The folded paper animation strip expands into a cylinder as it is placed over a translucent plastic dome containing an electric light. When the device is turned on, the animation is illuminated from within while a slotted, opaque cylinder rotates around it. The user views the animation through the slots. A single electric motor turns both the turntable and the cylinder, and music is provided by a plastic 78-rpm record played on an acoustic phonograph with a steel stylus. The animations are based on songs on existing Golden Records released independently of the See-a-Song in 1951 and 1953.

The See-a-Song was manufactured by the Wal-Feld Company. Wal-Feld, whose products were often branded House of Swiss Music, imported Swiss music box mechanisms and placed them in a variety of items, including powder puff containers, cake stands, a box for shot glasses, and a Davy Crockett toothbrush holder. They also offered a toy phonograph based on the See-A-Song, but without the zoetrope (Alderfer Auctions 2020). Wal-Feld was bankrupt by 1965 (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit 1965).