A few of the best rock star appearances on Sesame Street

Buffy St. Marie

Buffy St. Marie is one star who has never received her due. Her 1969 album Illuminations is the best thing you’ve never heard and was probably the first album to mix folk and synthesizers. She was also the first person to record an album digitally, the first Native American to win an Oscar …and the first person to breastfeed on TV. 

Starting from 1975, St. Marie was a regular on Sesame Street, playing a fictionalized version of herself. She frequently sang traditional folk songs, her own songs, and educational songs. When her son Dakota "Cody" Starblanket Wolfchild was born, that was woven into the Sesame Street narrative, with Big Bird shutting himself in his nest with a “go away” sign out of jealousy. She filmed a segment in which she breastfed him while talking to Big Bird. “He likes it because it’s warm and sweet and natural, and I get to hug him when I do it,” she tells Big Bird. It’s very sweet. 

In 2022, she told Yahoo Life that she filmed two episodes a day with Cody on her hip and breastfeeding him off-camera regularly. She suggested they film the segment to counteract the publicity efforts by companies selling baby formula. 

In 1981, she and Cody permanently moved into Oscar’s trashcan, never to be seen again. 

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