Yeah, I wanna rock you, Chaka khan, but what with?

May 4, 2009 9:50 AM

What instrument is this, that I remember from my youth?

I can't believe I'm asking this but... what instrument is producing the sound located between 0:33 and 0:47 of this Chaka Khan song (assuming, of course, that you can ignore the righteous scratchin' and breakin' long enough to pay attention to the actual song.)

I'm also fairly certain this same instrument was the primary one used in the instrumental version of the Sesame Street theme (run during the closing credits, when we discovered that that days episode had been brought to us by the letters E, B and the number 3.)

Just hearing the sound of that instrument in my youth was enough to conjure up warm fuzzy memories of various muppets. In later years, it reminded me of, well... the less warm and fuzzy Chaka Khan. Anyway, I'd initially assumed it was a harmonica, but now I'm not so sure. Anyone care to definitively state what instrument produced those glorious notes?

posted by Rewind to media & arts (6 comments total)

Maybe a melodica?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 9:54 AM on May 4

It's a harmonica, played by Stevie Wonder. Toots Thielmans did the Sesame Street song.
posted by rhizome at 9:57 AM on May 4

Wikipedia implies that it's Stevie Wonder's harmonica.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:57 AM on May 4

I'm pretty sure that's harmonica played by Stevie Wonder.
posted by txsebastien at 9:57 AM on May 4

More specifially, that would be a chromatic harmonica
posted by sambosambo at 10:26 AM on May 4

Yeah, nthing Stevie Wonder playing harmonica.
posted by ob at 10:51 AM on May 4