DePatie-Freleng Enterprises: ''
Halloween Is Grinch Night
''Halloween Is Grinch Night'' (titled ''It's Grinch Night'' for the 1992 videocassette release and ''Grinch Night'' for the sing-a-long videocassette release) is a 1977 children's animated Halloween television special and is the prequel to the 1966 ...
'' (1977), ''
Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You?
''Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You?'' (renamed ''Pontoffel Pock & His Magic Piano'' for the sing-a-long videocassette release) is an animated musical television special written by Dr. Seuss, directed by Gerard Baldwin, produced by DePatie–Freleng E ...
'' (1980), and ''
The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat
''The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat'' (also known as ''The Cat in the Hat Gets Grinched'') is a 1982 American Emmy Award-winning animated musical television special and crossover starring ''The Cat in the Hat'' and The Grinch. It premiered ...
'' (1982).
Early life and education
Raposo was born in
Fall River
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state.
Located along the eastern shore of Mount ...
,
,
the only child of Portuguese immigrant parents Joseph Soares Raposo and Maria (a.k.a. "Aunt" Sarah) da Ascenção Vitorino Raposo. He was known as "Sonny" to his family.
Joseph Sr. was an accomplished musician, classical guitarist, violinist, flutist, pianist,
music teacher and Joe's first music teacher.
He was a graduate of
B.M.C. Durfee High School in Fall River. A 1958 graduate of
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
, he was well known for writing the scores for several
Hasty Pudding shows there. He was also a graduate of the
École Normale de Musique de Paris
The École Normale de Musique de Paris "Alfred Cortot" (ENMP) is a leading conservatoire located in Paris, Île-de-France, France. At the time of the school's foundation in 1919 by Auguste Mangeot, Alfred Cortot. The term ''école normale'' (En ...
, where he studied with
Nadia Boulanger
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist.
From a ...
.
Career
Early years
Raposo worked in musical theater both before and after his work for the
Children's Television Workshop
Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-know ...
and ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) an ...
''; musical theater was where he first encountered future collaborator
Jim Henson
James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...
. According to
Jonathan Schwartz, during the mid-1960s, before ''Sesame Street'', Raposo performed side music in piano bars in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...
to make ends meet, and also served as pianist and music director for a
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major f ...
trio working at Boston's
WNAC-TV
WNAC-TV (channel 64), branded on-air as Fox Providence, is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with Fox and The CW. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) ...
. Upon hearing Raposo's musical skill, Schwartz claims in his autobiography he urged Raposo to give up piano bar playing in Boston and move to New York City. Raposo's decision to take Schwartz's suggestion and move in 1965 eventually led him to his fated meeting with Henson, to ''Sesame Street'', and toward international fame.
Raposo was the musical supervisor and arranger of the original off-Broadway run of ''
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
''You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown'' is a 1967 musical with music and lyrics by Clark Gesner and (in a 1999 revision) Andrew Lippa. It is based on the characters created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz in his comic strip ''Peanuts''. The musica ...
'', and he contributed additional music to that show. He was also responsible for the memorable
theme music
Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at som ...
for New York City television station
WABC-TV
WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neighbor ...
's ''
The 4:30 Movie''; the piece, called "Moving Pictures," was also used for the station's other movie shows, and subsequently by
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
's other
owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
s.
''Sesame Street''
Raposo is best known for the songs he wrote for ''Sesame Street'' from its beginning in 1969 through the mid-1970s, and also for a time in the 1980s. He wrote the "
Sesame Street Theme" – various versions of which have opened every episode – as well as many of its most popular songs, such as "
Bein' Green
"Bein' Green" (also known as "It's Not Easy Bein' Green") is a song written by Joe Raposo, originally performed by Jim Henson as Kermit the Frog on both ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Muppet Show'' (in the episodes "Peter Ustinov" and "Peter Sellers ...
", "
C is for Cookie
"C Is For Cookie", by Joe Raposo, is a song performed by Cookie Monster (Frank Oz), a Muppet character from the preschool television series ''Sesame Street''. It was first performed in Season 3, although it had been released on '' The Muppet Alp ...
", "
Sing" and "
ABC-DEF-GHI". A version of "Sing" recorded by
The Carpenters
The Carpenters (officially known as Carpenters) were an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings Karen (1950–1983) and Richard Carpenter (born 1946). They produced a distinct, soft, musical style, combining Karen's cont ...
in 1973 reached #3 on the
Billboard top singles chart. For many years, most of the music used in ''Sesame Streets film segments was also written — and often sung — by Raposo.
Aside from his musical contributions, Raposo performed several uncredited stock characters on ''Sesame Street'' during the early 1970s. According to his son Nicholas in a 2002 telephone conversation, Joe Raposo usually chose to portray anonymous, silly characters in these segments, which were nearly always produced on
16 mm film
16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...
. He also did voice-overs for a few animated segments.
The ''Sesame Street'' character
Don Music
The Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson, many for the purpose of appearing on the children's television program ''Sesame Street''. Some of the best known Muppets on ''Sesame Street'' include Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, ...
maintained a framed and
autograph
An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Inte ...
ed glamour photograph of Raposo on the wall of his
Muppet
The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are the focus of a media franchise that encompasses tele ...
atelier
An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or vi ...
.
Raposo was very fond of sweets according to many who knew him. One favorite food of his was
cookie
A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, nu ...
s. It has been rumored the
Wheel-Eating Monster created for commercial advertisers in the 1960s by Jim Henson may have been altered by Henson specifically into a "cookie" monster after Henson observed Raposo's unusual propensity for cookies; this has never been substantiated. His widow Pat Collins-Sarnoff celebrated his life with a milk and cookies reception.
One of Raposo's ''Sesame Street'' compositions, "The Square Song", was used in the film ''
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story ...
''.
Other work in children's television
In 1971, Children's Television Workshop created the show ''
The Electric Company
''The Electric Company'' is an American educational children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now known as Sesame Workshop). It was co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. The ...
'', meant to help teach reading to children who had outgrown ''Sesame Street''. Raposo served as the musical director of the show for its first three seasons, and contributed songs throughout the show's run, until 1977.
Raposo performed joke characters for film segments on ''The Electric Company'' similar in style to what he had done on ''Sesame Street''. One segment showed him attempting to get dressed in jacket and necktie against a white wall under the word "dressing", until the prefix "un-" appears and attaches itself to the prior word, forcing him to engage in a mock
striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper" or an "ex ...
which ends with him modestly hopping off-screen and tossing the remainder of his clothing into an empty chair left on-screen. In a variation of this film, he is shown packing a suitcase when the "un-" prefix returns and pesters him using the behavior of a meddling
fly
Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...
until, exasperated, Raposo strikes the word with a hammer, knocking it unconscious into the suitcase, which he then triumphantly slams shut with a smirk.
Raposo enjoyed doing animation voicework. Other forays of his into the craft included both the
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...
singing role of "master pickler" Gil Gickler in
DePatie-Freleng's Dr. Seuss cartoon program ''
Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You?
''Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You?'' (renamed ''Pontoffel Pock & His Magic Piano'' for the sing-a-long videocassette release) is an animated musical television special written by Dr. Seuss, directed by Gerard Baldwin, produced by DePatie–Freleng E ...
'' and Gickler's spoken dialogue.
Raposo also performed at least three other character voices in the cartoon, including a Groogen musician whose "
flugel bugle
The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, normally having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure.
History
The bugle developed from early musical or communication i ...
" is destroyed by Pontoffel in an attack flyover, as the ancient Senior Fairy above McGillicuddy who oversees the fairy
squadron's worldwide search for the missing Pock and his piano, and as an angry Groogen dairywoman spilt milk upon by a too-close fly-by of Pontoffel's.
The HBO animated adaptation of ''
Madeline
''Madeline'' is a media franchise that originated as a series of children's books written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans, an Austrian-American author. The books have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning telefilms, television series ...
'', for which Raposo composed the music and songs (with writer/lyricist
Judy Rothman
Judy Rothman Rofé (born September 17, 1962) is an American screenwriter, producer, lyricist and author specializing in comedy and literary adaptations for children. She won the 2002 Emmy for Best Animated Program for '' The New Adventures of Made ...
), aired four months after Raposo's death; the cartoon ''The Smoggies'', for which Raposo wrote the theme song, premiered in Canada.
Additional film, stage and other television work
Although primarily known for work in live-action and animated children's television, Joe Raposo actually aspired to become a Broadway musical composer.
In 1962, he set
Eric Bentley
Eric Russell Bentley (September 14, 1916 – August 5, 2020) was a British-born American theater critic, playwright, singer, editor, and translator. In 1998, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the New ...
's English-language translation of song texts and poems in
Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
's play ''
A Man's a Man'' at the
Loeb Drama Center (in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
) and the
Masque Theatre (New York City). Portions of the production were subsequently shown on
CBS-TV
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, and the entire production (dialogue, songs, and all) was recorded and released on the
Spoken Arts label as Spoken Arts SA 870 (1974).
In the 1970s, Raposo wrote original music for the animated film ''
Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure''; he later teamed with
William Gibson
William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ...
(''
The Miracle Worker
''The Miracle Worker'' refers to a broadcast, a play and various other adaptations of Helen Keller's 1903 autobiography '' The Story of My Life''. The first of these works was a 1957 ''Playhouse 90'' broadcast written by William Gibson and st ...
'') to create a stage musical about
Raggedy Ann
Raggedy Ann is a character created by American writer Johnny Gruelle (1880–1938) that appeared in a series of books he wrote and illustrated for young children. Raggedy Ann is a rag doll with red yarn for hair and a triangle nose. Gruelle re ...
. The musical was the first theatre company production from the United States to perform in the Soviet Union upon resumption of cultural relations between the two countries. It later had a brief run on Broadway in 1986.
Raposo also collaborated with
Sheldon Harnick
Sheldon Mayer Harnick (born April 30, 1924) is an American lyricist and songwriter best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on musicals such as ''Fiorello!'' and ''Fiddler on the Roof''.
Early life
Sheldon Mayer Harnick was bor ...
(''
Fiddler on the Roof
''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on ''Tevye and his Daughters'' (or ''Tevye the D ...
'') on a musical adaptation of the 1946 film ''
It's a Wonderful Life
''It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet ''The Greatest Gift'', which Philip Van Doren Stern self-published in 1943 and is in turn loo ...
''. ''
A Wonderful Life'' was first performed at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in 1986, and had a successful run at Washington, DC's
Arena Stage
Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C. and its founders helped start the U.S. regional theater movement. It is ...
in 1991. It was performed in concert on Broadway for one night only on December 12, 2005; the production starred
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell (born October 31, 1957) is an American actor and singer. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theater since the 1990s. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2000 for ...
,
David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce (born April 3, 1959) is an American actor and director of stage, film and television. He starred as psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Frasier'' from 1993 to 2004, and won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen ...
, and
Judy Kuhn
Judy Kuhn (born May 20, 1958) is an American actress and singer, known for her work in musical theatre. A four-time Tony Award nominee, she has released four studio albums and sang the title role in the 1995 film ''Pocahontas'', including her re ...
.
During his career Raposo composed themes for several sitcoms such as ''
Ivan The Terrible
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584.
Ivan ...
,'' ''
Three's Company
''Three's Company'' is an American sitcom television series that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. It is based on the British sitcom ''Man About the House''.
The story revolves around three single roomma ...
'', ''
The Ropers
''The Ropers'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from March 13, 1979, to May 22, 1980. It is a spin-off of ''Three's Company'' and loosely based on the British sitcom ''George and Mildred'', which was itself a spin-off o ...
'' and ''
Foot in the Door
Foot-in-the-door (FITD) technique is a compliance tactic that aims at getting a person to agree to a large request by having them agree to a modest request first.
This technique works by creating a connection between the person asking for a req ...
'', film scores such as ''
The Possession of Joel Delaney'' (1972), ''
Savages'' (1972) and ''
Maurie'' (1973), and documentaries, most notably
Peter Rosen's production ''
America Is'' for which Raposo not only scored a patriotic, critically well-received title theme but, unusually, served as its on-screen narrator.
Musical style and influences
Raposo was an ardent fan of satirical composer and bandleader
Spike Jones
Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader specializing in spoof arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gun ...
. "The Alligator Song", which Raposo composed for 1970s-era ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) an ...
'', was Raposo's
sound-effects-laden musical
homage
Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to:
History
*Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance
*Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts
*Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...
to Jones. Raposo also composed numerous other works influenced by Jones for Sesame Street, many featuring
kazoo
The kazoo is an American musical instrument that adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. It is a type of '' mirliton'' (which itself is a membranophone), one of a class of instruments which modifi ...
and other comical sound-effect objects and instruments like siren whistles, bulb horns, and tenor banjos. Another Raposo composition, "Doggy Paddle", features Raposo barking like several singing dogs during its instrumental verse, a blatant musical homage to the singing and barking dogs of "Memories are Made of This" by Jones and His City Slickers.
Raposo's songwriting tended toward wistful introspections on life and
nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...
. Primarily celebrated for his bright, uptempo
major key
In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in classical, Western art, and Western pop music.
The group features a '' tonic note'' and its corresponding '' chords'', a ...
compositions, he also showed skill at arranging original
blues and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major f ...
pieces in
minor key
In Western music, the adjectives major and minor may describe a chord, scale, or key. As such, composition, movement, section, or phrase may be referred to by its key, including whether that key is major or minor.
Intervals
Some intervals m ...
and often took sudden melancholy lyrical detours in the midst of otherwise cheerful songs.
Unlike his children's television scoring contemporaries, Raposo exhibited an uncommonly broad grasp of compositional styles. Raposo was classically trained as a conductor and at the
École Normale
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savo ...
in Paris as an arranger. As a student of
Nadia Boulanger
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist.
From a ...
in Paris, he extended his facility in piano technique. This classical background gave him the ability to engage different music genres authentically. So diverse were the genres he regularly frequented, that often the only identifying mark of his songs as "Raposo" were common lyric allusions to "sunny days" or "flying", or his signature use of
piccolo
The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the sou ...
and
glockenspiel
The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibra ...
atop the melodic or
contrapuntal
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
line, as well as the prominent uses of guitar in the rhythmic line.
Most overtly, however, Joe Raposo's sonic trademark was his seemingly obsessive, and often exhaustively authentic, live replication of the tonal quality and exact playback
cadence
In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (1999) ...
of the 20th-century self-operating
player piano
A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern i ...
when composing for and performing on a grand, baby grand or upright piano. He appears to have specifically tuned his Children's Television Workshop pianos not only to blatantly mimic the player piano in its antique tonality, but to achieve and then maintain what became a signature
ragtime
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...
tack or saloon-piano sound by them.
Raposo's considerable stylistic ambition during his tenure as music director lent ''Sesame Street'' its trademark extreme musical diversity. For ''The Electric Company'', particularly for songs he composed for
the Short Circus, he led CTW to pop-record production values and generally strongly enforced an adult musical sophistication for all content he supervised. Given an unusual creative freedom in the Music Department at 1970s CTW, Raposo toggled from convincing country ballads (e.g. "The Ballad of Casey MacPhee," which depicted Cookie Monster as a heroic train engineer caught in a mountain avalanche) and authentic hillbilly ("It's a Long, Hard Climb, But I'm Gonna Get There" and "My Favorite Letter P" among others) to
blues elegies of considerable emotional and tonal complexity, like "New Life Coming" and "Bein' Green."
Raposo also evidenced skill as an American
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid ...
composer, making frequent and arguably credible musical allusions (on 1970–1974 ''Sesame Street'') to the underground black soul and funk performers of his day. Themes written for muppet
Roosevelt Franklin
Roosevelt Franklin is a Muppet who was featured on the children's television series ''Sesame Street'' during the early 1970s.
Fictional character biography
He is purple with shaggy black hair that stands on end. His name is a play on the name ...
and the segment ''H'' exhibit some of Raposo's most convincing soul and funk composition and arrangement; the former contains clear allusions to
the Philly Four and
Lee Dorsey
Irving Lee Dorsey (December 24, 1924 – December 1, 1986) was an American pop and R&B singer during the 1960s. His biggest hits were "Ya Ya" (1961) and " Working in the Coal Mine" (1966). Much of his work was produced by Allen Toussaint, with ...
while the latter attempts coupling a convincing African-American Seventies funk bassline to the cycling musical structure of a European
round
Round or rounds may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere
* Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the number ...
, all while still somehow retaining his signature high end accents along the upper melodic ramparts of the composition. Raposo also made several stylistic allusions to jazz-funk organist
Louis Chachere in compositions ''Fat, Cat, Sat'' and ''Some, All, None'', and on both selections played the
Hammond B-3
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...
like Chachere, but using its leslies as a comedic device as would have Raposo's idol,
Spike Jones
Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader specializing in spoof arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gun ...
.
Vocally, Joe Raposo was a
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...
, possessing an unusually warm, buttery attack and an easily identifiable, very stable, mellow trademark
vibrato
Vibrato ( Italian, from past participle of " vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms ...
.
Personal life
Raposo was married twice. He had two sons, Joseph and Nicholas, from his first marriage. He had a son, Andrew, and daughter, Elizabeth (Liz), from his marriage to
Pat Collins-Sarnoff.
Famous friends
Raposo was a close friend of
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and ...
,
Tom Lehrer
Thomas Andrew Lehrer (; born April 9, 1928) is an American former musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, having lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy and humorous songs that he recorded in ...
,
WNYC
WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that di ...
radio personality
Jonathan Schwartz, and
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
-winning filmmaker
Bert Salzman.
Sinatra recorded four of Raposo's songs on his 1973 album ''
Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back
''Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back'' is a 1973 album by the American singer Frank Sinatra.
Sinatra returned from his brief retirement with the appropriately titled ''Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back''. Released amidst a whirlwind of publicity, the album was a comm ...
''. Sinatra insisted the album be composed entirely of Raposo's compositions, but the record label balked and prevailed over Sinatra, limiting him to four. Jonathan Schwartz reports that Sinatra idolized and popularized Raposo and his music, frequently attending Raposo's parties at his and first wife Susan's New York apartment during the 1960s with glamorous friends and several cronies, including
Leo Durocher
Leo Ernest Durocher (French spelling Léo Ernest Durocher) (; July 27, 1905 – October 7, 1991), nicknamed "Leo the Lip" and "Lippy", was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an inf ...
. Schwartz's memoir adds that Sinatra was infatuated with Raposo's piano-playing skill and commonly referred to him to others, characteristically, as "Raposo at the piano", or "the genius".
Death
Raposo died on February 5, 1989 in
Bronxville, New York
Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester. The village comprises one square mile (2.5 km2) of land in its entirety, ap ...
of
non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), also known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is a group of blood cancers that includes all types of lymphomas except Hodgkin lymphomas. Symptoms include enlarged lymph nodes, fever, night sweats, weight loss, and tiredness. ...
,
three days before his 52nd birthday. He was survived by wife,
Pat Collins, his four children and by his parents who were at the time living in Chatham, Massachusetts. His grave is located at Union Cemetery in Chatham.
In 1998, many of his manuscripts were donated by Collins-Sarnoff to
Georgetown University Library.
Raposo was eulogized in the April 1990 documentary ''Sing! Sesame Street Remembers Joe Raposo and His Music'', which was hosted and directed by ''Sesame Street'' crew member
Jon Stone
Jon Arthur Stone (April 13, 1931 – March 30, 1997) was an American writer, director and producer, who was best known for being an original crew member on The Muppets' ''Sesame Street'' and is credited with helping develop characters such a ...
. A tribute CD was released in 1992 commemorating his work on ''Sesame Street''.
Credits and lectures
Film Scores – Composer
* ''Steinbeck in Memoriam'' (1966)
* ''
The Frog Prince
"The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry" (german: Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich, literally "The Frog King or the Iron Henry") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 1). ...
'' (1971) (TV movie)
* ''
The Possession of Joel Delaney'' (1972)
* ''
Savages'' (1973)
* ''Big Mo'' (1974)
* ''
Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure'' (1977)
* ''
The Great Muppet Caper
''The Great Muppet Caper'' is a 1981 British-American musical heist comedy film directed by Jim Henson (in his feature directorial debut). It is the second theatrical film in ''The Muppets'' franchise. In addition to the Muppet performers, th ...
'' (1981)
Television – Musical Director and/or Composer/Lyricist/Producer
* ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) an ...
'' (1969–1989)
* ''
The Electric Company
''The Electric Company'' is an American educational children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now known as Sesame Workshop). It was co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. The ...
'' (1971–1974)
* ''
Visions'' (1974–1979)
*
Metromedia Television (1967–1969)
Theme Songs – Composer or Composer/Lyricist
* ''Sesame Street''
* ''The Electric Company''
* ''
Three's Company
''Three's Company'' is an American sitcom television series that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. It is based on the British sitcom ''Man About the House''.
The story revolves around three single roomma ...
''
* ''
We'll Get By''
* ''
The Ropers
''The Ropers'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from March 13, 1979, to May 22, 1980. It is a spin-off of ''Three's Company'' and loosely based on the British sitcom ''George and Mildred'', which was itself a spin-off o ...
''
*''
Shining Time Station
''Shining Time Station'' is an American children's television series jointly created by British television producer Britt Allcroft and American television producer Rick Siggelkow. The series was produced by Quality Family Entertainment (the Ame ...
''
* ''
Madeline
''Madeline'' is a media franchise that originated as a series of children's books written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans, an Austrian-American author. The books have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning telefilms, television series ...
''
* ''
Steampipe Alley''
* ''
The Dr. Fad Show''
* ''
CBS Morning News
The ''CBS Morning News'' is an American early-morning news broadcast presented weekdays on the CBS television network. The program features late-breaking news stories, national weather forecasts and sports highlights. Since 2013, it has been an ...
'' television specials – Music Director/Composer
* ''
America Is'' (CBS – Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program)
* ''
Curious George
Curious George is a fictional monkey who is the title character of a series of popular children's picture books written by Margret and H. A. Rey. Various media, including films and TV shows, have been based upon the original book series.
Geor ...
''
* ''
Pontoffel Pock'' (Dr. Seuss)
* ''
Cabbage Patch Christmas'' Broadway and Off-Broadway – Composer/Lyricist and/or Musical Director
* ''A Wonderful Life'', with Sheldon Harnick
* ''Raggedy Ann'', with William Gibson
* ''You're a Good Man Charlie Brown'', incidental music with Charles Schulz and Clark Gesner
* ''
Half a Sixpence
''Half a Sixpence'' is a 1963 musical comedy based on the 1905 novel '' Kipps'' by H. G. Wells, with music and lyrics by David Heneker and a book by Beverley Cross. It was written as a vehicle for British pop star Tommy Steele.
Background
...
'', with Tommy Steele
* ''
Play It Again, Sam'', with Woody Allen
* ''House of Flowers'', incidental music with Harold Arlen and
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
* ''The Mad Show'', with David Steinberg and
Linda Lavin
Linda Lavin (born October 15, 1937) is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing the title character in the sitcom ''Alice'' and for her stage performances, both on and off-Broadway.
After acting as a child, Lavin joined the Com ...
* ''The Office'', with
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Among his nu ...
* ''The Smoggies''
Lecturer
*
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
(MIT)
* Yale University
* Harvard Graduate School of Education
* New York University
* Southern Methodist University
Awards and nominations
Along with five
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
and
Emmy
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
nods, his song "The First Time It Happens," from ''
The Great Muppet Caper
''The Great Muppet Caper'' is a 1981 British-American musical heist comedy film directed by Jim Henson (in his feature directorial debut). It is the second theatrical film in ''The Muppets'' franchise. In addition to the Muppet performers, th ...
'', was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed th ...
in 1981, losing to "
Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" from the film ''
Arthur
Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more w ...
''.
See also
*
Sesame Street discography
*
List of songs from Sesame Street
This is a list of songs from ''Sesame Street''. It includes the songs are written for used on the TV series. The songs have a variety of styles, including R&B, opera, show tunes, folk, and world music. Especially in the earlier decades, par ...
References
External links
*
*
A brief biography of Raposo at the Rodgers & Hammerstein AssociationMuppet Central article with photo of Raposo*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raposo, Joe
1937 births
1989 deaths
Deaths from non-Hodgkin lymphoma
American lyricists
American film score composers
American male film score composers
American musical theatre composers
Male musical theatre composers
American musical theatre lyricists
American television composers
American tenors
Animated film score composers
Broadway composers and lyricists
American people of Portuguese descent
Grammy Award winners
People from Fall River, Massachusetts
Sesame Street crew
Video game composers
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
20th-century American singers
Songwriters from Massachusetts
20th-century American pianists
Hasty Pudding alumni
20th-century American composers
American male pianists
20th-century American male singers
B.M.C. Durfee High School alumni