For as awesome as Muppets: The Green Album proved to be, it was only the beginning of the musical onslaught for the Jason Segel, Amy Adams-starring reboot of The Muppets. As it turns out, the film’s official soundtrack is just as bonkers, featuring a who’s who of notable musicians like Andrew Bird and Paul Simon, reports Billboard. Plus, you know a soundtrack’s great when Miss Piggy isn’t even the best part.

In addition to Bird and Simon’s contributions, Leslie Feist dueted with Mickey Rooney — yes, that Mickey Rooney — on “Life’s A Happy Song”, which was one of four original tracks written for the film by Flight Of The Conchords’ Bret McKenzie. Joanna Newsom also contributed vocals, in this case to album opener “The Muppet Show Theme” (sorry, no Muppet joke here, folks). Other soundtrack highlights include appearances by Segel and Adams and The Muppets Barbershop Quartet covering “Smells Like Teen Spirit”; now THAT is Nirvana. Check out the entire tracklist below.

The soundtrack hits stores November 21st via Walt Disney Records. The Muppets hits theaters on November 23rd. Check out the trailer below.

The Muppets Official Soundtrack Tracklist:
01. The Muppets – The Muppet Show Theme
02. Jason Segel, Amy Adams & Walter – Life’s A Happy Song
03. Kermit & The Muppets – Pictures In My Head
04. Paul Simon – Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
05. The Moopets – Rainbow Connection
06. Starship – We Built This City
07. Amy Adams & Miss Piggy – Me Party
08. Chris Cooper – Let’s Talk About Me
09. Jason Segel & Walter – Man Or Muppet
10. The Muppets Barbershop Quartet – Smells Like Teen Spirit
11. Camilla And The Chickens – Forget You
12. The Muppets – Rainbow Connection
13. Andrew Bird – The Whistling Caruso
14. Finale Entire Cast – Life’s A Happy Song
15. Manha Manha & The Two Snowths – Mahna Mahna

Appropriately enough, Kulash and Co. “get things started”—though, not quite with a Crazy Harry-caliber bang—with their trippy, blip-and-bleep, beat-heavy version of “The Muppet Show Theme Song”. Rivers Cuomo and Paramore’s Hayley Williams pull up a lily pad and trade verses on “Rainbow Connection”, a rendition that finds its niche when Cuomo’s Weezer cohorts join in and turn the final verse into a warm, glowing march.

Alkaline Trio score The Green Album’s first major highlight by taking guitars to road song “Movin’ Right Along” (think The Gimme Gimmes), complete with “dooga-duns” and Kermit and Fozzie’s comedic Studebaker banter. Andrew Bird beautifully channels his inner frog on “Bein’ Green”, Kermit’s classic song of self-acceptance, putting his own stamp on the song with his signature violin and Muppet-esque whistling.

However, it might be the deeper cuts that really make this compilation a winner and also suggest that there are some serious, die-hard Muppet fans behind these mics and guitars. My Morning Jacket deliver a delicate and vocally daring “Brothers in Our World” medley—pulled from the final scenes of 1977’s Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas—that would make its composer, Paul Williams, proud. Sondre Lerche perhaps fesses up to catching Muppet Show reruns in Norway as a kid with his silly and infectious, mostly acoustic take on Scooter and Sgt. Floyd Pepper’s “Mr. Bassman”.

All that’s “green” isn’t necessarily gold here, but most of it shines. And these tracks, if you’re a 20, 30, or even fortysomething, will probably bring a smile to your now grown-up face. And you’ll probably have no better luck concealing it than Damian Kulash. But, hey, that’s what the frog does.

Essential Tracks: Andrew Bird’s “Bein’ Green”, My Morning Jacket’s “Brothers in Our World”, and Sondre Lerche’s “Mr. Bassman”

Mirror Traffic, the new, Beck-produced LP from Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, is streaming in full on NPR. The album itself hits stores August 23rd via Matador Records.

Also available to hear early thanks to your tax dollars is the new tribute compilation Muppets: The Green Album. The 12-track effort features My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird, Weezer, Sondre Lerche, and more covering covering classic Muppets songs. Give it a spin here ahead of its August 23rd release via Disney.

Explaining their choice of covers, MMJ bassist Tom Blankenship told SPIN that the special, which he re-watches annually, “deserves to share legendary status with Rudolph, Frosty, and Charlie Brown [holiday specials]. It’s our yearly reminder that the world outside the perpetual TV glow of that wood-paneled basement was a lot more welcoming, that strangers were a dying breed, that adventure was ripe for the taking if you left your heart open and let folks in.” See, bein’ green ain’t so hard, folks.

The track is available for streaming now over at Spin.com. Head here to pre-order The Green Album, which hits stores August 23rd via Disney. The Muppets arrives in theaters November 23rd.

Update: Muppets: The Green Album is a tribute compilation, so Ms. Deschanel is safe after all.

Sure, it’s not even July yet, but we already assumed that Zooey Deschanel would leave 2011 with the award for “Most Appropriate And Thus Amazing Choice For A Soundtrack”. That was, however, until Disney went ahead and announced Muppets: The Green Album (via Pitchfork), an accompanying soundtrack for the Jason Segel-written The Muppets movie. Featuring the likes of My Morning Jacket, Weezer, OK Go, Andrew Bird, Sondre Lerche, and more covering classic Muppets songs, no amount of cuteness can save Winnie the Pooh now.

The 12-track effort houses a number of potentially amazing efforts, including OK Go tackling The Muppet Show theme song, Alkaline Trio handling “Moving Right Along”, Andrew Bird’s rendition of “Being’ Green”, and, the piece de resistance, Weezer and Paramore’s Hayley Williams dueting on “Rainbow Connection” (Bethany who?).

The LP’s collaborative nature mirrors the film’s plot, with Segel and Amy Adams’ characters helping Kermit the Frog reunite the Muppets in order to raise money to save Muppet Theater. Oh, and Dave Grohl will lend a musical assist.

Check out the entire tracklist below. Muppets: The Green Album hits stores August 23rd, while The Muppets arrives in theaters November 23rd.

Muppets: The Green Album Tracklist:
01. OK Go – Muppet Show Theme
02. Weezer and Paramore’s Hayley Williams – Rainbow Connection
03. The Fray – Mahna Mahna
04. Alkaline Trio – Moving Right Along
05. My Morning Jacket – Our World
06. Amy Lee – Halfway Down the Stairs
07. Sondre Lerche – Mr. Bassman
08. The Airborne Toxic Event – Wishing Song
09. Atreyu’s Brandon Saller and Good Charlotte’s Billy Martin – Night Life
10. Andrew Bird – Bein’ Green
11. Matt Nathanson – I Hope That Something Better Comes Along
12. Rachael Yamagata – I’m Going to Go Back There Someday

As amazing as he hopes 2011 will be for the Foo Fighters, we’re thinking Dave Grohl is arguably just as excited regarding another recent career development: according to NME, the rocker is set to make a cameo in the upcoming Muppets film. This news ain’t half bad! Of course, this news ain’t half good! Hohohohohohoho!

The film, which hits theaters November 23, 2011, is being written and will star Jason Segel. Grohl will reportedly take over for Animal on the drums when the legendary monster is sent to anger management (about time; he’s been harassing Beaker for years.) The film will also feature cameos from Ricky Gervais, Jack Black, and Lady Gaga (we just hope she isn’t wearing this)

Stay tuned for more news on the film and other Grohl updates as they’re announced.

Grohl image via Fooarchive.com.

When you’re more popular than Jesus, your entire catalog gets remastered even though your band broke up 39 years ago.

When you’re more popular than The Beatles, your greatest hits get revisited even though your awesome Friday-night TV show went off the air 28 years ago, and also you pretty much raised me and taught me everything I know about my ABC’s and my 3-2-1′s.

Word on the Sesame Street is, there’s gonna be a new album of old Muppets chestnuts sung by the likes of The Fray (“Mahna Mahna“), the absolutely-not-Ray-Charles Andrew Bird (“It’s Not Easy Being Green”), My Morning Jacket (“Our World”) and former Muppets collaborators Weezer (“The Rainbow Connection”).

Muppets Revisited doesn’t have a release date yet — and no mention of whether or not the Muppets themselves will be making cameos in the studio — but there is a nice mock-up of some possible cover art.

In the meantime, there’ll be plenty of Muppetmania to help you endure the wait: yet another feature film, an online cooking show co-starring Cat Cora, Muppets iPhone apps and Muppets viral videos galore.

The only way this compilation will be good enough for me? A cover of “C Is For Cookie.”

Now I abided by one crucial guideline. Each theme listed was written specifically for its show, even if it was released elsewhere later on. Unfortunately, this means that an overflow of ridiculously good music was disqualified. Milestone theme songs like The Sopranos’ “Woke Up This Morning” (a remix of an Alabama 6 tune) and “Suicide Is Painless” from M*A*S*H* (an instrumental of the film version’s song) were sadly dismembered on the chopping block. But there’s plenty to love here, especially from Nickelodeon. What can I say? Some of TV’s best music came from cartoons.

As always, feel free to agree, disagree, and most importantly, post your own choices on the comments section. Don’t touch that dial, we’re about to begin.

10. Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (2007)

This song could only exist in the age of Girl Talk and Dan Deacon. Boasting a so-bad-it’s good 80s infomercial aesthetic tinged with video game guitar and robot voices, the theme to Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is a jewel in the crown of cheap mash-ups, the perfect fit for one of Adult Swim’s most hilarious, ingeniously low key shows. Be sure to pay attention in the opening credits or you’ll miss the explosions and kissing cat effects.

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9. Johnny Quest (1964)

It may have been produced by Hanna-Barbara, but Johnny Quest was the cartoon where people got killed. Race Bannon and Dr. Quest slaughtered their villainous victims without mercy: shooting them, stabbing them, and throwing them to gargantuan killer lizards. And you can get all that without even watching the show. One listen to this bulked up spy music theme is all it takes. It’s Secret Agent Man without the goof factor; all jungle trumpets and rattling guitar, as if Steely Dan riffed on The A-Team. Take that, Yogi Bear.

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8. The Office (2005)

Clocking in at under forty seconds, this Scranton ditty says a lot about the show in very little time. Opening with a yearning plunk of piano notes before launching into a quirky mini-suite of pop punk, the theme sets the overall tone of the series; the bittersweet mixed with the outlandish, evoking images of Jim and Pam’s first kiss and Dwight swiping at a rogue “vampire” bat in equal doses.

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7. Tales From The Crypt (1989)

Danny Elfman is the king of foreboding atmosphere. This schizophrenic theme to one of the most frightening shows ever created is built on bassoon and out of control strings, sending us spiraling further and further into the twisted depths of the Cryptkeeper’s castle. The fact that he springs from his coffin and cackles at the end is a bonus. Demonic laugh or no demonic laugh, bust out the rubber sheets when listening to this one.

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6. Salute Your Shorts (1991)

Cast members singing a show’s theme song can often be a disaster. But what’s usually sappy is downright hilarious in Salute Your Shorts, most likely because it takes place at a summer camp. The lyrics lampoon every cliched “Kumbaya” we’ve ever been forced to chant around a campfire as each character indifferently slogs through a line of the cheesy words to “Camp Annawanna” while their lamely enthusiastic counselor Ug accompanies them on the piano. What’s best is that we get to see a pre-Rilo Kiley Blake Sennett perform music with the same exact haircut he sports today.

*note: the below clip was the first season of the show, which Sennett was not a part of. If you can find the intro to the second season, please post it.

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5. Doug (1991)

While the entire run of Doug is jam-packed with nuggets of musical genius that reference everything from The Beatles to The Talking Heads, nothing beats the nostalgically frenetic theme song. Consisting mostly of backyard percussion (“bangin’ on a trashcan,” anyone?) mixed with infinitely layered adolescent beatboxing, the insanely catchy title track is light on instrumentation and heavy on imagination, as if a ten year old boy was trying to form his own one man doo-wop group. Like the show’s namesake character, the song creates an entire universe from so-geeky-it’s-cool musical scratch.

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4. The Muppet Show (1976)

Oddly enough, the majority of the music featured on The Muppet Show was pulled from old jazz standards, broadway musicals, and the program’s guest stars. However, the opening theme is pure Jim Henson; an unabashed romp of colorful vaudeville and peculiar mayhem. From the clumsy trombones to the gruff, abrasive character voices to Gonzo’s final ill-placed trumpet note (Zoot’s saxophone in the closing credits), we know we’re stepping into a wacky universe as soon as those kettle drums bring down the house lights. “It’s time to play the music…”

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3. Oz (1997)

The theme to HBO’s first and most brutal original series is tribal, violent, and percussive. Fueled by oil can drumming, screeching horns, and male grunting, you can almost smell Oz’s theatrical narration, primal murder, and anal rape just from listening to it. Nuff said.

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2. The Simpsons (1989)

Sometimes you’ve gotta go with the classics. And if this one isn’t considered timeless, I don’t know what is. For all of its funhouse, grandiose Danny Elfman complexity, The Simpsons theme has proved to be delightfully adaptable over the years, being covered (both on-show and off) by Tito Puente, Sonic Youth, Hans Zimmer, Green Day, and many, many more. Besides being performed by such a diverse, esteemed collective of musicians, it has also been molded to fit the closing credits of each episode. Whether disguised as a mobile lullaby as Maggie says her first word or an authoritative Dragnet march as we fade out on the “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” mystery, The Simpsons theme is the soundtrack to our lives; always recognizable and always loved.

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1. The Adventures Of Pete And Pete (1993)

Performed by Polaris, a house band formed by Miracle Legion frontman Mark Mulcahy specifically for the show, “Hey Sandy” is a power pop gem with lyrics that remain shrouded in mystery to this very day. But would it really be as fun if we could understand what Mulcahy is saying underneath his nasally yelp and ethereal solos? After all, The Adventures Of Pete And Pete was the best kid’s show on any planet because it wasn’t always easily understood. And with the music of Polaris, it let New Jersey shine in all of its surreal, teenage glory.

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