20,000 vinyl LPs 321: The Magical Music of Walt Disney

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The Magical Music of Walt Disney 4 vinyl LPs box set detail

detail photo of album cover by Styrous®

One hundred and twenty years ago today, on December 5, 1901, the most famous cartoon animator in the world, Walt Disney, was born. This is a tribute to Disney who besides being an animator, was an entrepreneur, writer, voice actor, and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.           

The Magical Music of Walt Disney 4 vinyl LPs box set 

photo of album cover by Styrous®

This is a collection of music from cartoons Disney created. The voice of Mickey Mouse, who appears on the cover of the album, was provided by Disney until 1947.              

The Magical Music of Walt Disney 4 vinyl LPs set box back  

photo of album cover by Styrous®

There are dozens, if not hundreds of great songs from the Disney films; how they managed to choose which ones they did is a miracle to me. The packaging for the set is beautiful. There was also a beautiful book issued at the same time and I wrote about it on the 90rh birthday of Micky Mouse three years ago (link below).    

By today's standards there are ethnic issues with many of the films but it was another time, another world and the wonderful music shines through.       

 

To start off, for sheer beauty and hope there is nothing like When You Wish Upon a Star from the film Pinocchio sung by Cliff Edwards as the character, Jiminy Cricket.                 

 

For introducing kids to the issues of life, Bambi is chock full of life realizations as when he meets Thumper who says, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." And the tragedy of the death of the mother of Bambi. There is beauty as well, as in the song, Little April Shower which is quietly bouncy and sung by a full chorus.          

He's a Tramp, sung by Peggy Lee in Lady & the Tramp, is a smooth and sensual jazz vocal that is Le Jazz Hot! She also sings the exotic Siamese Cat Song.           

 

Once Upon a Dream from the film Sleeping Beauty is sung by opera singers Mary Costa and Bill Shirley. Its lyrics were written by Jack Lawrence and Sammy Fain while the music is adapted by George Bruns. The song's melody is based on the Grande valse villageoise (nicknamed The Garland Waltz), from the 1890 ballet The Sleeping Beauty by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.      

 

Mary Poppins (1964) had the impossible to forget song, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! It also had the lovely Feed the Birds (although I do hate pigeons) written by Robert B. Sherman with lyrics by his brother Richard M. Sherman. Then there are a couple of dance segments, The Penguin Dance which had no vocal but a lot of silly dancing by Dick Van Dyke with animated Penguins; the other is Step In Time with a gaggle of chimney sweepers.            

Pete's Dragon has a lovely song, I love you Too,  the film stars Sean Marshall, Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, Jeff Conaway, Shelley Winters, and the voice of Charlie Callas as Elliott.           

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - Mickey Mouse Review Overture - 2:30
A2 - Steamboat Willie - 0:45
A3 - Mickey's Early Years - 7:52
A4 - Maestro Mickey Conducts - 11:50
A5 - Three Little Pigs  - 4:02

Side 2:

B1 - Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs - 10:23
B2 - Fantasia/Sorcerer's Apprentice - 9:11
B3 - Pinocchio - 9:31

Side 3:

C1 - Dumbo - 10:10
C2 - Bambi - 11:35
C3 - Animated Classics Of The 40's - 7:25

Side 4:

D1 - Song Of The South - 11:35
D2 - Cinderella - 9:35
D3 - Peter Pan - 7:00

Side 5:

E1 - Lady And The Tramp - 9:07
E2 - Sleeping Beauty - 10:20
E3 - The Vanishing Prairie - 5:37

Side 6:

F1 - The Later Animated Years - 12:58
F2 - The Rescuers - 8:55

Side 7:

G1 - Mary Poppins - 28:05

Side 8:

H1 - Pete's Dragon - 9:00
H2 - Live Music From The Magic Kingdoms - 9:45
H3 - Music Of The Magic Kingdom Attractions - 6:45
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Companies, etc.

    Manufactured By – Ovation Incorporated
    Distributed By – Ovation Incorporated
    Mastered At – Diskwerks
    Pressed By – PRC Recording Company, Richmond, IN

Credits:

    Mastered By – Gary Heddin
    Producer, Liner Notes – Dick Schory

Notes:

Comes with 52 full-color page book

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout (Side A, Label): OV 5000-1A
    Matrix / Runout (Side B, Label): OV 5000-1B
    Matrix / Runout (Side C, Label): OV 5000-2A
    Matrix / Runout (Side D, Label): OV 5000-2B
    Matrix / Runout (Side E, Label): OV 5000-3A
    Matrix / Runout (Side F, Label): OV 5000-3B
    Matrix / Runout (Side G, Label): OV 5000-4A
    Matrix / Runout (Side H, Label): OV 5000-4B
    Matrix / Runout (Side A Runout, etched; DISKWERKS is stamped): OV-5000-1 A-1-1-111 DISKWERKS PRC
    Matrix / Runout (Side B Runout, etched; DISKWERKS is stamped): OV-5000-1 B-1 DISKWERKS-1-11 PRC
    Matrix / Runout (Side C Runout, etched; DISKWERKS is stamped): OV-5000-2A-1 DISKWERKS-1-1 PRC
    Matrix / Runout (Side D Runout, etched; DISKWERKS is stamped): OV-5000-2B-2-1-1 RCII PRC DISKWERKS
    Matrix / Runout (Side E Runout, etched; DISKWERKS is stamped): OV-5000-3 A-1 DISKWERKS-1-1 PRC
    Matrix / Runout (Side F Runout, etched; DISKWERKS is stamped): OV-5000-3 B-1-1 DISKWERKS-11 PRC
    Matrix / Runout (Side G Runout, etched; DISKWERKS is stamped): OV-5000-4A-2-1-1 II PRC DISKWERKS
    Matrix / Runout (Side H Runout, etched; DISKWERKS is stamped): OV-5000-4 B-1 DISKWERKS-1-11 PRC
    Other (Catalog number on sleeve for record one): OV-5000-1
    Other (Catalog number on sleeve for record two): OV-5000-2
    Other (Catalog number on sleeve for record three): OV-5000-3
    Other (Catalog number on sleeve for record four): OV-5000-4

Various – The Magical Music Of Walt Disney
Label:    Ovation Records – OV5000, Ovation Records – OV 5000
Format:    4 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country: US
Released: 1978
Genre: Jazz, Classical, Children's, Stage & Screen

Viewfinder links:        

          

The Art of Walt Disney ~ Mickey turns 90 years old today        

Mary Costa          

Jim Dale           

Walt Disney           

Peggy Lee         

Mickey Mouse           

Mickey Rooney        

Carl Stalling          

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky          

Shelley Winters          

           

Net links:         

           

           

           

           

           

YouTube links:          

           

Bambi ~   

          Bambi Meets Thumper             

          Little April Shower      

Cinderella ~          

          Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo         

          A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes          

Dumbo ~    

          Pink Elephants on Parade            

          When I See an Elephant Fly           

Fantasia ~     

          The Sorcerer's Apprentice           

Lady And The Tramp ~             

          He's a Tramp         

          The Siamese Cat Song           

Mary Poppins ~           

              

          Feed The Birds         

          The Penguin Dance      

          Step In Time      

          Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious    

Peter Pan ~            

          A Pirate's Life        

          You Can Fly       

          You Must Never Smile at a Crocodile      

          What Makes The Red Man Red?     

Pete's Dragon ~ I love you Too         

Pinocchio - When You Wish Upon a Star           

Sleeping Beauty ~        

       Once Upon a Dream  

Song Of The South ~     

          How Do You Do?       

          Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah                 

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs ~           

          The Dwarfs' Yodel Song           

          Transformation scene     

Steamboat Willie          

Three Little Pigs          

           

           

           

           

           

 

Styrous® ~ Sunday, December 5, 2021   

    

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20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive 
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Ub Iwerks articles/mentions

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The Art of Walt Disney     

The Magical Music of Walt Disney           

Carl W. Stalling & Walt Disney     

     

     

     

     

Ub Iwerks

publicity photo

      

     

     

     

     

     

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Carl W. Stalling & Walt Disney

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Carl W. Stalling
date & photographer unknown

 

            

Carl W. Stalling was born a hundred and thirty years ago on November 10, 1891, in Lexington, Missouri. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts (links below) produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.         

 

Stalling met Walt Disney in the early twenties; In 1928, Disney was on a journey from California to New York City to record the sound and make the preview of Steamboat Willie, Disney's first released sound short. During the journey he stopped at Kansas City to hire Stalling to compose film scores for two other animated shorts. Stalling composed several early cartoon scores for Disney, including Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho in 1928 (but not Steamboat Willie, Disney's first released sound short). Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho were originally silent films and were the first two Mickey Mouse animated short films in production.  Disney hired Stalling as his studio's first music director.        

 

Animation historian Allan Neuwirth credits Stalling for basically inventing the process of creating a film score for cartoons. According to Strauss, the "wildly talented" Stalling was suitable as a film score composer for animated films. Stalling even voiced Mickey Mouse in The Karnival Kid in 1929.          

 

Stalling encouraged Disney to create a new series of animated short films, in which the animation and its action would be created to match the music. This was still unusual at the time, since film music was played or composed to match the action of a film. Stalling's discussions with Disney on whether the animation or the musical score should come first led to Disney creating the Silly Symphonies series (links below) of animated short films. Stalling is credited with both the composition and the musical arrangement of The Skeleton Dance (1929), the first of the Silly Symphonies.   

 

A great example of Stallings work is in The Haunted House (links below) in which Disney provided the voice of Mickey and Ub Iwerks was the primary animator.       

The Haunted House

Carl Stalling & Ub Iwerks

 

 

These cartoons allowed Stalling to create a score that Disney handed to his animators. The Silly Symphonies was an innovative animated film series, in which pre-recorded film scores were making use of well-known classical works and the animation sequences were choreographed to match the music. Stalling helped Disney streamline and update the sound process used in creating early animated sound films, following the long and laborious synchronization process used in Steamboat Willie. The close synchronization of music and on-screen movement pioneered by the Disney short films became known as Mickey Mousing.          

 

Stalling left Disney after two years, at the same time as animator Ub Iwerks. Stalling had completed the scoring of about 20 animated films for Disney. Stalling served as the music director of Iwerks' studio until the studio shut down in 1936. In 1936, when Leon Schlesinger, under contract to produce animated shorts for Warner Bros., hired Iwerks, Stalling went with him to become a full-time cartoon music composer. As music director Stalling became an integral member of the team producing two very successful animated series. The two animated series which Schlesinger produced for Warner Bros. were the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, both introduced in the early 1930s.         

 

 

Stalling served as music director for Warner Bros. for 22 years and is credited for the film score of over 600 animated films. He remained with them until he retired in 1958.           

 

Carl W. Stalling died in the Los Angeles area on November 29, 1972, nineteen days after his 81st birthday.           

 

In 1995 Warner Bros. Records released a two volume compilation of music from the Warner Bros. cartoons from 1939 to 1957; more on that in a future article.       

Carl W. Stalling ~ The Carl Stalling Project

 

         

        

Viewfinder links:       

        

Walt Disney         

Ub Iwerks             

Mickey Mouse        

Carl Stalling        

     

Net links:       

         

ABC.net ~ Meet the man that underscored your childhood        

AWM ~ Carl Stalling & Humor in Cartoons        

Cartoon Research ~ The Spooky Story of The Skeleton Dance         

Critics at Large ~ The American Absurdism of Carl Stalling          

Entertainment Junkie ~ Carl W. Stalling: The Man Behind the Tunes

michaelbarrier ~ Funnyworld Revisited         

Musician Guide ~ Carl Stalling        

Slate ~ The Mickey Mouse Genius        

     
YouTube links:       

        

Carl Stalling ~      

       The Haunted House (1929)       

       Silly Symphonies

       The Skeleton Dance (5 mins., 31 secs.)        

How Looney Tunes influenced a generation of composers (9 mins., 42 secs.)    

Merrie Melodies ~ Carl Stalling and Cartoon Music (documentary)   

        
        

        

         

 

        

        

        

        
        

        

Styrous® ~ Tuesday, November 16, 2021    

         

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Carl Stalling articles/mentions

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Carl W. Stalling & Walt Disney  

  

   

mentions:     

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Raymond Scott & his Electronium   

  

  

Carl Stalling

photographer unknown

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Raymond Scott articles/mentions

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Raymond Scott & his Electronium     

    

mentions:        

Leonard Bernstein ~ On the Town         

Ford 50th Anniversary Television Show  

Berry Gordy, Jr. ~ Motown & onward     

King Crimson & "Boz" Burrell    

     

     

     

Raymond Scott

photographer unknown

       

      
      

       

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 Music Notes 

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Raymond Scott & his Electronium

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Composer, bandleader and inventor Raymond Scott was among the unheralded pioneers of contemporary experimental music.

His music is familiar to millions because Carl Stalling adapted it in over 120 classic Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and other Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts.    

Of all of Scott's accomplishments, however, none was more important than the Electronium, one of the first synthesizers ever created in 1949. An "instantaneous composing machine," the Electronium generated original music via random sequences of tones, rhythms, and timbres; Scott himself denied it was a prototype synthesizer — it had no keyboard — but as one of the first machines to create music by means of artificial intelligence, its importance in pointing the way towards the electonic compositions of the future is undeniable. His other inventions included the "Karloff," an early sampler capable of recreating sounds ranging from sizzling steaks to jungle drums; the Clavinox, a keyboard Theremin complete with an electronic sub-assembly designed by a then 23-year-old Robert Moog; and the Videola, which fused together a keyboard and a TV screen to aid in composing music for films and other moving images.

Raymond Scott in his studio 

photographer unknown

Devo founding member Mark Mothersbaugh purchased Scott's only (non-functioning) Electronium in 1996, with the intention of restoring it to working order. In November 2012, the restoration team was able to get the Electronium running and producing basic sounds.        

Mark Mothersbaugh - 1996 

photographer unknown

Scott was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 10, 1908. His real name was Harry Warnow. His brother, Mark Warnow, a conductor, violinist, and musical director for the CBS radio program Your Hit Parade, encouraged his musical career.            

He was a 1931 graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied piano, theory and composition. Scott, under his birth name, began his professional career as a pianist for the CBS Radio house band. His older (by eight years) brother Mark conducted the orchestra. Harry reportedly adopted the pseudonym "Raymond Scott" to spare his brother charges of nepotism when the orchestra began performing the pianist's idiosyncratic compositions.     

In late 1936, Scott recruited a band from among his CBS colleagues, calling it the "Raymond Scott Quintette." It was a six-piece group, but Scott thought Quintette (his spelling) sounded "crisper"; he also told a reporter that he feared "calling it a 'sextet' might get your mind off music." The original sidemen were Pete Pumiglio (clarinet); Bunny Berigan (trumpet, soon replaced by Dave Wade); Louis Shoobe (upright bass); Dave Harris (tenor sax); and Johnny Williams (father of the film composer) on drums. They made their first recordings in New York on February 20, 1937, for the Master Records label, owned by music publisher/impresario Irving Mills (who was also the manager of Duke Ellington).            

The Quintette represented Scott's attempt to revitalize Swing music through tight, busy arrangements and reduced reliance on improvisation. He called this musical style "descriptive jazz," and gave his works unusual titles like New Year's Eve in a Haunted House, Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals (recorded by the Kronos Quartet in 1993), and Bumpy Weather Over Newark. There is a great video of his War Dance For Wooden Indians on YouTube (link below). While popular with the public, jazz critics disdained it as novelty music. Besides being a prominent figure in recording studios and on radio and concert stages, Scott wrote and was widely interviewed about his sometimes controversial music theories for the leading music publications of the day, including Down Beat, Metronome, and Billboard.        

After serving as CBS radio music director for a number of variety programs (such as Broadway Bandbox) from 1942 to 1944, Scott left the network to pursue other projects. He composed and arranged music (with lyrics by Bernie Hanighen) for the 1946 Broadway musical, Lute Song, which was based on the 14th-century Chinese play Tale of the Pipa (Pi-Pa-Ji) by Gao Ming, and starred Mary Martin and Yul Brynner. 

Mary Martin & Yul Brynner

Lute Song publicity still

In 1950 Scott composed his first—and only known—"serious" (classical) work, entitled Suite for Violin and Piano. The five-movement suite was performed at Carnegie Hall on February 7, 1950, by violinist Arnold Eidus and pianist Carlo Bussotti (link below).         

      

By the middle of the 1960s, Scott began turning increasingly away from recording and performing to focus on writing and inventing; a 1969 musical celebrating the centennial of Kentucky Bourbon was his last orchestral work, with his remaining years spent solely on electronic composition. Among his latter-day innovations was an early programmable polyphonic sequencer, which along with the Electronium later caught the attention of Motown chief Berry Gordy Jr., who in 1971 tapped Scott to head the label's electronic music research and development team. After retiring six years later, he continued writing — his last known piece, 1986's Beautiful Little Butterfly, was created on MIDI technology.          

During the second half of the 1960s, as his work progressed, Scott became increasingly isolated and secretive about his inventions and concepts; he gave few interviews, made no public presentations, and released no records. In 1966-67, Scott (under the screen credit "Ramond Scott") composed and recorded electronic music soundtracks for some early experimental films by Muppets impresario Jim Henson.         

In 1969, Motown Records impresario Berry Gordy, tipped off about a mad musical scientist engaged in mysterious works, visited Scott at his Long Island labs to witness the Electronium in action. Impressed by the infinite possibilities, Gordy hired Scott in 1971 to serve as director of the Motown electronic music and research department in Los Angeles, a position Scott held until 1977. No Motown recordings using Scott's electronic inventions have yet been publicly identified.  

Berry Gordy in Motown studio, 1960s 

photographer unknown

Largely forgotten by the public by the 1980s, Scott suffered a major stroke in 1987 that left him unable to work or engage in conversation. He died on February 8, 1994, in North Hills, Los Angeles, California; he was 85 years old. 

His legacy underwent a revival in the early 1990s after Irwin Chusid discovered a vast collection of unreleased recordings of rehearsals and studio sessions. In 1992, the release of Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights on Columbia produced by Irwin Chusid (with Hal Willner as executive producer) was the first major-label CD compilation of his groundbreaking 1937–39 six-man quintet. A year earlier, Irwin Chusid and Will Friedwald produced a CD of live Scott quintet broadcasts titled The Man Who Made Cartoons Swing for the Stash label. Around this time, the director of The Ren & Stimpy Show, John Kricfalusi, began hot-wiring his cartoon episodes with original Scott quintet recordings. In the late-1990s, The Beau Hunks (a Dutch ensemble originally formed to perform music created by Leroy Shield for the Laurel and Hardy movies) released two albums of Scott's sextet (a.k.a. "Quintette") repertoire, Celebration on the Planet Mars and Manhattan Minuet (both released on Basta Audio-Visuals).            

    
        
Viewfinder links:         
         
Duke Ellington   
King Crimson & "Boz" Burrell        
Kronos Quartet               
    
Net links:         
         
Raymond Scott website           
Raymond Scott blog           
Discography (LP and CD)         
NY times ~      
           Beethoven Sonata and Scott Novelty at Carnegie Hall       
Boing Boing ~ Raymond Scott: The First 100 Years          

University of Missouri ~ Raymond Scott Collection   
San Diego Reader ~    
          Carl Stalling & Raymond Scott: composers of Looney Tunes music
Weirdo Music ~ Raymond Scott: Soothing Sounds For Baby       
NY Times ~ Raymond Scott, 85, Composer For Cartoons and Stage, Dies    
        
YouTube links:         
         
Raymond Scott -       
            Twilight in Turkey   
            Cindy Electronium (1959)
            Ectoplasm (1957)
            Happy Birthday To You - 1940         
The Raymond Scott Quintette -      
            War Dance For Wooden Indians     
            Ali Baba Goes to Town - 1937   
            Suicide Cliff
            Manhattan Minuet - 1939          
Mark Mothersbaugh & Raymond Scott's Motown Electronium   
        
       
         
         
           
         
Styrous® ~ Saturday, March 24, 2018

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