The Muppets' "Moving Right Along"

Here’s my weekly reminder to tune-in to Sinking with Sylvia (and Sometimes Todd) on Little Radio from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM on Thursday. Tomorrow they are guest free.

Each week on their show, there’s an official You Set the Scene pick of the day. Todd and Sylvia play it and then I write about it here. On April 5th my pick was the Muppets’ “Moving Right Along.” I picked the Muppets in honor of Le Switch, who were the guests on the show that day. It’s kind of an inside joke, but basically when I first saw The Switch I called them Muppet rock. It had more to do with Paul Williams and some of the ragtime Muppet numbers than anything else.

Like a lot of people my age, I’ve loved the Muppets since I was a little kid. A big part of it is because there’s so much heart and humanity in those early shows and early movies. The songs in those early Muppet show episodes and The Muppet Movie were pretty damn fantastic. “Moving Right Along” comes from the soundtrack to the first film, The Muppet Movie. Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher are responsible for the soundtrack and were deservedly nominated for best score and best original song (“The Rainbow Connection”).

Paul Williams is a pretty fascinating character. In addition to writing those great songs for The Muppet Movie, he also wrote some huge Carpenters’ hits, like “Rainy Days and Mondays” and “We’ve Only Just Begun.” He’s still active and recently wrote the soundtrack for a Happy Days musical as well as collaborating with the Scissor Sisters.

As a side note, I took my lady friend to see a Muppets cover band on our first date.

Paul Williams’ website
See the “Moving Right Along” scene from the Muppet Movie