Chris Harriott is an Australian composer with many television musical credits to his name, such as compositions for Hi-5, Bananas in Pyjamas, Theatre Sports, The Money or the Gun, McFeast, and McLeod's Daughters.
Harriott is the primary composer of the show, having written thousands of Hi-5 songs (including featured Songs Of The Week and songlets) thus creating a sense of musical consistency.
Posie Graeme-Evans and Harriott had worked together when he scored the themes for the teen dramas series, The Miraculous Mellops (1991) and Mirror, Mirror (1995), and he had worked on his own in Australian theatre. The creators approached him and tasked him with writing top ten songs for an age range of two to six. Harriott worked regularly with a group of lyricists, including Chris Phillips, Leone Carey and Lisa Hoppe. Nathan Foley cited the Wiggles as an influence of Hi-5, but noted the respective groups had different musical styles, with Harriott's compositions resembling top 40 rather than nursery rhymes. Original member of the Wiggles and classical musician Phillip Wilcher commended the gentle educational appeal of Hi-5's music, and declared that they seemed to "know the subtle difference between childlike and childish."