Frazzle (song)

{| border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%; " Frazzle is an eponymous emotional song about the monster himself which is composed by Sam Pottle in Sesame Street. During the song, Frazzle moves outside the 4:3 screen before circles open up with ripped paper applied around it and The Frazzletones including Steve D' Monster, Maurice and Little Chrissy (made from the fat blue AM Monster pattern used for Harvey Monster) sing about him while they transition to the bourbon background with them. As Frazzle himself snarls through the circles, t he paper  shakes with a teeter totter animation at a speed depending on how fast he growls. His snarl sound is always the same regardless of any emotion. After four transitions from and back to the green background, the hole opens in the center of the screen which Frazzle will appear in the same background with the Frazzletones instead of transiting to the background. Once everything has been explained, the circle along with the ripped paper will contract with Frazzle grawling twice and the Frazzletones performing the last ensemble vocals before the hole disappears from the background.

The performers of the backup singer vocals include Richard Hunt who performed the earliest version of Joseph Scarbrough's monster character "Steve D' Monster" (built out of a lavender Anything Muppet pattern), Jerry Nelson for Maurice (who also performed Frazzle) and Christopher Cerf for the lead Frazzletone singer "Little Chrissy". On this song, Chrissy's singing voice is noticeably deep than usual. Other notable differences with this puppet that also has a moving jaw, two square teeth, navy blue fur, a bigger darker pink nose, long hair and sunglasses (with thicker temples) compared to the regular character variant.

FX
The outline overlay appearance is styled with unique shapes that look like horns, thorns, spikes, mountains and beaks (which includes Falco Lombardi's beak on the right side of the graphic). The paper was created and applied to the circles to manipulate the surface physics as a signal when a growling sound is heard from Frazzle. It is also used to make it look like the monsters are bursting through the background while they open up. However, the song has odd minor upscaling of the paper overlay which hides the parts of it that resemble in shape of mountains, a pawn and a horn. This happens on the Frazzletone background part once Frazzle snarls the time after the circle along with the graphic opened up to reveal him.

The graphic is rendered at the same frame rate as the recorded footage which is made for 60 frames per second. The song (especially the beta version) with circles opening up with monsters in them may catch viewers off guard.

Errors
The paper goes off-sync leaving some parts of the circle lines to be visible as it makes it's way to the same scale factor as the circle. It also occured with the transition back to the green background from the second time on the Frazzletones part. On the part after Frazzle leaves the green screen the third time from the bourbon colored background, the graphic doesn't stick with the circle and the transformation keyframes were supposed to stay within the position where the circle is placed, but instead moves itself to the top right of the screen which then goes back to it's normal position.

Another goof has the puppeteer's head for Chrissy partially shown on the bottom right of the screen in the second time in the Frazzletone part.

Variants
There is a prototype version of the song that does not contain torn paper around the circles which leaves the circle physics static as Frazzle snarls. This variant was used on most episodes of Sesame Street. The final one was only released on the Sesame Street home video Elmo Says BOO!.

On the home video Monster Hits!, the beginning of the prototype variant of the song is trimmed off which fades to the point where Frazzle runs to the end of the screen on the green background.

Trivia

 * The puppets used for the Frazzletones come from the first Fur song except that the Harvey puppet was modified to form a monster variation of "Little Chrissy".
 * This is the only song on Sesame Street to feature the monster form of Little Chrissy.
 * It appears that Frazzle might have torn up the background circles to open a hole on the background so the monsters can see through it as they explain about Frazzle's emotions to the viewer. It also renders realistic hole openings rather than iris transitions itself.

Videos

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