Instant Cheerful

There are some things in life that simply cheer you up no matter how tired or how foul a mood you are in. It's completely different for everyone and can vary from the most trivial of things (a favourite song, film or food) to the most important things in the world (family and friends). For me, it's the work of one man that always lifts the spirits and twitches the corners of the mouth upwards in a smiling fashion. I've blogged about him in the past but he's a personal hero so I can't witter on about him enough as far as I'm concerned. It is, of course, Mr Jim Henson and the simple joy he took in his work and his creations never fails to put me in a good mood. He created many different worlds, from Sesame Street to Fraggle Rock, Dark Crystal to Dinosaurs to Labyrinth but, for me, it's always the most famous of his creations that are I love the most. The Muppets. Great, aren't they? How can you not love them? Well, only by having some sort of flint-based object in place of a heart, I would say.

Now, pretty much all Muppet stuff is guaranteed to liven up my day but there's one particular work that stands above the rest. The other day, I was lucky enough to find mp3 copies of the soundtrack for it - I still have the original copy that was bought for me all those tears ago* but, as it's on vinyl and I don't have a record player, that doesn't really help. The sheer act of finding them made me smile - the big cheesy grin as I was listening to them must have been particularly frightening o any passersby. That work is The Muppet Movie and it's been one of my favourite films since... well, as far back as my memory goes.

Why is it great? Well, because of songs like this:-



and also songs like this:-



For me, that's instant cheerful right there, every single time. How about you? Any favourites?


*In fact, we had two copies - one at home and one at Nana and Grandad's so we could listen to it when we were round there.