Bein' Green

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"**Bein' Green**," originally titled "Green," is one of Kermit the Frog's best-known songs. It was written in 1970 by Joe Raposo for the first season of *Sesame Street*, and has since become an American standard.

## Background

In the song, Kermit expresses his ambivalence about his color, noting that green "blends in with so many other ordinary things" and wishing that he were some other color instead. During the bridge, Kermit realizes that there are some powerful associations with the color -- "green can be big, like a mountain, or important, like a river, or tall like a tree." In the end, he decides that he's happy to be green -- "it's beautiful, and I think it's what I want to be."

The song was described in a Children's Television Workshop press release as "a frog's poignant realization of his own dignity and worth." The song has been viewed as a powerful message about race: music journalist Danyel Smith recalls in *The Greatest TV Moments: Sesame Street Music A-Z* that her mother said to imagine that instead of saying "green," they said "black."

Kermit would return to the song twice more on *Sesame Street*, including as a duet with Lena Horne, then performances on *The Muppet Show* in episodes 112 and 219, where the song was used to lift Kermit up from a depressed state.

The song appeared on *The Sesame Street Book & Record* and has been recorded numerous times since, both by Jim Henson and Steve Whitmire as Kermit, as well as by musicians like Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra, demonstrating the song's universal themes. "Bein' Green" is not just for frogs.

"It's not easy being green," a paraphrased lyric from the song, has become one of Kermit's catchphrases. In a twist on the line, when Kermit filmed a commercial for the Ford Escape Hybrid he remarked upon seeing the environmentally friendly vehicle, "I guess sometimes it is easy being green." Media outlets have also used this phrase to associate with the environmental movement.

*Street Gang* gives insight into the songwriting process:

> Raposo's best-regarded song has an air of intrigue around it. This much we know: it began when Jon Stone approached Raposo with a request. "We need a song for the frog," he said. As he had many times, with many songwriters and many songs, Stone walked Raposo through the curriculum goal for the composition and made lyric suggestions. Only Stone and Raposo were in the room when the contemplative song for Kermit was mapped out, but members of Stone's family have insisted that it was presumptuous of Raposo to claim that he alone wrote "Bein' Green." The sheet music has always indicated "Words and Music by Joe Raposo," and thus the enormous royalties generated by the song have always belonged to him. Jon Stone's failure to call Raposo on claiming full credit kindled one of the worst marital disagreements Jon and Beverly Stone ever had.
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## Audio Releases

* The Sesame Street Book & Record (1970)
* What Are Kids Called/Green (single, 1970)
* Sing the Hit Songs of Sesame Street (1974)
* ¡Sesame Mucho! (1974)
* 60 Favorite Songs from Sesame Street (1975)
* 25 Greatest Hits (1975)
* Bein' Green/I Am Blue (single, 1976)
* The Muppet Show (1977)
* 10th Anniversary Album (1978)
* Sesame Street Music Society Album (1978)
* Sesame Disco! (1979)
* Sesame Street Treasury (1980)
* Favorite Songs From Jim Henson's Muppets (1986)
* The Best of Sesame Street (1987)
* Jim Henson: A Sesame Street Celebration (1991)
* Sesame Street Celebrates! (1994)
* Platinum All-Time Favorites (1995)
* Noisy Colors (1999)
* Music, Mayhem and More! (2002)
* Songs from the Street: 35 Years of Music (2003)
* Best of the Muppets (2005)
* All-Time Favorites 1 (2018)

1. ↑ "Beatles and Beethoven, Move on Over: The Seventies Sounds is Sesame Street." CTW Press Release. January 10, 1971
2. ↑ *Sidney Herald* "Going green: Ethanol may be part of country’s path for energy independence" by Linsey Bright, 8/12/08
3. ↑ *Street Gang* page 256