From Swedish sex to Muppets

Sheet Music cover for the song Mah-na Mah-naAll fans of the Muppets are familiar with the song Mah-na Mah-na but, what many don’t know is that the song was written for the 1968 Italian film Sweden: Heaven and Hell. “A pseudo-documentary about sexuality in Sweden. It shows contraceptives for teen girls, lesbian nightclubs, wife swapping, porno movies, biker gangs, and Walpurgis Night celebrations. It also examines Sweden’s purported drug, drinking and suicide problems.” from IMDB.com

To top all that off it’s X rated.

Evidence of this childhood shattering fact can be found in our Popular American Sheet Music collection.

The Colorful covers of E.T. Paull

dawn-of-the-century   hurricane   burning-of-rome

Edward Taylor Paull’s music is pretty much universally panned as mediocre. Think of him as the Rebecca Black of his generation. So why are his self-published pieces of sheet music so collectable? It’s the beauty of their covers. He used an expensive five-color lithograph process which led to covers that were meant to grab the eyes and wallets. We have many of his pieces in the Popular American Sheet music collection which I think you will agree are magnificent.