This is Alaina Reed Hall, who portrayed Olivia on Sesame Street, performing “Golden Slumbers.” The music was composed by Sam Pottle, with lyrics by Emily Perl Kingsley, and it was written for the Sleepytime Bird special, in which Big Bird sings his mother’s lullaby to Little Bird and then can’t get to sleep himself.

Pottle was Sesame Street‘s second musical director and is best remembered for composing the theme song to The Muppet Show. Kingsley was a longtime writer for the series and is credited with writing the special.

The soundtrack for the special was one of my favorites for overcoming insomnia in my teen years. I played it so often that I wore out the cassette (recorded either off the tv or off a library copy of the album). Rudi bought me a copy of the LP as a gift one year early in our relationship.