"I Want a Monster to Be My Friend" was written for the 1975 The Sesame Street Monsters! LP, issued as a single in 1976, and performed as an insert on Sesame Street. The singer, identified only as "A Little Girl" in the album notes, explains that she's tired of normal pets like "birds and fish and dogs and alley-cats," and that what she'd really like is to have a as a friend. After a sweet introductory verse, the girl (performed by Marilyn Sokol) belts out her desires in a deep, mock-burlesque growl: