The Smiley Smile Message Board

Just got back from Walt Disney World so I figured I'd start this up in advance. No limitations here. Can be any Disney song. Some of my ideas:

You Can Fly, You Can Fly, You Can Fly-Absolute must. The harmonies in this song are out of this world especially near the end.

When You Wish Upon a Star-Isn't this obvious?  ;D

Baby Mine-Another one lot of us have talked upon. Another song that fits Brian's style.

A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes-Don't know why...I think Brian can do a lot with this song in particular.

Cruella De Ville-Because there's some Roger Radcliffe in Bri  :)

That's What Friends Are For-No, not Dionne Warwick, the song the Buzzards sing in "The Jungle Book"

Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat-I could see Brian doing Thomas O'Malley Cat too but the former may fit better.

When Your the Best of Friends-Another absolute must for Brian. Great Pearl Bailey tune.

Under the Sea-Another must. I can see the whole band really getting into this one.

Be Our Guest-Just to see what Brian does to the amazing tempo changes at the end (course...by...course, etc...)

A Whole New World-I'm sure this one is a slam dunk to be on the album.

This is all I can think off for now. I'm torn on what Lion King track he should do (Circle of Life, Hakuna Matata and Can't You Feel the Love Tonight are ALL awesome choices)

Definitely The Bare Necessities! A classic tune, and it has a Van Dyke Parks connection! Just a great song I think
would be a great fit.

How does Bare Necessities have a Van Dyke connection?

Also, I'd like to see Brian do the little known number from the Finding Nemo musical (In the Big Blue World.) Would make a nice closer.

VDP arranged it if I'm not mistaken

Brian's Disney album needs these at the bare minimum -

Best of Friends (The Fox and the Hound)
I Will Go Sailing No More (Toy Story)
Rumbly In My Tumbly (The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh)
Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)
The Unbirthday Song (Alice in Wonderland)
Poor Unfortunate Souls (The Little Mermaid)
Whistle While You Work (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
Baby Mine (Dumbo)
The UNCENSORED Arabian Nights (Aladdin)
Let's Go Fly A Kite (Mary Poppins)
You've Got A Friend In Me (Toy Story)
When She Loved Me (Toy Story 2)
One Jump Ahead (Aladdin)
Prince Ali (Aladdin)
Friend Like Me (Aladdin)
Heigh Ho (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (Mary Poppins)
The Bare Necessities (The Jungle Book)
Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag) (Mary Poppins)
Chim Chim Cher-ee (Mary Poppins)
Hakuna Matata (The Lion King) - this one HAS to be a duet with Michael
Can You Feel the Love Tonight? (The Lion King)
Kiss the Girl (The Little Mermaid)
Be Our Guest (Beauty and the Beast)
Under the Sea (The Little Mermaid)
Part of Your World (The Little Mermaid)
When You Wish Upon a Star (Pinocchio)

Ok, so it's a long list. But I don't think the songs get much better than these.

"The Second Star To The Right" could be beautiful with the harmonies.

A 2010 update of "The Monkey's Uncle" with Annette! :lol

Maybe for bonus tracks, "Surfer Girl" and "When You Wish Upon A Star" sung with switched lyrics, just to show how the meters match up.

Old stuff.  The new stuff's sappy.

My understanding is they will be classic Disney tracks... and please, if Brian's going to cover any Elton songs, I'd rather he do some decent ones.

Surely "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" counts as classic? And considering the wildly popular recording Spector produced (Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, 1962, Billboard #8)... well, Brian probably already has resigned himself to better it! Or at leas I hope so!

I've cast my vote for the following:

When You Wish Upon A Star (with the "Surfer Girl" middle eight)
Little April Showers
When I See An Elephant Fly
Feed The Birds
Bella Notte
Following The Leader
Monkey's Uncle  ;D
Bear Necessities
He's A Tramp
Ballad Of Davey Crockett
Ugly Bug Ball
Heigh Ho

'Everybody Wants to Be a Cat'  :hat

My favorite as well.

"Someday My Prince Will Come" is tricky in the gender department but a beautiful song nonetheless.

Nelson Eddy, in the '40's if I recall correctly,  in a Disney short called Make Mine Music, did a version of Shortnin' Bread...

Sounds kind of negative, but I'd rather hear originals over covers out of a guy who spent almost two decades of his youth doing drugs, has a history of mental illness and clinical depression (very hard on the body), is pre-diabetic and is approaching 70. He doesn't have all the time in the world, really.

No tricky - Brian just did "I Loves You Porgy" without altering the lyric.  ;D

How 'bout "Pink Elephants On Parade," or "Cruella DeVille"?

... "Castle in Spain," "I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song)," "I Wonder," "Stay Awake," "Blue Shadows On the Trail," "I'm Wishing" ...

Brian must do this song. He must. It's from the Disney Channel cable network in the 80s -- but before you judge, just listen. And then ask yourself if it doesn't already sound like the long-lost twin to Saturday Morning in the City.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APTOz1PwUcY

Phony King of England (Robin Hood)
Hoo Da Lolly (Robin Hood)
Every Town Has Its Ups and Downs (Robin Hood)
I Wanna Be Like You (Jungle Book)
Kill The Beast (Beauty and the Beast)
Guestav (Beauty and the Beast)
Hakuna Matata (Lion King)
Cruella Deville (101 Dals.)
You're Only Second Rate (Return of Jafar)

Is it just me, or is everyone forgetting about Robin Hood??

I already mentioned those 2.

"I'm Wishing" from Snow White.

"The Perfect Nanny" from Mary Poppins.

"Little April Showers" from Bambi.

Some favorites.

My two cents

"I'm Wishing"
"Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"
"Little April Showers"
"I Wanna Be Like You"
"Bella Notte"
"Under The Sea"
"The Bare Necessities"
"Kiss The Girl"
"A Whole New World" (duet with Taylor)
"The Monkey's Uncle" (with Taylor doing Annette's part)
"A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes"
"When You Wish Upon A Star"

f*** that noise, i don't think I'd buy it if he did 'A Whole New World'. Such a terrible song.

Apart from that, i'd like to see 'I Wanna Be Like You', 'Feed The Birds', and 'April Showers' and 'Zippee De Doo Dah' (Although he's got Nilsson to beat on that last one though).

Blue Shadows is from The Three Amigos, isn't it? Unless I'm missing something  ???

Most of AGD's suggestions are classy too, especially 'Now I've Seen An Elephant Fly'. Absolutely love that one. 'Baby of Mine' too from Dumbo.

It would be really interesting if he did some of the Randy Newman Disney stuff too - The one in the middle of Toy Story 2 is good, even if the name escapes me.

Again, my impression is that only 'classic' Disney - that is, up to and including the 60s - will be considered. Could be wrong of course.

"Blue Shadows On the Trail" is from Melody Time.

i'd hazard it'll only be songs Brian is familiar with.  so the 90's songs might/prob wont' make it.  unless his kiddies watch em a lot.  but then i'd bet his fav are the "classic" disney. 

But I so hope you're right!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-jOOFw-ITA this? That's a real nice song. Probably not a likely candidate for the album as it's not 'classic' Disney, sadly.

No covers of Elton John and Phil Collins then? Damn shame!!  ::) ::) ::)

They'll probably all be in English, but it would be great if he did some songs in other languages: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7tQTe32L4I

Don't forget that Spector did a version that did decent on the charts. That's all the more reason that I think Brian will cover it. Other ideas:

Brian should do "The Walrus and the Carpenter" as a duet with Paul McCartney. "Heigh-ho" from Snow White would make a good opener/reprise, as Brian always has to have one now (personally, I'm getting a little sick of that, but whatever). The percussion and harmonies are so Brian. Also, a music video has to be done for "Bare Necessities", with Brian as Baloo and Darian as Mowgli. "Everybody Wants To Be A Cat" would be a fun cover too, even if just an instrumental. As for more modern songs, the Elton John connection points toward Brian doing "Circle of Life", I think. Or maybe the Randy Newman connection means he'll do "You Got a Friend in Me".  Brian likes songs about friendship.

What Randy Newman connection does Brian have? I thought he just listened to Sail Away obsessively when he was in Holland nursing his depression? Did he ever work with him or meet him or anything? (I know Newman confessed that, despite including them in a litany of superficial things about L.A. in "I Love L.A.", he did actually like them, if that's what you mean.)

Please, someone explain to me this incessant desire for Brian to do anything with Macca except avoid him completely. They're almost exactly the same age, they both play(ed) bass, they were both in reasonably successful bands and wrote the odd good choon - sorry, not reason enough, and anyway, they tried it once and it was totally embarrassing on any level you care to mention.

I only suggested "The Walrus and the Carpenter" because I thought it would be humorous for those two to sing it in earnest, especially with the loopy arrangement the song would suggest. After all of the "I am the Walrus" hubbub and 60s acid messiah rock star nonsense, it would be great for those two legends two play around with those mythos. It's the exact kind of daring, I think, that Brian's camp has lacked. It was a mistake to have Paul collaborate with Brian on that Hallmark commercial of a song otherwise known as "A Friend Like You". It was way too safe. I think this would make sense. But that's just me.

As for the Wilson/Newman connection... you're right O, there isn't much of a connection besides Sail Away. In fact, a quick search brought up this:

KP: Did you see Brian Wilson much during those days [mid-60s] in Los Angeles?

NEWMAN: Very seldom. I’d see Van Dyke Parks, Ry Cooder, Don Henley - but I had a family and wasn’t really part of the scene, or the Troubadour thing.

I know Brian liked Harry Nilsson a lot, and I imagine that he was a fan of Nilsson Sings Newman (wasn't Brian Wilson Reimagines Gerswhin originally going to be titled Wilson Sings Gerswhin?). Besides all of that, "Friend Like You" just sounds like a song Brian would like and it would help give the album a slightly more contemporary edge. The song was still referenced in Toy Story 3.

Actually, I take some of that back... "A Friend Like You" makes me feel surprisingly nostalgic. Still, it was meaningless to include Paul on it.

I'd love to hear the song played in the spirit of 'I Am The Walrus' (as you mentioned before) and I think McCartney's voice would be perfect for it - singing in a whimsical style.

I'm not too keen on this new project, but after hearing the samples of BWRG I really can't wait to see what he does with these old Disney tunes.

Van Dyke produced and arranged most of Randy Newman's debut album. Randy wrote "Vine St" for the "Song Cycle" record. They were both on Lenny Warnker's  Warner Bros Label at the time I believe. Maybe Brian crossed paths with him through Van once or twice??

Oh, yeah, that kinda thing. I thought you meant something other than that, sorry. (This also means that Brian has a connection with Ry Cooder, since both Van Dyke and Newman both played on a number of Cooder's `70s albums. I guess we don't know what Ry thinks of Brian though. :lol)

A little OT, but for some reason I could've sworn that Toy Story 3 originally came out in 2000.

He played live with him too... There's this footage which always make me giggle on youtube because Ry's band are dressed like gruff, hardworking authentic bluesmen, only for Van Dyke to sit at his piano in a suit and bowtie  :lol