Being born in 1969 was the best time to be a retro-kid. I got to grow up with the best cartoons, coolest music, and witness the full range birth and evolution of video games. Best of all, I was blessed with the gift of Sesame Street from year 1 forward. So as Sesame Street and I both turn 40 this year, why not celebrate the wonderful music that made that show so memorable? The brilliantly written tunes from the show still hold up, and I can remember the words decades later as fresh as the first time I heard them. Everyone has a favorite Sesame Street song. These are the 15 that I love the most. You can click each title to watch the video on YouTube.

#15 “MONSTER IN THE MIRROR” by GROVER
How can you not like a song with the lyric “Wubba Wubba Wubba and a Whoo Whoo Whoo?” The Ramones would have killed for a song like this to sing. In fact, they did once kill a man for the lyrics to “Pet Sematary”, and frankly it was not worth the human sacrifice

#14 “ABCDEFGHI” by BIG BIRD
I had to fit ol’ Big Bird in here somehow. This is pretty much Sesame Street’s version of “Supercalifragilistic”. Did you ever notice how much Big Bird sounds like Billy Corrigan from Smashing Pumpkins?

#13 “LETTER B” by THE BEETLES
Gotta love this one! You get a great introduction by The Count, and a spot on parody of The Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

#12 “BATTY BAT” by THE COUNT
A rare song from The Count, with the super cutest bats singing background vocals. You learn about The Count’s childhood in The Carpathian Mountains and how he developed his love for counting, too!

#11 “FUZZY and BLUE” by GROVER
A catchy Grover tune that ends up into a nice ensemble piece that even includes his orange buddies by the song’s end.

#10 “THE LADYBUGS’ PICNIC” by BUD LUCKEY
One of Sesame Street’s catchiest counting song, I love the generous use of the mouth harp and kazoo. And extra points for the lyric about “fire insurance for ladybugs.”

#9 “ELMO’S SONG” by ELMO
Elmo was one of the first “new generation” muppets, and it took me a while to warm up to him, but only the most evil, cold-hearted people could hate this super cute tune. By the way, if you listen to Raffi’s “Banana Phone” you’ll notice similarity in the melody.

#8  “DANCE MYSELF TO SLEEP by ERNIE
This is a hilarious video and song combination featuring Ernie dancing himself to sleep while Bert moans in anguish in the background. The Boogie Woogie sheep are fantastic. I love how Bert moans, “Not again…” when Ernie starts, as this is some bizarre nightly ritual that he can never escape from.

#7 “THE PINBALL SONG” by THE POINTER SISTERS
One of the catchier Sesame tunes with gorgeous vintage ’70s animation, it’s definitely one of the trippier things they’ve aired. I also dig the other counting song that featured Jim Henson himself as a chef who’d fall down the stairs at the end of each tune, holding all sorts of baked goods.

#6 “DOIN’ THE PIGEON” by BERT
So dorky you have to dig it, featuring Bert at his nerdiest. His dance is about the coolest thing ever. You definitely can see where they got the inspiration for Squidward in Spongebob Squarepants after watching this. Another classic by Joe Raposo who also composed “C is For Cookie”, “Bein’ Green”, and numerous other Sesame classics!

#5 “SING AFTER ME” by GROVER and MADELINE KAHN
I didn’t want to include the celebrity guest songs too much on this list, but I made an exception with this wonderful and sweet song. The video is even funnier when you imagine Frank Oz sitting behind Kahn with his face pressed against her ass.

#4 “NUMBER 9 CUTIE” by BUD LUCKEY
How could you not love a girl with “nine little holes in her turned up nose”?

#3 “IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREEN” by KERMIT THE FROG
One of the more melancholic tunes of the Sesame Street catalog. Jim Henson’s vocals are sad, brilliant, and wonderful. And how cool is it that Big Bird sang the song at Henson’s memorial?

#2 “I LOVE TRASH” by OSCAR THE GROUCH A song about the pure love of garbage! Oscar’s asides like “If you REALLY want to see something trashy…look at this!” are fantastic! I never realized until I wrote this that the same actor who voices Oscar handles duties for Big Bird, too. What a fantastic vocal range.

#1 “C” IS FOR COOKIE by COOKIE MONSTER
That’s good enough for me…