Thursday, April 20, 2006

Disney covered

Today, one of my favourite cover song subdivisions: Disney cover songs. Hopefully SaveFile isn't so screwy this time, 'cause I can't find a better alternative.

Disney Records puts out a series of cover albums called Disneymania, which as you'd expect contain a lot of fluffy pop versions by what I assume to be Disney Channel regulars. Yet I have to admit that a couple of the tunes have their charm, particularly Daniel Bedingfield's crooning of A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes-- kudos for revving up into a Bobby Darin-esque big band number. Bowling For Soup's cover of Bare Necessities also makes me smile because they even include the part in the original when Mowgli says "Yeah man!" in the last chorus.

Daniel Bedingfield - A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes [originally from Cinderella]
Bowling for Soup - The Bare Necessities [originally from the Jungle Book]

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - I Wanna Be Like You [originally from The Jungle Book]
Having Louis Prima as King Louis was pure genius at the time and led to one of the most memorable Disney songs.

Michelle Shocked - Everybody Wants to Be a Cat [originally from The Aristocats]
It's cool that there are a couple covers of this song out there, but nothing can come close to matching the alley cat jazz swing feel of the original. Plus, in the cover versions everyone leaves out the best part: when the cats kick it up a notch and all start jamming, shouting, "Everybody...Everybody... EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A CAT, HALLELUJAH!"... etc. Man, I want to be a cat. This is from Michelle Shocked's whole album of Disney covers called Got No Strings.

4106 , Yuki, TDC, and Masa (Spoony) - Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo [from Cinderella]
An unexpectedly great cover that takes the original into uncharted territories. Sounds like Puffy AmiYumi on crack. From a Japan-exclusive Disney cover album featuring punk/rock bands (Japanese and otherwise). To my knowledge, there are two albums in the series: Dive Into Disney and Mosh Pit on Disney. Here's a review/article on the latter.

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