Disney.... Wow... I hope I'm not sued for this...
Whenever a story is told, tradtionally, there's
a place in the narrative where we're all shown what the "status quo" is, before
things get all upturned and that staus quo gets complicated for the sake
of drama. This song hits at exactly that moment in Snow White. Apart
from being kind of a seminal corn-pone down-home hootenany (just listen to
that yodelling!) its probably one of the most consistantly, blissfully
happy pieces of music I can remember from my childhood. Those frickin dwarfs
are getting down and there's nobody gonna stop 'em! Dig in, and listen
closely for Adrianna Caselotti legitimately cracking up in the middle of
the take (right after the gong) so badly that the boys in animation had to
work into the piece instead of doing it all over again and for the "Who's
Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" interpolation right round the point where the
boys are clapping their hands and shouting "Hey!". This one brings
me tears of joy on a consistant basis. You just can't not be happy listening
to this...
A Silly Song (The Dwarf's
Yodelling Song)
- Snow White & the
Seven Dwarfs
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The Jungle Book was the last
film that Walt Disney personally supervised and was criticised at the time
for being a kind of radio show with pictures, where the animators specificly
based their character designs on film footage of the actors who performed
the voices. This was seen as a problem at the time when both Louis Prima
and Phil Harris were still alive, but now it gives us a fun look at how they
might have been groovin in the recording booth when this track was laid.
Watching Louis as both a human then as an ourangatang you can see his trademark
hand shaking and side lean and Harris' trademark hand slapping and arm bends...
The scat in the middle of this is just astounding. This is probably
the single most-covered Disney tune as of 1995, as well, having hit the whole
swing / lounge groove straight on its edge.
I Wanna Be Like You-
Louis Prima and Phil Harris
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