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[THE MUSIC]

BARRY MANN and CYNTHIA WEIL - "Like everyone else in the world, I've been a Muppet fan since the first moment I saw Sesame Street, which was sometime in the late sixties," explains Cynthia Weil. "I was really excited about the idea of being involved with this amazing and legendary group of people, and a little nervous! Our very first meeting with Brian felt like a wonderful creative blind date, where the other person is everything you had hoped for and more!"

"LOVE LED US HERE was the first song we wrote for the film. Barry and I had each read the script separately and jotted down possible song situations. The Piggy and Kermit hanging upside down in jeopardy scene struck us both as a great possibility for a love duet! As I recall, Barry wrote the melody first and then my challenge was to find an idea that would be funny (considering their precarious situation), still hold up as a love song between them, and hopefully make sense outside the context of these two particular lovers. Something that other people might be able to relate to."

When they first wrote PROFESSIONAL PIRATE they had no idea who would be playing the part of Long John Silver. "Brian had some very definite ideas about what the song needed to accomplish and reveal dramatically in the relationship of Long John and Jim, and that called for a certain kind of lyric. Barry and I really worked together on this one and when we finished, I just hoped that Brian would cast someone who could handle it. We were overjoyed when Tim was cast. It was a dream come true to have a real singer dig into the material. Tim is incredibly talented, and professional, and the answer to a songwriter's dream!"

Barry Mann takes up the story. "Once we got the concept for each song we moved along at a good pace. Cutting the demos took some time, because I wanted to put in as many of my musical ideas as possible so Hans Zimmer would have the chance to either use them or discard them. Besides being an enormous musical talent, Hans is extremely intelligent and has the greatest instincts of almost anyone I've ever met in the music business. Just working with him is an inspiration and on top of that, I have to say, it was the ultimate fun experience!"

Hans Zimmer did not get involved until they had written most of the songs and it was at the suggestion of Barry and Cynthia that Brian Henson hired him to do the score. He helped considerably on PROFESSIONAL PIRATE and created the BOOM CHAKA LAKA musical track with Barry Mann and Simon Greenaway creating the vocals.

"The concept and atmosphere of the song that became SHIVER MY TIMBERS was indicated in the script," explains Cynthia. "The writers called for a song that would set up the atmosphere of the story, be dark and mysterious, and in contrast be sung by Muppet voices. It was really fun cutting the demo and trying to decide what snakes, skulls, alligators, mosquitos, and totem poles would sound like! I loved the idea of using a song to open the movie and establish the world the audience would be entering."

CABIN FEVER was the most difficult song for Cynthia Weil. "It was known as THE WHACKY SONG and I was scared to death of it. Our first pass at it was a song called JUST START DANCING. When we played it for Brian he seemed to like it but on reflection felt it wasn't zany enough. Hans felt the same way. Barry was an enormous help on this song, even lyrically. He helped me get into the spirit of Monty Python type silliness and guided me through it. We were going for a moment of stepping outside the story, and going for complete insanity. I think we accomplished it!"

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Designing And Lighting Muppets | MTI Costume Design
Fencing And Stunts | The Music


The Cast | About The Production | Credits

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