Frazzle (song)

{| border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%; " Frazzle is a Sesame Street song about Frazzle, the monster, with vocals by the Frazzletones. The song was first seen on Sesame Street as early as 1975, and has been on several episodes and one video release since. The song is about the idea that even the scariest looking creatures have emoions and feelings, and so to not judge a book by its cover, so to speak.

Nicknames
"The Song about Frazzle", "The Frazzle Song", "Broken Monster Background", "Ripped Up Background", "Frazzle's Emotions", "Little Chrissy and the Frazzletones", "Funny Song: Frazzle Laughs" (refered by the chapter name on the Elmo Says BOO! DVD release), "Jiggly paper"

Music Video
On a background, we see Frazzle staring at the viewer idling for a second and then he grumbles before the music starts. He walks a few steps at the beginning and during the song and runs outside the 4:3 screen, then a circle on the background (with white ripped paper around it) reveal The Frazzletones singing about him and his expressions prior to the transition to the Frazzletones section with a colored background. In the order they sing, Little Chrissy is displayed first, Steve D' Monster second, both third and last, Maurice Monster, next we transit to the Frazzletones section where they shout the phrase "He goes". As they start to move away to the far point from the camera, we see Frazzle snarling through ruptured circle causing the paper to shake with a teeter totter animation at a speed depending on how fast he growls while they watch him doing it. Immediately after the rip lines stop teeter-tottering, they describe what his growl does depending on his emotions. On the second time Frazzle grumbles, the paper stretches up once. Once we hear Frazzle growl three times, we go back to Frazzle's section where we left off and this time, he walks to the left from the screen. The routine with the Frazzletones section through the broken background is repeated. We head back onto the Frazzletone's section again Frazzle growls six times here. During the point after the third growl from him, he nods his head up and down and almost immediately continues growling with the Frazzletones making noises. The last growl will make the ripped paper animation play at a slow speed before he runs to the left while the iris expands. After that, the hole zooms in the center of the screen which Frazzle will appear in the same section with the Frazzletones and it zooms in to the nearest position of the screen instead of returning to that section and the teeter tottering velocity of the outline animation decreases a little. On this part, they switch back and fourth with the Frazzletones singing about his expressions and Frazzle growling ten times. After it was done and everything about him has been explained, Maurice pops up alone from the rest of the crew, then the circle along with the ripped paper gradually zooms away. Frazzle sneaks from behind him and then Frazzle pops up and grawls twice (with only slow ripped paper teeter totter animation) and the Frazzletones come together performing the last ensemble vocals before it continues to zoom out, then the hole disappears from the background while the music continues fading out until the end of the audio track and Frazzle's last growling noise (which are heard on the album version of this music) which then the music stops and we cut to black.

Frazzletones
The Frazzletones are three monsters that provide the actual vocals for the song, being as that Frazzle himself only growls. These monsters have been seen on Sesame Street before in other groups and in one monster's case a different form.

The first member is the lavender monster. Officially he does not have a name, however a replica, made by and puppeteered by Joseph Scarbrough, is known as Steve D'Monster. Hes built on a lavender skinned anything muppet, with lavender fur covering everything on him except his chin. He's got two yellow horns, bushy eyebrows, and a small round nose. In this appearance, he is voiced and puppeteered by Richard Hunt.

The second member is Maurice Monster. Hes a bit more unique in his design. He's got light blue fur covering him head to toe, and a big lime green nose. Though not considered a major character, he's a monster that has made many appearances on Sesame Street through the decades. Sometimes he is voiced an puppeteered by Hunt, but here both are done by Jerry Nelson (who also voices Frazzle's growls).

The third is a very unique monster. Officially, he does not have a name, but pretty much it is accepted he is Little Chrissy, the well known piano playing muppet, except here he's a monster! It is speculated that he's an early version of Harvey Monster as they are both based on a "Fat Blue" anything muppet template, and have the same colored fur. Unlike Harvey, this guy has glasses, a single tooth on each jaw, and long orange hair. He is voiced by Chris Cerf, who also voices Little Chrissy, but its not known for sure who puppeteered him.

FX/SFX
The outline overlay appearance is styled with unique shapes that look like horns, thorns, spikes, mountains and beaks (which includes part of the design that looks like Falco Lombardi's beak on the right side of the graphic). Also, the horn on the bottom right of it resembles a bread clip. Parts of the line's edges have some and  coloring on it. The paper was created and applied to the circles to tell a viewer how fast and loud Frazzle is snarling. 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.

For the ripped paper, I'm not sure who were the designers of the graphic, but if you are able to contact Mike Pantuso, Amy Love, or Pete Ortiz, ask one of them if they created it for this song.

The circles of each footage use clipping mask on the background to appear as the background is open. The opening, expansion and closing of the iris has choppy animation unlike the rip lines.

Lyrics/Transcript

 * Frazzle: ARGGHH!
 * [Frazzle Steps, then turns around and runs]
 * [Breaks background]
 * Little Chrissy: There's a monster name of Frazzle who's a good friend of mine!
 * Steve D' Monster: He looks ferocious, but he's really fine.
 * Both: Go up and ask him for his autograph.
 * Maurice: He'd be so happy that he'd start to laugh. [Circle continues the transition, then the paper disappears]
 * Three Frazzletones: He goes.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That's how he laughs he goes.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper stretches and teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means he's glad he goes.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means he's having the greatest time that he ever had. [Circle transits back to Frazzle]
 * [Frazzle leans and points two times, then runs to the left]
 * [Background tears]
 * Little Chrissy: Now you know my buddy Frazzle, he's got fangs on his jaws!
 * Steve D' Monster: His fur is orange, and he's got these claws.
 * Both: He looks so mean that he could scare a crowd.
 * Maurice: But if you tickle him he laughs out loud.
 * Three Frazzletones: He goes!
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That's how he laughs he goes.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper stretches and teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means he's glad he goes.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means he's having the greatest time that he ever had.
 * [Frazzletones making noises]
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper slowly teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: Do wop.
 * [Frazzle tilts left and right three times, then runs and the circle fills the screen]
 * [Frazzle runs to join the Frazzletones]
 * [Background tears]
 * Little Chrissy: Mr. Frazzle has emotions like the rest of us do.
 * Steve D' Monster: Sometimes he feels low down and ugly, too.
 * Both: And then the tears begin to fill his eyes.
 * Maurice: It's so pathetic when a monster cries.
 * Three Frazzletones: He goes.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters and enlarges]
 * [Paper gradually rotates to a normal angle]
 * Three Frazzletones: That's how he cries he goes.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means he's sad he goes.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means he's having the lowest time that he ever had!
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means he's hungry.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means he's hot.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means he's sleepy.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means he's not.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means yes.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper slowly teeters]
 * Three Frazzletones: That means no.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper slowly teeters]
 * Maurice: Means thank you for the dinner but, it's getting very late and I really must go. [Circle zooms out of the screen]
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper slowly teeters]
 * [Frazzletones making noises]
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH! [Paper slowly teeters]
 * [Circle zooming speeds up and disappears, then the music gradually fades]
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH!
 * [Frazzletones noises pitch down]
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH!
 * Three Frazzletones: Do wop.
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH!
 * Frazzle: ARGGHH!
 * [Cut to black]

Cheesy Factor
On transition to the Frazzletones part in the first time, the ripped paper disappears right before completely zooming outside of the screen. While Frazzle moves away from the screen, he carries a black fur item on his paws with him making it appear that he's holding it and taking off with it.

Scare Factor
, especially for the original version. The circles that reveal the monsters through them along with the ripped paper and the graphic teeter tottering from Frazzle's crabbed snarl and a sudden jarring cut to the black at the end of the Elmo Says BOO! edit may startle some viewers and catch them off-guard. To those of you who aren't scared of the monsters and the rip lines,.

Variants
There is a version of the song without the torn paper effect around the circles leaving the circle (except for the clipping size animations) static as Frazzle snarls. This variant was the first and original version to be in use.

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

There is an abridged version of the song where it starts with Frazzle grumbling and freezing near the end instead of finishing all the way to the end after the hole disappears. Additionally, the sides on this variant of the updated music video are also slightly cropped.

Music/Sounds
The song "Frazzle" features a sax, tambourines, bass, a guitar, and piano. The song's key is C major (just like Eight Balls of Fur) and uses what is known as the "50's progression", or the I-vi-IV-V chord sequence. Its called this because virtually every 50's era doo-wop group used it in their songs. Near the end, a piano descending sound is played once. The musical arrangement was provided by Sam Pottle, with lyrics by David Axlerod.

Music/Sounds Variant

 * For international dubs of this song, a Japanese dub exists on the Japan laserdisc of "Monster Hits!". It's unknown for any other non-English dubs for the ripped paper and original variants to appear elsewhere on any of the foreign co-productions of the series.
 * On Elmo Says BOO!, the song fades out early near the end for the ghost transition to transit to the Alphabet joke scene.

Availability
Scarce, This was used on a few episodes of Sesame Street since 1975, and the home video Monster Hits! on VHS, Laserdisc (released in Japan only) and DVD. It is also included as part of the special as a bonus feature on Big Elmo Fun. The last episodes to use the original version was on Episodes 2933 and 3030 which aired on 1992.
 * The updated version was used for the home video Elmo Says BOO! released in July 8, 1997 on VHS, DVD in 2002 and the latter years, international VCD releases and it can also be found on Sesame Street's official YouTube Channel. It also appeared on the said special aired on PBS back in October 1997 and was included on the Season 28 reel at The Paley Center for Media. Don't expect to find the ripped paper variant on TV other than the special, but if you are a New York city resident, check with Sesame Workshop otherwise send a letter to the corporate office to see if they have the uncut version of the music video featuring the rip lines around the circle but without the fade ins and fade outs on the footage (which in these cases the video only cut in to the start point with Frazzle idling on the screen and cut to black at the end), does not freeze near the end and does not have the ghost at the end stored in their office.
 * Two variants of this song used to be on the official website "sesamestreet.org" where the video was added back in 2008 after the original website was renamed from "sesamestreet.com" and remained until 2016 while the later variant was available on Hulu.

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 one of Little Chrissy's only appearances on Sesame Street to be featured in monster form instead of the normal Chrissy puppet that was also in Eight Balls of Fur despite the subject of 8 fur balls which the monster one should have been in place to match the song's subject.
 * It appears that Frazzle might have broken through the 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.
 * As with the reflections on his glasses, it does not reflect through background intended for the song nor the rip lines. Instead it only reflects the lights shot in the studio where they puppeteered when videotaping this music video.

Videos

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