Describing a song as a children’s song is probably related to the simplicity of its melody.
In music, separation is risky, and makes no sense.
Many musicians who ‘borrowed’ a children’s tune, or wanted to write one, found themselves at the top of the charts.
So, there is such a unique melody that, from a musical theme to an almost inappropriate movie, became a symbol of a children’s show.
We talk about “Mah Nà Mah Nà”, which most of us knew about from the infamous The Muppet Show.
The original composition
The Italian composition of Piero Umiliani originally had a different destination.
It was written to musically dress an Italian mondo film, a kind of pseudo-documentary that deals with taboo subjects of the time.
It is an ancestor of snuff movies. “Sweden: Heaven and Hell” (Svezia, inferno e paradiso), is the so-called documentary which was filmed in 1968 by Luigi Scattini.
It refers to the frantic Swedish sex life but also refers to issues such as alcoholism and drugs in the Scandinavian country.
Piero Umiliani took over the music and this particular piece of music was heard in a scene where some Swedish beautiful girls enter a sauna.
Before Muppets
But before it was heard, in the popular Muppets series, it managed to get into the charts and became a hit in several countries.
And there were not a few who wanted to perform this song in their own way.
Among them was even Giorgio Moroder who made his own version in “Giorgio” 1968 album.
It was first used in a children’s program on “Sesame Street“.
Two female muppet characters get bored and decide to sing when another hairy doll appears, like a caricature of the animal itself.
The character was named Bip Bippadotta, to become Mahna Mahna, the character of Jim Henson in 1976.
And so a melody “breaks” taboos and becomes the most popular children’s song in the world …