My Music Rules

Summary
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and saxophonist Joshua Redman duke it out in a classical-vs.-jazz battle at the Elwood City Library.

Plot
The Elwood City Library is looking for a musician to perform for the children's show later in the week. D.W. suggests that they find the guy who wrote Crazy Bus, her favorite song, which annoys Arthur.

This makes Arthur and Francine look for Josh Redman, Francine's "uncle". After watching a concert with Grandma Thora, D.W. plans to ask cellist Yo Yo Ma to perform at the library's children's show.

Arthur and his friends think that it is a horrible idea, and Binky thinks that they may end up fighting each other. However, much to the surprise of Binky and the others, Yo Yo Ma and Josh Redman get along just fine.

The episode ends with a jazz rendition of Crazy Bus. The kids find this very good - even Arthur, who considers it a much better version of the song.

Major

 * D.W. Read
 * Arthur Read
 * Francine Frensky
 * Oliver Frensky
 * Yo-Yo Ma
 * Joshua Redman
 * Buster Baxter
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Binky Barnes

Minor

 * Paige Turner
 * Thora Read
 * Jane Read
 * Leah MacGrady

Cameo

 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Edwin
 * Kyle
 * Lucy
 * Lisa
 * Liam
 * Sarah
 * James MacDonald
 * Mary
 * Kenny
 * The Brain
 * Timmy and Tommy Tibble
 * Emily
 * Fern Walters
 * Mr. Morris

Mentioned

 * Laverne Frensky

Trivia

 * During the credits from the finale of Season 4, some of the series intro was replaced with a piece of "Crazy Bus" played by Redman.
 * There is yet another instance of Grandma Thora being a bad cook.
 * It is revealed that D.W. hates jazz, but if viewers look closely in Arthur and Francine's vision of Redman playing "anything", they can see D.W.
 * This is the last episode in which Emily wears a pink dress and a ribbon in her hair. Starting from Season 6, she wears a blue dress and her hair down.
 * This is the only episode to use unique animation for the guest star credits; later episodes featuring guest stars use clips from earlier in the episode.
 * Moral: Music comes in a variety of styles and you shouldn't judge it before you've actually listened to it; you may find that something you thought wouldn't be good could actually be great.

Errors

 * When Yo-Yo Ma tells Joshua Redman that he picked up the sheet for Crazy Bus, he had the paper, but after D.W. finds out that Ma's music isn't so bad after all, as Ma began the song, the sheet disappears.
 * During Francine and Arthur's imagination flashback of Joshua Redman, Muffy is seen with everyone watching him play, but when he continues and everyone cheering for him, Muffy is suddenly gone.

Cultural references

 * by and  are heard. (The latter piece, while commonly attributed to Bach, was actually written by )

Home Video
VHS: DVD:
 * Arthur's Famous Friends
 * Arthur's Famous Friends
 * Arthur's Music Jamboree