Did you know that the first song from Disney that became a hit was Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf in 1933? It goes like this, “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, fa la la la la.” It was composed by Frank Churchill and used in The Three Little Pigs, where the piggy wiggys battle the bad wolf trying to enter their house. It is now acknowledged as the biggest selling song to come out of a short animated cartoon.
Bits like this have been surfacing lately in assorted places and the reason is there is a lot of interest in Disney history right now. This is because Disney is celebrating 100 years of existence this year. It was in Oct. 16, 1923 when the brothers Walt and Roy Disney founded the Disney Studios which within the next century turned into The Walt Disney Company, the massive mass media entertainment conglomerate it is today.
Although he did help conduct some numbers in the animated feature Fantasia, the only piece of music I can associate with Mickey Mouse is The Mickey Mouse March. “M I C K E Y, M O U S E, Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse.” But Mickey, initially Mortimer, was the mascot anchor on which the Disney empire was built and he is often seen leading all those characters that came after him through their paces with the music.
With the success of Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?, music from Disney acquired a life of its own and became an integral part of every picture produced. It has run the gamut of music styles from Viennese operetta in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Latin hip-hop in Encanto, gone from animators’ work tables to the Broadway stage. In a way nearly every kid all over the world who had the opportunity to watch Disney movies while growing up has several of those songs in his personal soundtrack.
Back in 1937, little girls did pirouettes to Someday My Prince Will Come, while little boys marched to Whistle While You Work from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The movie was first perceived as Disney’s Folly because it was so expensive to produce but it became the biggest box-office grosser of the year. It is now unimaginable how much the film and all those characters and the music have earned.
Disney was no musician but he certainly had great taste in music and he made sure that the songs used in his films were of the best quality. Those efforts were often richly rewarded by the songs turning into big hits and in many cases also by important industry awards.
The first Disney tune to win the Academy Award for Best Song was When You Wish Upon a Star in 1940. It was composed by Leigh Harlene and Ned Washington for the movie Pinocchio, where it was performed by Cliff Edwards singing as Jiminy Cricket. It is a fact that not only has When You Wish Upon a Star become a favorite standard. It has also been a source of inspiration for many over the years.
The centennial celebration has been going on since November last year. It will now go into high gear starting Jan. 27 at Disneyland in Los Angeles, California, U.S. of A. Disney Parks all over the world will follow suit. There will be assorted events, exhibitions, film showings and lots of concerts. It will take several of those to get all Disney music from the past 100 years performed.
Expect to hear a lot of It’s a Small World after All, Baby Mine, the lullaby from Dumbo, Saludos Amigos, an early foray into the Latin market, Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah from Song of the South, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo from Cinderella, Chim-Chim-Cher-ee from Mary Poppins, Someone’s Waiting for You from The Rescuers, Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast.
And then, there are Whole New World from Aladdin, Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King, Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas, You’ve Got a Friend in Me from Toy Story, Go the Distance from Hercules, Into the Unknown from Frozen II, and many more magical music for this magical Disney year.