“Sesame Street” lures SZA, Chris Stapleton, Reneé Rapp and more

ELMO TELLS ALL

This image released by Sesame Workshop shows singer SZA, left, with muppet character Oscar the Grouch on the set of “Sesame Street.” RICHARD TERMINE/SESAME WORKSHOP VIA AP

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By Maria Sherman

Associated Press

Appearing on “Sesame Street”? That’s the best idea.

The 55th season of the acclaimed family program features a star-studded lineup of musicians that would be the envy of any summer festival: SZA, Chris Stapleton, Noah Kahan, Reneé Rapp and Samara Joy.

The upcoming season will focus on lessons in emotional well-being. It debuts Jan. 16 on MAX with new episodes releasing every Thursday. “Sesame Street” will also be available on PBS stations and to stream on PBS Kids in the fall. No one is more excited than Elmo himself.

“There’s a lot to learn from music — yeah, timing and harmonies and melody and different styles and different cultures,” the 3 1/2-year-old monster told The Associated Press. “It’s really cool! We’ve got a lot of wonderful people come and do some music with us on ‘Sesame Street,’ like Miss Reneé Rapp and SZA! Chris Stapleton, Noah Kahan, Samara Joy — lots of great people!”

Songs double as life lessons on “Sesame Street,” from an alt-R&B-pop track about gratitude with SZA to an acoustic number about feelings with Rapp.

As for the secret to a great “Sesame Street” song? According to Tony- and Grammy-winning composer, producer and “Sesame Street” music director Bill Sherman, its “earworms on earworms.”

“If the verse is an earworm, so is the chorus. Mostly in pop music, the chorus is the earworm, and the verses are just a bunch of jumble.” The difference, he explains, is that pop songs are about three and a half minutes long. Children’s music is about a minute and a half. “You only have a very finite amount of time to do what you got to do.”

Usually, writers on the show provide Sherman and his team of songwriters with a script and lyrics detailing the lesson of each episode, as well as the name of the musical guest. Then they get to work, composing music true to the genre and spirit of each artist. The result is always awe-inspiring.

Other highlights include Kahan performing a foot-stomping folk song about music and feelings, Joy using jazz improvisation to teach a lesson in taking turns and a country ode to music and friends courtesy of Stapleton. “Chris Stapleton really wanted to write his own song,” says Sherman, and so the pair hopped on a Zoom and wrote a song together. “It was really one of the most surreal two-hour Zooms that I really ever had in my life.”