Halfway Down (poem)
"Halfway Down" is a poem by A.A. Milne, included in the 1924 collection When We Were Very Young. A "juvenile meditation", Zena Sutherland comments in Children & Books that both the poem and Ernest Shepard's illustration "has caught the mood of suspended action that is always overtaking small children on stairs."[1] Christopher Robin, the child in Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories, is the presumed narrator of the poem.[2]
"Halfway Down the Stairs"
A song was created from the poem by Harold Fraser-Simson, who put many of Milne's poems to music.
"Halfway Down the Stairs" was used in the first season of The Muppet Show. The performance was staged in the middle of a flight of stairs, and became the most significant performance of the season for Kermit the Frog's nephew, Robin the Frog. The sequence was reshot for a few different countries' broadcast of the tenth episode, with guest Harvey Korman.
The song was included on the LP The Muppet Show, later released separately reaching #7 on the UK Singles Chart in 1977.[3] The sequence was refilmed for inclusion in Top of The Pops. The track was also included on the CD The Best of The Muppets and the VHS Playhouse Video: Children's Songs and Stories.
Rowlf the Dog sang a cover of this song in his album, Ol' Brown Ears is Back. American singer Amy Lee of the band Evanescence sang a cover of the song which was included on the 2011 album Muppets: The Green Album.[4]
References
- ↑ Sutherland, Zena (1997). Children & Books (9th ed.). Longman. p. 292. ISBN 0-673-99733-2.
- ↑ Swann, Thomas Burnett (1971). Twayne's English authors series: A. A. Milne. Twayne Publishers. p. 75.
- ↑ Roberts, David (2004). British Hit Singles & Albums (17th ed.). London: Guinness World Records. p. 384. ISBN 0-85112-199-3.
- ↑ "Weezer, Paramore, Evanescence for Muppets tribute album". NME (IPC Media). June 27, 2011. Retrieved September 2, 2011.