This Saturday is the 20th anniversary of the passing of Muppet creator Jim Henson. Some Melbourne performers and personalities will be appearing in Some Day We’ll Find It (A Rock’n’Roll Tribute to Jim Henson) at the Thornbury Theatre in Melbourne. For our part, we’ve assembled the Top 10 Musical Muppets Moments from the Jim Henson-era – and resisted the temptation to list ‘Dance Magic Dance’ ten times. So, why don’t you get things started, put down the duckie and check it out?

10. ‘(Lime in the) Coconut’
Let’s be honest, as you get older, The Muppet Show is probably not the witty, quality entertainment you remember from your childhood. The puns are suddenly cringe-worthy, the canned laughter is awful and waiting for genuine laughs is like wading through the Bog of Eternal Stench. Still, ‘Lime in the Coconut’ is a keeper, and earns a spot on this list with Harry Nilsson’s catchy-as-hell melody and a trippy concept.



9. ‘Couldn’t We Ride’
Henson thrived on technical challenges, and having the entire Muppet cast of The Great Muppet Caper cycle around London qualifies as one of the most special sequences he and his crew managed to pull off. Sit back and let your mind me blown by Kermit and Miss Piggy cycling in a figure-eight and then carrying on riding. This isn’t CGI, people.



8. ‘English Country Garden’
Frank Oz was Jim Henson’s right-hand man (literally in fact: one of his first tasks was to supply the second hand for the first Muppet star, Rowlf the Dog), and together they enacted their unique chemistry as Bert and Ernie, Kermit and Miss Piggy and curmudgeonly hecklers Statler and Waldorf. Here, Fozzie (Oz) and Rowlf (Henson) turn ‘English Country Garden’ into a fabulously old-fashioned comedy number.



7. ‘Rainbow Connection’
‘Rainbow Connection’ is a minor masterpiece, with a spot in music history in between ‘Over the Rainbow’ and ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’, the perfect opener to The Muppet Movie and the perfect introduction to the story of a certain green frog. The movie got everyone talking about the ingeniousness of having a Muppet ride a bike (hence the return of the bike scene in The Great Muppet Caper), but just watch Kermit slide up the frets with his amphibian fingers. Now that’s clever.



6. ‘Put Down The Duckie’
Sesame Street had a lot of great tunes (honourable mentions to ‘C is for Cookie’, ‘The People in your Neighbourhood’ and ‘I Don’t Want To Live On The Moon’), but ‘Put Down the Duckie’ sums up the spirit of Sesame Street beautifully: taking a children’s issue and turning it into something hip and fun for all ages, not to mention making the most of celebrity guests, in this case including John Candy, Jane Curtin (not doing much admittedly), Madeline Kahn, Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman, Paul Simon and Pee-Wee Herman (looking as disturbing as ever).



5. ‘Dance Magic Dance’
Features David Bowie in tight pants. This clip contains more concentrated ’80s-ness than the combined output of the whole rest of the decade.



4. ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’
The Muppet Show had some fine guest numbers – Elton John doing ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’, Steve Martin doing ‘Duelling Banjos’ and Mark Hamill gurgling Gershwin come to mind – but Alice Cooper may have been the most inspired match for the Muppets’ loopy sensibility. Here he is performing ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ – eloquent proof that the man has never taken his persona too seriously.



3. ‘Mah Nà Mah Nà’
It’s easy to take ‘Mah Nà Mah Nà’ for granted but it’s worth taking the time to stop and reflect on how demented and funny it actually is. This defining moment in Muppet musical history was rendered brilliantly by Gareth and Brent at the beginning of the second series of The Office, but here it is as performed as a sort of psychedelic nightmare in The Muppet Show.



2. ‘Movin’ Right Along’
Not much needs to be said about this one. It’s a frog and a bear travelling across America in a rundown old Studebaker – and an irresistible buddy tune from The Muppet Movie.



1. ‘The Muppet Show Theme’
Of course, we couldn’t forget the Muppet song, the theme to The Muppet Show and most people’s ringtone some time or another in 1999. Enjoy.



Darryn King