The Rainbow Connection

"The Rainbow Connection" is a song originally written for The Muppet Movie and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song in 1979. It is sung by Kermit the Frog as the movie's opening number and reprised by the whole cast of Muppets at the end of the movie, but with slightly different lyrics. The single of this song reached #25 on Billboard's "Hot 100 Singles" chart in 1979.

In The Muppets at Walt Disney World, a young Raven-Symoné sings the song to cheer up Kermit.

The song is featured twice in 2011's The Muppets. The song is first performed by The Moopets, a Muppets tribute band performing at a casino in Reno, with Fozzie Bear on lead vocals. The lyrics are changed to glorify the casino in which the Moopets perform. The song is later performed in full by Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the cast of the Muppet Show at the Muppet Theater in Hollywood during The Muppet Telethon.

Lyrics


Why are there so many songs about rainbows?

And what's on the other side?

Rainbows are visions but only illusions

and rainbows have nothing to hide

So we've been told and some choose to believe it

I know they're wrong, wait and see

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection

The lovers, the dreamers, and me

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered

when wished on the morning star?

Somebody thought of that and someone believed it

Look what it's done so far

What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing

And what do we think we might see?

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection

The lovers, the dreamers, and me

All of us under its spell

We know that it's probably magic

Have you been half asleep? And have you heard voices?

I've heard them calling my name

Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?

The voice might be one and the same

I've heard it too many times to ignore it

It's something that I'm suppose to be

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection

The lovers, the dreamers, and me

La, da, da, di, da, da, do,

Da, da, da, da, da, di, da, do

Trivia

 * For the opening number, while operating Kermit, Jim Henson had to perform underwater in a big metal tank with oxygen pumps (all apparatus were in the water pool used as part of the swamp set). There were rescue divers nearby in case of trouble. Steve Whitmire used a remote-control device to operate Kermit's hand while playing the banjo.
 * On March 20, 1996, The Rainbow Connection was the basis of a bizarre crime in Wanganui, New Zealand. A twenty-one-year-old overly enthusiastic Muppet fan took a radio station manager hostage claiming to have a bomb and demanded to hear the song played nonstop on the air for the next twelve hours. Several buildings were evacuated due to the threat. When it was learned that the man had no bomb, police stormed the station and arrested him.
 * I Love the 70s lists the song as Kermit's favorite.
 * A Rock'n'Roll version of the song was played at the ending credits of the Non-Disney movie Kermits swamp years.
 * In Jim Henson's childhood hometown of Leland, Mississippi, a local bridge was named "The Rainbow Connection," in his honor on September 24, 2011 (Henson's 75th birthday).
 * In Muppets Most Wanted while imitating Kermit, Constantine incorrectly sings this song's lyrics as 'the lovers, the dreamers, and cheese'.