of progressing the story. Whether silly or touching, each song brings the viewer closer to the characters and their struggles. With the release of a new Muppet film and new music, let's take a look at the musical journey the Muppets have taken over the years.
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Original songs in Muppet theatrical films, arranged by primary vocalists.
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As the above graphic shows, the Muppets have gradually gone from singing all the songs in their films to getting only half the songs in a reduced set of original songs. This graph leaves out songs that have new renditions, such as "America" from
The Muppet Movie, "Rainbow Connection" in
The Muppets and "Together Again" in
Muppets Most Wanted.
The Muppet Movie featured eight songs, one of which was not original, "America" (though brilliantly sung by Fozzie Bear in a very patriotic moment that we did not need to stand up for). Each song moved the plot along, helping us better understand the characters and getting the viewer ever closer to finding the rainbow connection. As Paul Williams writes in the liner notes of the 2013 release, "To me the film suggests that we are all capable of more than we'd imagined. That the key ingredients are kindness and belief in ourselves." The songs truly reflect that statement. "Rainbow Connection" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
The Great Muppet Caper featured eight original songs, most of which were sung by the Muppets. The two songs shared with Muppets are not sung by a single human character. "Piggy's Fantasy," a water ballet number in homage to the films of Ester Williams, is sung by a chorus and a dubbed Nicky Holiday. However, the entire song is about Miss Piggy. The other song, "The First Time it Happens," nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards, is also sung by a chorus, but Kermit and Miss Piggy carry the heart and soul of the song.
The Muppets Take Manhattan featured eight more original songs for the Muppets. Even though the film featured a few human characters, those humans did not get any songs. The story was about the Muppets and their struggle to put on a Broadway show. The human characters were secondary, possibly tertiary characters who get wrapped up in the Muppets' story line, and therefore did not need songs.
The Muppet Christmas Carol is where the format for songs would change a little, due to the nature of the film. Remarkably though, Paul Williams still found a way to write songs that put the Muppets at the forefront of almost every song. Fittingly though, as Scrooge has a change of heart, he gets to sing a song, almost symbolically joining the ranks of the Muppets.
Muppet Treasure Island begins a further departure due to the source material the film is based off. The main protagonist, Jim Hawkins, and the main antagonist, Long John Silver, are humans. Rightfully so, they should have songs to help the audience understand them as characters. However, this film does not forget the Muppets. The songs never solely feature a human, but instead let the Muppets shine in supporting roles or as the primary vocalists for songs that help set the scene.
Muppets From Space is the odd film out. It did not feature any original songs for the Muppets. The one song included in the film is "Celebration," sung by the Alien Gonzos. The film probably could have benefited from original songs. Probably.
The Muppets took a decidedly different approach to songs. The only original song sung solely by Muppets is "Pictures in My Head." The other songs in the film either had Muppets sharing a song with a major human character, for example "Man or Muppet" and "Me Party," or as secondary characters. Only six original songs were used in the film, while the others were renditions of existing songs which were used for nostalgic purposes. Does this suggest that the filmmakers did not think that the Muppets could carry a film on their own? Much of the music in this film was torn between too many plots and too many new unnecessary characters, effectively slowing the film down and taking away songs and screen time from the title characters. "Man or Muppet" did take home an Academy Award for Best Original Song (albeit there were only two nominations). But it begs the question, why would a film called
The Muppets effectively distance the music from the title characters?
Muppets Most Wanted is much closer to a Muppet film in terms of music, but does take some notes from
The Muppets. The Muppets get at least three songs and share three songs with human characters. The songs feel and sound more muppety though. There is still the return to renditions of old songs for nostalgic purposes and the solo human songs, such as "The Big House." "Interrogation Song" and "I'm Number One" really show off how well Muppets can sing with humans, without the songs being only about the human character.
The most startling factor is that newer films, like
The Muppets and
Muppets Most Wanted, have a reduced set of original songs and about half or more of the songs are not sung by the Muppets as the primary vocalists. It may be that the film makers are trying to put on a feature length Muppet Show, rather than letting the characters play in the real world and deal with problems outside of the theatre setting. Sure,
The Great Muppet Caper has two songs that are shared by human vocalists, but those humans are more of a chorus than they are the primary vocalist. Hopefully, as we see more Muppet films, the creative team behind them will return the Muppets to their roots - singing songs and being the main characters in their films.
