“Rubber Duckie” is a brilliant bath tub song sung by Ernie on Sesame Street dating back to 1970. Since th the song has reached legendary status and almost every adult and child knows it. The song logically got named after Ernie’s favourite toy, a rubber duck or bath duck that he affectionately named Rubber Duckie. Its an alltime favourite song of the adventure ducksters and they sing it all the time when taking a bath or swimming in high-alpine lakes.
Ernie and his rubber duckie
The song, written by Jeff Moss and arranged by Joe Raposo, first aired and first heard by children watching an episode of Sesame Street on February 25, 1970. It rapidly gained huge popularity due to its catchy tune and simple lyrics and it got recorded and released as a single becoming a surprise mainstream hit, peaking at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA. The song even reached the number 10 position in the Australian charts.
The rubber duckie song even got nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children in 1971 but lost out to the album The Sesame Street Book & Record, which contained the Rubber Duckie song so basically it won a Grammy!
Ernie originally performed the song to great success in the first season of Sesame Street, singing in a bathtub in a room that resembled his living room. The most common version, filmed for the second season, sees Ernie sitting in a bathroom with a plain blue background. The song has been dubbed into many different languages, a montage of which was featured in the special Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting.
Sequals to the Rubber Duckie Song
Due to its huge success, cute character and lovely rubber ducks the Sesame Street Rubber Duckie song by Ernie had follow-ups in the form of “Do De Rubber Duck” and “D-U-C-K-I-E”. Additionally “The Honker Duckie Dinger Jamboree” was the centerpiece of 1988’s “Put Down the Duckie”, performed by Hoots the Owl where Ernie himself appeared.
In 1974, Ernie also sang the song as “El Patito,” in Spanish. This version got released on the album ¡Sesame Mucho!, and later issued as a single backed with the original English version in 1976.
Another version of “Rubber Duckie” with Ernie was filmed in Sesame Street season 30, using the original album recording. The same track was also used for a film segment showing various kids taking baths in Episode 3811. The song has also been covered by the likes of Little Richard, Bob McGrath and many other artists.
And just like like the adventure ducksters are love at first sight Ernie, already back in 1970 knew that “Rubber Duckie, you are the one!”
