Friday Factoid: John Denver and the Muppets

John Denver and The Muppets
John Denver and The Muppets

In 1979, the TV special John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together aired, and it has never been released on home video. The special involved the Muppets singing traditional and new Christmas carols with John Denver, including the famous rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” with Miss Piggy’s five golden rings (ba dum bum bum…). Denver had guest-starred in an episode of The Muppet Show earlier in the year and hosted another TV special with the Muppets in 1983, Rocky Mountain Holiday. “The Peace Carol,” written by Bob Beers, was one of the songs from this 1979 TV special. Beers founded a folk group with his wife and daughter and held a folk music festival on their farm in New York from 1966 to 1980. “The Peace Carol” appeared on the Beers Family’s 1966 album, Christmas with the Beers Family. Unfortunately, Beers never got to see his song become famous, as he was killed in a car accident in Vermont in 1972, seven years before the TV special aired.