You can shoot me for saying this, but aside from the fact that he was a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan, Shel Silverstein was possibly one of the top five dudes of the twentieth century. He wrote one of Johnny Cash’s (another of the top dudes) most well-loved songs, Hugh Hefner sent him all over the world to draw pictures, was a playwright, and he wrote and illustrated some of the most best-loved children books ever.

I fished around Youtube, and found these clips. Since last week was his birthday and all, I figured I’d post them. Please keep in mind, there are a ton of videos of people “interpreting” Silverstein’s work, and most of them are pretty hilarious. I chose one of those to go in this top 3.

#1 Silverstein and his buddy Johnny Cash

#2 The animated version of The Giving Tree narrated by Silverstein.

#3 Somebody made a video for Shel’s song “I Got Stoned and I Missed it”