Vinyl Magic: The First Official Album

Today it's common to find yourself in a shop at Walt Disney World or Disneyland and be confronted with a variety of music Compact Discs all themed to a particular facet or aspect of your visit to the park: there are Magic Kingdom Event CDs, Haunted Mansion CDs, and of course the ubiquitous "Official Album of the Walt Disney World Resort". Today these 2 CD sets are well produced, high quality source audio presented just for the occasion.

Music to remind you of your visit to a Disney theme park has always more or less been a part of the theme park experience, as early as the early days of Disneyland when 78 records were distributed through Mattel on durable cardboard about "Your Trip to... Disneyland! (On Records)", or the seminal if hokey "Walt Disney Takes You to Disneyland" LP from 1955. Later this evolved to include such full length long playing records like "Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room" with the full show on one side and an audio rendition of the Jungle Cruise on the other side with Thurl Ravenscroft as your skipper, or the full-show Hall of Presidents LP from 1971.


The first time the now-venerable term "The Official Album of..." appeared was in 1980, on this 12 inch long playing record which includes such classic tracks as "Grim Grinning Ghosts" from the Haunted Mansion, as well as some more obscure items like a track from "The Blue Grass Boys" who once haunted the eastwardly portion of Frontierland at the Magic Kingdom. It's really a compilation of a variety of different, already published material, culling tracks from records like the 7-inch "Main Street Electrical Parade Picture Disc", "Walt Disney World's The Hall of Presidents", "Walt Disney Productions' America Sings", and others.

But it is a uniquely satisfying musical experience, and one of the few park music overviews which was made widely available on vinyl record. The recordings are well chosen and some have become conventions of such releases - such as choosing, for example, the singing busts music loop to represent The Haunted Mansion, which continues to this day. There is a satisfying medley of the sounds of Main Street and a fairly satisfying condensation of Country Bear Jamboree into a few minutes on side one and America Sings on side two. There is even a snippet of the very end of the Hall of Presidents to bring out the record on a fairly strong note, itself a snippet taken directly from the 1978 4-LP set "The Magical Music of Walt Disney".


Side One:
Main Street Electrical Parade
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Music of Main Street
- The Dapper Dans
- The Saxophone Quartet
- The Main Street Pianist
The Enchanted Tiki Room
The Blue Grass Boys
Country Bear Jamboree

Side Two:
The Disneyland Band
It's A Small World
The Steel Drum Band
The Haunted Mansion
The Royal Street Bachelors
America Sings
The Fife and Drum Quartet
The Hall of Presidents - Mr. Lincoln

A lot of this material is culled from a fairly obscure little 1973 picture disc called A Musical Souvenir of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, an impressive looking but fairly dull compilation of tracks performed by the various park musicians of the day:


Side One:
1) The Walt Disney World Band - Walt Disney Medley
a) Hi To You
b) Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
c) Whistle While You Work
2) The Dapper Dans - The Coney Island Washboard
3) The Saxophone Quartet - Medley
a) Minnie's Yoo Hoo
b) Hurry
4) The Main Street Pianist - Maple Leaf Rag
5) The Pearly Band - Mary Poppins Medley
a) A Spoonful of Sugar
b) Chim Chim Cheree
c) Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
6) The Banjo Kings - Swanee River
7) The Fife and Drum Corps - Medley
a) Liberty Tree
b) British Grenadiers
8) The Kids of the Kingdom - I Love a Parade

Side Two:
1) The Town Band - Mickey Mouse March
2) The Tavern Singers - Medley
a) How Great is the Pleasure
b) To Our Musical Club
3) The Polka Band - Snow White Medley
a) Heigh-Ho
b) Whistle While You Work
4) The Blue Grass Boys - Tennessee
5) Mariachi Chaparral - Guadalajara
6) The Steel Drum Band - Adventureland Jump
7) The Walt Disney World Band - It's A Small World

As much as "The Official Album of Walt Disney World / Disneyland" reminds us of a simpler time in the Company's history when the two castle parks were her primary offering to us, the "Musical Souvenir" album takes us back even further, to days when very little of the park's in-house entertainment was pre-recorded, organized, or even planned. Costumed characters used to wander in and out of areas at will, and it wasn't an uncommon sight to see a lone musician or two wandering about, spreading the simple pleasure of live music. This is one thing sorely lacking in the parks today.

"The Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away!"

A handful of first year performing groups are missing from the lineup - notably absent is Karen Anders and Tommy Russell, who performed at the Mile Long Bar, and a small nautical trio who performed near 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Many of these groups undoubtably consisted of the same people, who then would go on to change clothes and put in appearances at the Golf Resort, or The Contemporary, or Fort Wilderness. The fate of many of these acts is fairly unknown, and photographs are even less common. The Steel Drum Band became known as J.P. and the Silver Stars and even was relocated to Disneyland for some time (the bandstand atop the Jungle Cruise queue was built for them) and some of the original musicians from this group perform in Animal Kingdom today. The Fife & Drum Corp - The Ancients - moved to EPCOT Center in 1982, and brought the Tavern singers along with them to become The Voices of Liberty. The Banjo Kings relocated out of Liberty Square and performed on Main Street in the late 80's, and the Saxophone quartet was reborn many years later, in a fashion, as today's "Toontown Tuners".


Perhaps best of all, better than the performances (by far..), is a little blub on the bottom of the LP sleeve, explaining who all of these groups are that we're having a Musical Souvenir of.

"THE WALT DISNEY WORLD BAND: This band of on-the-go musicians provides Magic Kingdom guests with plenty of Sousa marches, turn-of-the-century oldies, Disney classic favorites, and humorous arrangements of today's top show tunes. THE DAPPER DANS: These four 'happy men of Main Street' can be found in the shops and on the streetcorners singing your favorite barbershop melodies. THE SAXOPHONE QUARTET: (Keystone Kops) Dressed in nostalgic costumes of the 1920's, these talented saxophonists are ready for a musical chase down Main Street USA just when you least expect it! THE MAIN STREET PIANIST: Whether playing your favorite ragtime tune or leading a sing-along, this piano player is always adding to the happy mood of Walt Disney World's guests. THE PEARLY BAND: This versatile sextet from 'Mary Poppins' is forever ready with a fun treatment of a Disney classic while strolling through Fantasyland. THE BANJO KINGS: Sounding much the same as the original banjo 'pickers' of the 1800's, this duo takes guests back to those good old days on the riverboats. THE FIFE AND DRUM CORPS: Providing the authentic sounds of 1776, Walt Disney World's fifers and drummers give visitors to Liberty Square the feeling they are sharing a famous moment of American History. THE KIDS OF THE KINGDOM: This lively group of young singers entertains Tomorrowland guests with exciting production numbers and the latest hit songs. (Author's Note: THE WORST!!!!!!!)

THE TOWN BAND: The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker all get together for some musical fun in Town Square. THE TAVERN SINGERS: Dining at Magic Kingdom restaurants is also a listening pleasure as these delightful voices sing a merry catch. THE POLKA BAND: It's always dance-time in Fantasyland when these 'old-world musicians' play your favorite polkas, waltzes, and schottisches. (Author's Note: you all have a favorite schottishe, right?) THE BLUE GRASS BOYS: Foot-tappin' mountain music has never sounded better than what you hear from this group in Walt Disney World's Frontierland. MARIACHI CHAPARRAL: Guests find themselves 'south of the border' when enjoying the music and songs old old Mexico performed by these authentic Mariachis. THE STEEL DRUM BAND: The energetic performances of this top Adventureland group of entertainers are much too captivating to be forgotten."

"Why? Because we like you!"

These two records, although now obviously out of print, are common enough finds on the secondary market, and provide enough entertainment and historical interest to make them worth seeking out for those of us who still enjoy dragging needles across slabs of plastic to make music.

Johnny, Billy and Mickey . . . and the Beanstalk

It was an unexpected but welcome moment of happy serendipity. A vintage children's record adapted from the Mickey and the Beanstalk segment of the film Fun and Fancy Free.

Let me explain . . .

Over the course of the last decade or so, my musical tastes have drifted significantly back in time. More specifically, I've become enamored with pre-rock era popular music, most especially that which filled the airwaves during the 1940s and 1950s. Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, the Andrews Sisters, Louie Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald are just among many of the era's standout recording artists who have become staples on my iPod playlists.

Bing and Rosie are especially endearing to me. I grew up on annual holiday viewings of White Christmas, the 1954 film in which the two initiated their romantic musical chemistry. It would become a partnership that would extend to recordings, concert tours and even a daily CBS radio show, throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s. Though history and popular culture will forever best associate the duo with White Christmas, the pair's crowning achievement, at least in my opinion, was their 1958 collaborative LP Fancy Meeting You Here.

I discovered Fancy Meeting You Here while browsing the Pop Standards category in a music store shortly after it was re-released in 2001. It was a revelation; a pop-jazz concept album that thematically traveled around the world, with Bing and Rosie vocalizing such songs as "On a Slow Boat to China," "It Happened in Monterey" and "Brazil." I have since discovered numerous other artists and music of that era, but Fancy Meeting You Here has become my personal favorite.

In my search for similar endeavors, I was introduced to the talents and musical productions of Billy May. One of the premiere individuals of the big band-era and beyond, May was a musician, composer and bandleader, but more relevant to this discussion, was the arranger for Bing and Rosie on Fancy Meeting You Here. He produced similar LPs featuring celebrity pairings. In 1960 he took Crosby and Louie Armstrong to New Orleans on the record Bing & Satchmo. My most recent Billy May discovery involved the 1961 teaming of Bobby Darin and Johnny Mercer on the LP Two of a Kind.

Taking all this into account, you will then understand why I was positively joyful when I performed my weekly visit to the wonderful web site Kiddie Records Weekly. As the site's introductory page explains:

"Kiddie Records Weekly began in 2005 as a one year project devoted to the golden age of children's records. This period spanned from the mid forties through the early fifties and produced a wealth of all-time classics. Many of these recordings were extravagant Hollywood productions on major record labels and featured big time celebrities and composers. Over the years, these forgotten treasures slipped off the radar and it became our mission to give them a new lease on life by sharing them with today's generation of online listeners."

The selection this past week? Walt Disney's Mickey and the Beanstalk. But more importantly, Walt Disney's Mickey and the Beanstalk--as told by Johnny Mercer, with the original cast, and music by Billy May. Wow!

Certainly this "kiddie record" is by no means a musical masterpiece. But for me personally it was a fun moment of serendipity that I had not expected, and illustrated another connection between Walt Disney and the popular music scene during the 1940s. Similar connections abound more obviously in Disney's 1940s' package films Make Mine Music, Melody Time, Ichabod and Mr. Toad and Fun and Fancy Free, of which Beanstalk was a part. Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters were among the many recording artists who participated in those films. One of my other favorites, Louie Armstrong, recorded his own LP of Disney standards on Disney Songs the Satchmo Way, originally released in 1968.

If you haven't yet visited Kiddie Records Weekly, you are indeed in for a treat. Among its Disney-related offerings--The Story of Robin Hood, Tales of Uncle Remus, Pecos Bill, Saludos Amigos, Three Cabelleros, Bongo, Rob Roy, Mr. Toad, The Flying Mouse, So Dear to My Heart, Elmer Elephant, Melody, Your Trip to Disneyland, Dumbo, Cinderella and The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Vintage Vinyl: Professor Ludwig Von Drake

While many Disney enthusiasts often immediately associate veteran performer and voice artist Paul Frees with his performance of the Ghost Host from the Haunted Mansion, I would argue that the crowning achievement of his Disney resume was in fact the vocal creation of the early television era character, Professor Ludwig Von Drake. And although his work in this regard stretched over numerous episodes of Disney's Wonderful World of Color and the featurette Symposium on Popular Songs, Frees's Von Drake persona is no better represented and encapsulated than on the vintage 1961 vinyl LP Professor Ludwig Von Drake.

Released just prior to the debut of the Von Drake character on television in the fall of 1961, the album Professor Ludwig Von Drake immediately transcended the juvenile music genre to which it was classified. The album proved an energetic, frequently spontaneous, and consistently hilarious endeavor, often more akin to comedy albums of the time period than to the narrative-based childrens records that were then typically produced as media tie-ins.

In their book, Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records, authors Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar noted:

"In the early 1960s, comedy albums reached a level of popularity comparable to music LPs. Bob Newhart, Bill Cosby, Vaughn Meader, and Allan Sherman were topping the charts. This could be what helped inspire Johnson and Camarata to produce an LP with an accent on humor, and an accent was responsible for much of the humor."

Side One of the album features Sherman Brothers songs, most of which were drawn from episodes of the Wonderful World of Color. Side Two is noticeably more free form as Von Drake explains the recording process by way of a performance of the "Blue Danube" and a send-up of "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo" from Cinderella.

Frees brought to the character of Von Drake a wacky, irreverent spontaneity. According to Frees biographer Ben Ohmart, Frees once noted, "Walt Disney gave me a lot of liberty in portraying the Professor, and I've made him more personal than any of my other characters." Frees went on to say, "The Professor is bright, good-natured, has a sense of humor, and is marvelously absent-minded at times. But he has character. He is always driving at something and he is not beyond scolding you for lack of attention. When we have a story conference, the writers toss questions and situations at me. I ad-lib on tape and it's incorporated into the script."

Frees gift for ad-lib is apparent throughout the Professor Ludwig Von Drake LP. ("Now the Wonderful World of Color was originally on the television program, that of which I produced and starred and I directed . . . there's a character in there named Walt Frisbee or something that I draw and he's some kind a duck or something . . .") and ("This is Side Two for those of you who just came in late.") are just two of the many hilarious examples. Authors Hollis and Ehrbar noted that "Some of Frees's more colorful ad-libs reportedly did not make it onto the album but have been preserved for private listening."

Professor Ludwig Von Drake is currently available at the iTunes store.

Souvenirs: The Story and Songs of the Orange Bird

Vinyl Magic - Yippi-A, Yippi-I, Yippi-O!

As Disney enthusiasts and historians, we attach ourselves to the obvious and too often overlook the equally notable and precious. This can be especially true in the Walt Disney Company's long and significant musical history. I have long been passionate about Disney music and had assumed I'd "heard it all." But over the past few years, primarily due to the efforts of music producer and archivist Randy Thorton and authors Greg Ehrbar and Tim Hollis, I have discovered a wealth of amazing material that lies beyond the higher profile feature film and theme park melodies and songs that people most commonly associate with Disney musical entertainment. It is a legacy of vinyl magic from bygone days that has thankfully been quietly reemerging into the digital age.

In the summer riding, singing, Yippi-I, Yippi-O

Back the echoes come a ringing, Yippi-I, Yippi-O

So sway in the saddle and swing all along, and sing another chorus of the Triple R Song

Yippi-A, Yippi-I, Yippi-O!

A shining example of this now diminished vinyl magic is a campfire song that for a brief time in the mid-1950s embodied the happy charm and widespread popularity associated with the daily Mickey Mouse Club serial The Adventures of Spin and Marty. "The Triple R Song" may be a simple sing along tune, but it resonates a nostalgia for a time and place held dear by baby boomers such as myself.

"The Triple R Song" was penned by Stan Jones, a former National Park ranger who became well known for his 1949 hit "Ghost Riders in the Sky." As Ehrbar and Hollis note in Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records, "The campfire tune used multiple verses to sustain the plot and provide exposition. It was among the first tunes recorded for the Official Mickey Mouse Club Records released in 1955." Jones also composed the song "Goodnight Little Wrangler" for the series, and would continue his association with Disney Studio until his death in 1963, producing two different albums of western songs and the hit "Wringle Wrangle" for the film Westward Ho the Wagons.

Due to the disjointed nature of its presentation on the Spin and Marty serial, a studio recording of the song was also produced in 1955 and was included on the record album Walt Disney Presents Songs from the Mickey Mouse Club Serials. Tim Considine, in his persona of Spin Evans, featured prominently in the recording and was joined notably by famed Disney actor and voice performer Dallas McKennon, who performed the parts of Marty's butler Perkins and George the camp cook. In an interview feature on the Disney Treasures Spin and Marty DVD set, Leonard Maltin and series star Harry Carey, Jr. (Bill Burnett) made special mention of "The Triple R Song." Maltin observed, "I don't know how to explain it, but there is something about that simple song Way Out Here on the Triple R . . . it just stays with you."

"The Triple R Song" is just that--engaging in its very simplicity as it tells an encapsulated version of the summer's events at the Triple R Ranch from that very first of the Spin and Marty serials. It is heartfelt and true and speaks clearly to the bittersweet nature of summer camp experiences: friendships forged, happy and exciting adventures, and the inevitable and emotionally painful goodbyes at the season's end.

With lyrics that include phrases such as "doggoned pretty song" and "he just couldn't be so doggone swell" it is no doubt easy for many to mock rather than appreciate the old fashioned 1950s era sensibilities that the song in many ways communicates. It matters not, for in the end the happy nostalgia and unabashed sincerity of Yippi-A, Yippi-I Yippi-O transcend any amount of jaded cynicism younger generations of viewers may wish to deliver upon it.

The day of parting now draws near, Yippi-A, Yippi-O

Tomorrow is the day we fear, Yippi-A, Yippi-O

Back home to school and scattered far,

But we'll never forget the Triple R

Yippi-A

Yippi-I

Yippi-O

Walt Disney Presents Songs from the Mickey Mouse Club Serials and "The Triple R Song" are available from the iTunes music store.

New Music from the Walt Disney Records Archives

Walt Disney Records has been quietly re-releasing long unavailable material from its vast archives on iTunes over the past year or so, and happily, a number of new selections have hit the iTunes store today. The titles are:

Westward Ho the Wagons
Italiannette
Annette Sings Anka
Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House

And quite significantly, the original soundtrack from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

According to Walt Disney Records producer Randy Thornton--

"This is HOPEFULLY the beginning of a new line (only time will tell). Also, when you purchase this title, you can download a Digital Booklet with behind-the-scenes photos, and illustrations. I’ve written a brief “Producer’s Note” outlining the background of the project, and there is (the highlight for me) liner notes from my new friend, composer John Debney . . . It’s taken me over 10 years to get this released, and it was definitely worth the wait! Thanks very much for all your patience, enthusiasm and support for this great, classic stuff."

Thornton continues to be one of the true unsung heroes of Disney-related historical preservation. He has been tireless in his efforts to find and restore these vintage recordings and insure their availability to what is undeniably a very small audience of enthusiasts. Thornton is well known to Disney music fans as the person who produces the Official Disneyland and Walt Disney World music collections; he was notably responsible for the amazing and near-definitive Musical History of Disneyland collection, released during the park's recent 50th Anniversary celebration.

In addition, five albums that were previously available at the Disneyland/Walt Disney World Wonderland music-on-demand kiosks have been added to the archive releases available on iTunes. Those titles are:

Meet Me Down On Main Street
A Musical Tour of France with Maurice Chevalier
Songs from Lady and the Tramp
The Disney Afternoon
Country Bear Jamboree

One special note about today's releases--a number of readers have contacted me recently concerning the song "The Ballad of John Colter." Fess Parker performed the song in Westward Ho the Wagons and it is available on the collection released today. It is also included on the archive release Fess Parker - Cowboy and Indian Songs, also available on iTunes.

Special thanks to Greg Ehrbar for communicating this information via both the Magical Music of the Mouse and his own Mouse Tracks web site.

A Gem from the Musical Archives

What I truly love about the various worlds of Disney is that there are so many gems of entertainment that can still be mined from the company’s long and prolific history. I came upon one such example recently from the archives of Walt Disney Records that has proven to be a happy discovery indeed.

Over the past year, Disney has been quietly re-releasing selections from its extensive music library via iTunes, many of which have been out of mainstream distribution for decades. One of these titles, Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland: Music form the Score Conducted by Camarata, is the treasure of which I speak. A studio album produced and released six years after its film counterpart, it evolved the original film’s disjointed musical presentation into a more cohesive soundtrack offering. In their excellent and very extensive book Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records, authors Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar provide the following explanation as to how the album came about:

For Disneyland Records to produce an Alice soundtrack LP, the company would have to take on substantial performance fees, making the budget unfeasible by 1956. Another difficulty was that in the Alice soundtrack, most of the songs were performed in a fragmentary manner, usually with no defined beginning or end. Some lasted for less than thirty seconds. The solution was to produce an entirely new recording of the Alice score, a type of album sometimes referred to as a "studio cast" or "second cast" album. Second cast versions were handy when a film soundtrack, TV performance, or theme park attraction lacked contractual provisions for recordings. Second casts also added to the product line, even when a soundtrack was available. For example, Sleeping Beauty's film release in 1959 was complemented not only by a soundtrack LP but by a reported fourteen separate Disney record releases. Second cast albums usually sold at lower prices than soundtracks, but again, Alice in Wonderland was an exception. Camarata pulled out all the stops for his version, using a concert-sized orchestra and full chorus. In what many Disney audiophiles regard as her finest work, Mouseketeer Darlene Gillespie sang Alice's three solos with compelling depth. This version of Alice sold consistently even though the film remained out of theatrical release between 1956 and 1974 and received only a few early broadcasts on the Disneyland TV show. The album's success occurred largely independently of its source material.

It was a hearty recommendation from Hollis and Erhbar but one that I pretty much let fade from my memory after I had finished reading Mouse Tracks shortly after it was released last year. Then, even after I had seen a number of hardcore Disney music aficionados passionately endorse the album on various blogs and forums, neither my interest nor curiosity was still sufficiently piqued. While I have always enjoyed Disney’s animated version of Alice in Wonderland, it was never enough of a favorite to entice me to purchase a soundtrack or musical collection.

But a chance exposure to one of Darlene Gillespie’s three performances from the album made me immediately take notice of this endeavor that I had long disregarded. Her rendition of “All in A Golden Afternoon” happened to be included on the recent iTunes-released Walt Disney Records Archive Collection Volume 1 that I did purchase. (An awesome collection by the way; if you use iTunes, definitely check it out.) Camarata’s skillful arrangement combined with Gillespie’s exceptionally rich vocals proved a revelation. It quickly sent me scurrying to purchase and download the complete Alice in Wonderland album.

Being tone deaf and musically dysfunctional, I am particularly unqualified to provide any type of critique or review, other than to say that I really love this album! It is a joyful revisiting of the music from the film, with a sophistication that transcends the material it was derived from. Gillespie’s vocals are particularly inspiring, and it’s a shame that she was never able to fully emerge from fellow Mouseketeer Annette Funicello’s more commercial shadow, because the skill and talent were certainly there. As Hollis and Ehrbar noted, the album was a sleeper hit for many years, and has proven to be a kind of cult hit among current Disney music scholars and enthusiasts.

Alice in Wonderland: Music form the Score Conducted by Camarata is available exclusively through iTunes. Digital downloads appear to be the only distribution method Disney considers viable for this and the other Walt Disney Archive titles they have recently made available again. While many lament this very limited accessibility, any degree of availability for these gems of Disney entertainment is certainly better than nothing at all.