Joe Raposo

Joseph Guilherme Raposo was born on February 8, 1937, in Fall River, Massachusetts, the only child of Portuguese immigrant parents Joseph Soares Raposo and Maria da Ascenção Vitorino Raposo. Known within his family by the nickname "Sonny," Raposo grew up in a household shaped by music: his father, Joseph Sr., was a musician proficient in classical guitar, violin, flute, and piano, and served as Raposo's first instructor. After graduating from B.M.C. Durfee High School in Fall River, Raposo earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1958, where he composed music for Hasty Pudding Club productions. He subsequently studied at the École Normale de Musique de Paris under Nadia Boulanger, where he also developed his piano technique. Raposo died on February 5, 1989, three days before his fifty-second birthday.

Before relocating to New York City in 1965, Raposo performed in piano bars in Boston and worked as a pianist and music director for a jazz trio at WNAC-TV. Among his earliest New York credits was the role of musical supervisor and arranger for the original off-Broadway 1967 production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, to which he also contributed additional music. It was through his work in musical theater during this period that he first encountered Jim Henson, a collaborator he would later work alongside on Sesame Street.

Raposo became most widely recognized for his contributions to Sesame Street, composing songs for the program from its 1969 debut through the mid-1970s and again during the 1980s. He wrote the show's theme song, Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?, along with several of its most enduring songs, including "Bein' Green," "C Is for Cookie," and "Sing." A recording of "Sing" by The Carpenters in 1973 reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100. Raposo also composed much of the background music used in the show's film segments and frequently performed vocals for those pieces. During the early 1970s, he portrayed uncredited stock characters in short film segments on the series and provided voice-overs for select animated segments. One of his Sesame Street compositions, "The Square Song," was used in the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

In 1971, Raposo became musical director for The Electric Company, a Children's Television Workshop program aimed at reading instruction, serving in that role for the show's first three seasons and continuing to contribute songs through its 1977 conclusion. He also performed comedic characters in film segments for that series. Among his other television work, Raposo composed theme music for the sitcoms Three's Company, The Ropers, Ivan the Terrible, and Foot in the Door. He composed scores for three Dr. Seuss television specials produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises: Halloween Is Grinch Night in 1977, Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You? in 1980, and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat in 1982, and he performed several character voices in Pontoffel Pock. He also composed music and songs for the HBO animated adaptation of Madeline in collaboration with Judy Rothman, a production broadcast four months after his death, and wrote the theme song for the Canadian animated series The Smoggies, which premiered around the same time.

Raposo's film work included scores for The Possession of Joel Delaney and Savages, both released in 1972, and Maurie in 1973. He also served as composer and on-screen narrator for the documentary America Is, produced by Peter Rosen. In 1962, earlier in his career, he composed music for A Man's a Man, a production based on Bertolt Brecht's Man Equals Man using Eric Bentley's English-language translations, staged at the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later at the Masque Theatre in New York City. Portions of the production were broadcast on CBS, and the full recording was released in 1974.

Despite his prominence in television, Raposo harbored sustained ambitions as a Broadway composer. In the 1970s he composed the original score for the animated film Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure, and subsequently developed a stage musical about Raggedy Ann in collaboration with playwright William Gibson. That production became the first theatrical performance by a United States company staged in the Soviet Union following the resumption of cultural exchanges between the two countries, and it later had a limited Broadway run in 1986. Raposo also collaborated with lyricist Sheldon Harnick on A Wonderful Life, a musical adaptation of the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. The show was first performed at the University of Michigan in 1986 and subsequently staged at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., in 1991. A one-night concert version was performed on Broadway on December 12, 2005, featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell, David Hyde Pierce, and Judy Kuhn.

Classically trained as a conductor and arranger, Raposo was influenced by Spike Jones, and composed several Sesame Street pieces featuring kazoo, siren whistles, bulb horns, and tenor banjos in Jones's style. His songwriting frequently explored themes of introspection related to life and nature, and he demonstrated range across blues, country, and jazz arrangements, often incorporating melancholic lyrical content within otherwise cheerful compositions. His work frequently featured piccolo and glockenspiel, and he was known for his ability to replicate the sound of a 20th-century player piano in live performance.

In his personal life, Raposo was married twice. From his first marriage he had two sons, Joseph and Nicholas. His second marriage, to Pat Collins, produced a son, Andrew, and a daughter, Elizabeth. He maintained a close friendship with Frank Sinatra, who in 1973 recorded four of Raposo's songs for the album Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back.