The Sound of (Park) Music

Let the music begin

Have you ever entered the Park and just stood in awe at how detailed it is? From the Cast Members' costumes to the buildings surrounding you, everything is planned to fit together.  Even the background music fits in perfectly.  Just one of the many surprises that the Park has in store for you.

Almost every time we head over to the Park, we listen to Disneyland Resort Discography.  It hit me the other day that some of the songs on the CD I wasn't readily familiar with, and there were plenty of songs playing in the Park that weren't on our CDs.  So where did they come from?  Well, we found the solution (it wasn't hard to find, but it still made us feel good about ourselves) while making our way through the famous entrance tunnels into Main Street, U.S.A.  We heard some very familiar sounds from the CD, and it hit us, there's always more to the Park than meets the eye (quite literally sometimes).

We love hearing the song "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello, Dolly! (and Wall-E, of course) playing in the background throughout Main Street.  Making our way down to the castle and into Fantasyland, the tone of the music changes entirely.  King Arthur Carousel might as well be one giant calliope boom box.  You can hear famous Disney Princess music played, such as "Once Upon A Dream" from Sleeping Beauty (and many others) as it goes around and around.  Even heading towards the Matterhorn you can hear music coming from the Mad Tea Party; Alice In Wonderland tinged, of course.

Since we're heading towards the Matterhorn, let's keep going into Tomorrowland, where the sounds of space and science fiction movies can be heard.  They love music so much here they even have a stage for it where bands can be seen and heard on any given weekend.  While we're here, let's grab a Rocket Rod (couldn't resist) and shoot on over to the other side of the Park.

Where John Williams and Rock-a-billy collide

"How Do Ya Do?" can be heard over at Critter Country, evoking images of Brer Rabbit and his laughing place (and giving us an insane desire to climb on that blasted Splash Mountain just one more time), along with the many tunes of Winnie the Pooh ("Heffalumps and Woozles," anyone?) coming in every once in a while.  As you make your way down to New Orleans Square, you'll notice some of that 'good ole Jazz' music being played to set the mood while you stroll through the shops; it just makes you want to snap your fingers!

What about one of the wildest portions of the Park, Adventureland?  Music from the infamous Tarzan's Treehouse (infamous to us; let's not get into that tree too much, our legs hurt just thinking about it), Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, and the "Garden Show" from The Enchanted Tiki Room all vie for space inside your eardrums.

My name is Rongo...

Let's take a detour and say, "Howdy!" to Frontierland.  Classic western music is, of course, the theme here, and every once in a while you may get a real treat and hear the theme song from Blazing Saddles, as well as music from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and from The Golden Horseshoe Revue.  Had enough?  Head on around the "wildest ride in the wilderness" and you'll find yourself on your way back to Fantasyland; we've already been here so just keep going until you hit Mickey's Toontown, where the many whacky and zany sounds of Disney cartoons like Steamboat Willie and Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin can be heard all around.

"This here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!"

We've said before (this week in fact!) that's it all in the little details, but we love our Park music and sounds.  We can't help but smile when our cell phones go off in the Park (featuring Park ringtones, of course) and we see people looking around to see where the sound is coming from.  We're so infatuated with the sounds of the Park even our phones play Park tunes! 

Sometimes we get so caught up in the visual magic of the Park that we let the audible kind pass us by.  So, the next time you're visiting, take a minute to close your eyes and give a listen.  We didn't list every 'Sound Hot Spot' because we want you to find some of the Park magic for yourself. You never know what you might discover.

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DitP Music: A Musical History Of Disneyland

We wrote an article a month or so ago about the music we listened to as we are on our way out to The Park, and about how we think that our trips into The Park are very much defined by the music we hear while we are there.  We got a lot of good comments about our selection and playlist, but we've been looking for an opportunity to expand on that post for a while now, and the opportunity presented itself a couple of weeks ago when a certain item arrived in our mailbox.  But the process that got us to this point actually started way back in the beginning around the same time we wrote our original article.

Around the time we began publishing articles on Days In The Park, and around the time we began actually communicating with others on Twitter, we began to follow and be followed by Chris Reid (Twitter @CosmicReid).  At the time, my view of Disney music was still pretty narrowly tied into what I had on CD myself, what I knew from the movies and cartoons, and what I actually heard while we at The Parks; not much else.  I knew how important it is, and it was easy to say how important it is, but it was still a pretty narrow view regardless.  That is, until I started paying attention to what Chris was tweeting.  I found out that he was the proprietor of a little site himself called 'Cosmic Reid's Starlight Cafe'.  I decided to give it a look see and found out that on Mondays he was the host of a radio show on 'Magical Mouse Radio'.  Once again, my narrow view shamed me.  I had no clue that there were radio stations on the internet whose sole purpose was to bring Disney music to the masses.  And not just music from the movies, either, but honest to goodness music from The Parks; both The Land and The World.

I waited for a Monday when I knew I'd be in my bedroom (where the PC is) wrestling with laundry or some other such inane project and tuned in to see just what the show was about.  The only way I could describe it was wonderment.  Chris had me at Haunted Mansion Holiday.  I couldn't believe I was sitting in my bedroom listening to the actual ride soundtrack (you're probaby dying of laughter at me and my ignorance at this point).  I inhaled the show (and the repeat later; I wanted to hear Haunted Mansion again) and listened to 'Magical Mouse' off and on the rest of the week until the 'Starlight Cafe' came on again the next week, where Chris again floored me with the ride soundtrack/medley for my other favorite ride, Splash Mountain.  My mission was clear.  As much as I enjoyed listening to the 'Starlight' every week (and I still do whenever I can) I needed to have this music for myself.  Little did I know how easy it would be.

It still took a few weeks until I remembered I was supposed to be on the hunt.  But a couple of weeks ago I was sitting on the computer listening to a podcast (probably Tales From The Mouse House) which featured some music from California Adventure when I remembered.  I immediately pulled up my browser, went to Amazon, typed in "music from disneyland" and there it was, the first item returned:  'A Musical History of Disneyland'.  I'm not quite sure exactly what happened next, but two days later a package arrived at my door and the set was inside.  I can only assume I clicked the Buy button on the website.  I don't even remember thinking about it, but I'm sure if I had the result would have been the same. 

For anyone living in the darkness as I was, 'A Musical History of Disneyland' is a six CD set, originally released in 2005 for the 50th Anniversary celebration at Disneyland Park, that is just what it claims to be, a musical history of The Park.  Over the course of the 6-CDs the music carries you through every land in The Park, starting on Main Street and Walt's dedication of The Park all the way through Tomorrowland and Space Mountain, and is wrapped up in a neat little package on Disc 6 which contains "special" music from around The Park including Fantasmic!, the Main Street Electrical Parade (no longer there), and of course, the one that started this whole thing for me, Haunted Mansion Holiday. 

It is absolutely fantastic in its cumulative inclusion of almost everything you could want from The Park.  Want to hear Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln?  There.  The entire Enchanted Tiki Room show?  There.  The original Pirates of the Caribbean?  There.  The flippin' People Mover'?  There.  This could go on all day.  I won't give you a complete rundown of everything here, you can find a link for that here, but I can say this without hesitation:  if it's Disneyland, and you can think of it, it's probably here in some shape or form (my wife's favorite is The Country Bear Jamboree; the smile she had listening to it was priceless).  It's a whopping 8 hours of Disneyland goodness, both past and present, in digital form that you simply can't go wrong with. 

And as if that's not enough, it also includes an absolutely beautiful book that traces the musical history of The Park right alongside the CDs with tons of gorgeous pictures and writing.  It's absolutely amazing!

About the only possible "con" we could think of is that it's only Disneyland Park, and not Disney California Adventure.  Easily fixed, however, as a subsequent visit to "Off The Page" in The Hollywood Backlot yielded this little beauty:  the "Official Album of the Disneyland Resort".  Whatever gaps may have existed prior, consider them filled.  We can now listen to 'California Screamin' and 'Soarin' Over California' just as easily as anything else.  And at roughly 10 hours of music (between all 8 CDs), we figure we can easily make 20 or so trips out to The Park and rarely hear the same song twice.  Vunderbar!

I owe a huge thanks to 'Cosmic Reid's Starlight Cafe'.  It might seem a simple thing to others, but Chris' show and its music truly lit a fire in me to make these tunes a part of my own musical collection and to a large extent, my everyday life.  I couldn't be more grateful.  Sitting on my sofa and listening to the "Remember... Dreams Come True" fireworks show with my children and remembering the first time we ever saw it together is something that simply has no price-tag attached to it, and it all began with his radio show.

If you'd like to listen to the 'Cafe' yourself, you can find out all about the show (and 'Magical Mouse Radio') at the 'Cosmic Reid's Starlight Cafe' website, or follow Chris on Twitter @CosmicReid.  And you can catch his show live every Monday at 10am (PST) - 1pm (EST).

The Music Of The Park Begins At Home

We're going to make an assumption here.  Yes, yes, we know the old saying about assumptions (and what they do to both you and me), but we're going to take a ride on the wild side here and do it anyways.

The assumption is this:  Most people would agree that a large part of what makes Disney so special, and not just Disneyland, but all of the resorts under the Disney umbrella, is the music.

There's just no way that Disneyland would be what it is without the music. Even excluding the movies, which is pretty much impossible to do since the two are tied so closely together, the music around Disneyland Park (and California Adventure) makes The Park what it is; adds that extra Zip (in the Doo Dah) if you will.

As brain-seizure inducing as it is, can you imagine It's A Small World without (*shudder*) that song?  What about Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room with no singing birds?  The Haunted Mansion without socializing ghosts?  The list is endless.  These songs, like them or not, are a synonymous and inseparable aspect of anyone's days spent in The Parks.

But again, we're going to make an assumption.  

This ones goes something like this:  If you're a fan of The Parks, the music doesn't start in The Park, but as early as on your way to The Park. 

Anytime, and I mean anytime we have a day where Disneyland Resort is on the menu, the instant our tuckus are planted in our car seats, the music begins.  And in fact, for the most part, the CD never leaves the player anyways.  It's usually there waiting for us.

For your perusal, our current playlist looks something like this:

1. Hoist The Colours - Pirates of the Caribbean
2. Skull And Crossbones - Pirates of the Caribbean
3. Why Is The Rum Gone? - An insane mash-up of Pirates dialogue and song
4. The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room - Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room
5. The Bare Necessities - The Jungle Book
6. I Wan'na Be Like You - The Jungle Book
7. Under The Sea - The Little Mermaid
8. Kiss The Girl - The Little Mermaid
9. Be Our Guest - Beauty and the Beast
10. Beauty And The Beast - Beauty and the Beast
11. The Bells of Notre Dame - The Hunchback of Notre Dame
12. A Whole New World - Aladdin
13. Circle Of Life - The Lion King
14. Hakuna Matata - The Lion King
15. Go The Distance - Hercules
16. I Won't Say [I'm In Love] - Hercules
17. I'll Make A Man Out Of You - Mulan
18. It's A Small World - It's A Small World
19. Little April Shower - Bambi
20. Mickey Mouse March - Mickey Mouse Club
21. Strangers Like Me - Tarzan
22. Heigh-Ho - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 

Phew!  Sorry about that.  It really was our intention to only post a few, but we did the whole CD instead.  Couldn't help ourselves!  But like us, we're sure you have your favorites, too!  I'm sure we left many out that were definitely worthy of inclusion.  But the bottom line is the kids love it!  So much fun to hear, and see, them singing along in the back seat.

And we're constantly discovering new and interesting tunes from all over the place, even in places where we'd least expect to.  A fantastic part of blogging is all of the wonderful Disney friends you make.  Last week, we stumbled upon a great Disney blog, Rays Of Disneyland, and found this awesome song by 'Five for Fighting', most appropriately called Disneyland.  It's safe to say this immediately became prime material for our playlist.  Simply amazing!  Who wouldn't want to listen to this on their way to The Park?



Whatever the case may be, and whichever songs you might choose, the music of Disney can make the entire trip, and not just a portion of it, both magical and musical.

What about you guys?  What are some of the songs you like to listen to on your way to The Park?  Any suggestions for us?  We'd love to hear from you!