What's the Story Behind Mr. Rogers' Song "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"

On Sunday during Super Bowl LX, a beloved song that once welcomed children to the neighborhood will get a pop music transformation. Lady Gaga is set to release a full version of her cover of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” the opening song of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. But where did the song come from, and why has it endured for decades?

Each episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, which aired on PBS from 1968 to 2001, began the same way: Fred Rogers entered through the door, swapped his jacket for his famous red cardigan, and switched into more comfortable shoes, all the while singing, “It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?” 

The song’s music and lyrics came from the mind of Fred Rogers himself. Before attending Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and becoming a Presbyterian minister, Rogers received a Bachelor of Music from Rollins College. While Rogers gave the song its shape, it was his longtime collaborator and the man behind the song’s arrangement, Johnny Costa, who imbued it with much of its musical spirit.

Costa, who like Rogers was a Pennsylvania native, was trained in both classical and jazz piano, and had performed in New York jazz clubs – an influence evident in the surprisingly complex chords underpinning “Won’t You Be My Neighbor.” When Rogers offered him the job as musical director of his new children’s program at local PBS station WQED in Pittsburgh, Costa told Rogers he didn’t want to perform “kiddie” music. He believed children deserved more sophisticated and expressive music. Rogers shared his philosophy.

“Children have ears, and they’re people, and they can hear good music as well as anybody else,” Costa once said. “So I started right from the beginning playing for them as I would for any adults.”

Costa accompanied the show’s recording live in studio, as opposed to adding in music in post-production. That allowed Costa to use his improvisational skills, playing along with Rogers’ performance and adding musical embellishments. Both men expressed a kind of shared “telepathy” that allowed them to work seamlessly together for nearly three decades. Costa worked on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood until his death in 1996. The original, hand-written score for “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” is housed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.