Olivia's duet with George Benson ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Remember George Benson?

He's a popular singer and musician known for hit singles back in my day such as "On Broadway" and "Turn Your Love Around."

Many of Benson's records featured a type of improvised vocals - known as scat singing - made up of random syllables. One day as a youth, I sneezed and lapsed into scat singing: "Aaaaah-choo-ba-doo-ba-doo-ba-doo-ba-doo-ba-daaaaaa!" My mom frowned upon such behavior and warned, "Quit sounding like George Benson!"

When I told a friend of mine in college about this incident, he said, "I didn't know the Secretary of the Treasury was a singer." Um, that was Lloyd Bentsen, not George Benson. (At least he didn't confuse George Benson with George Bush!)

Like many other music legends (such as Melissa Etheridge and James Taylor), George Benson once appeared on 'Sesame Street'. In this sketch - reportedly from 1982 - Benson sings a duet with the character Olivia about the seasons of the year:



Notice in this clip that Oscar the Grouch's trash can is mysteriously missing from its usual location. Often, the ol' Osk disrupts songs by the other characters, but when this song was made, he must have been over at Hooper's Store picking up his gravy-covered banana ice cream he loves so much.