Of all the musical numbers they cooked up for the show, the one the producers were most proud of was created from Harry Belafonte's request for a meaningful piece, which had the singer singing "Turn the World Around" with puppets made to resemble traditional African tribal masks. Harry Belafonte also sang it at Jim Henson's funeral.
Harry Belafonte says that he's never sung "The Banana Boat Song" on TV before, but he had performed it on The Colgate Comedy Hour in 1955, 24 years earlier.