Walt Disney Records

Walt Disney Records
Parent company Disney Music Group
(The Walt Disney Company)
Founded 1956 (1956)
Founder
Distributor(s) Universal Music Group[1]
Genre Various, predominantly on Pop and Soundtrack
Country of origin United States
Location 500 S. Buena Vista Street,
Burbank, California
Official website music.disney.com

Walt Disney Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label releases soundtrack albums from Disney's motion pictures, television series, theme parks, and traditional studio albums produced by its roster of pop, teen pop, and country artists.

The label was founded in 1956 as Disneyland Records. Before that time, Disney recordings were licensed to a variety of other labels such as RCA, Decca, Capitol, ABC-Paramount, and United Artists. It was Walt Disney’s brother Roy O. Disney who suggested that Walt Disney Productions (now the modern-day The Walt Disney Company) form their own record label. Roy enlisted longtime staffer Jimmy Johnson to head this new division. It adopted its current name in 1988.

History

Disneyland Record was conceived in 1954 for material from Davy Crockett miniseries on the Disneyland anthology television series. The "Ballad of Davy Crockett", along with three audio only episodes, were to be the initial material for the record company, but executive decide that they could not ramp up quickly enough. Instead the label was used for a licensed Columbia Records release of the Ballad to TV and radio stations in December 1954. With the record's success, they moved forward with the formation of the record company.[2]

Disneyland Records

Disneyland Records logo

The company was founded as Disneyland Records in 1956, serving as the recorded unit of Walt Disney Productions.[3] The Disneyland company issued its first (LP) album, A Child's Garden of Verses.[2][ChWDC 1] Jimmy Johnson brought in musician Tutti Camarata to head the Artists and repertoire of this new enterprise. In the first year, seven Disney animated movie soundtracks were issued by the company.[2]

Disneyland Records issued a Parker's "Wringle Wrangle" single from the Westward Ho the Wagons! film with in a year of starting operations; the single became a hit. This led the company to start recording music from outside the films. However, what ever was released by the company the industry categorized as children. Pricing was directed towards an adult audience, which was more than standard children fare. The only outside success was "Tutti's Trumpets". Thus in 1959, the Disneyland label became the children's label and Buena Vista label for the occasional pop song record.[2]

Camarata established the label's initial forays into long-form musical albums, which included jazz interpretations of Disney standards from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi, and Cinderella, as well as original musical concept albums, and he expanded the format of soundtracks by including selections from the score as well as the songs. Tutti's connections within the music industry also brought to the label the likes of Mary Martin, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, Jerry Colonna, and Phil Harris. It was also Tutti’s idea that the popular Mouseketeer, Annette Funicello, become the label’s first artist in residence. In 1959, the Buena Vista Records label was formed for Funicello's select recordings and for the release of soundtrack albums and other contemporary music.[4]

While looking for the right material for Annette, Tutti and his team discovered the songwriting duo of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman after hearing one of their songs on the radio. The two were brought to the Disney studio in Burbank where they eventually became the first staff songwriters for the company. They not only penned a good deal of Annette’s songs, but were also responsible for most of the iconic Disney songs of the 1960s and beyond – “It's a Small World” and “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room” for the theme parks, as well as the songs from Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, The Jungle Book, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day and Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

In 1960, Camarata left the company.[5] The dual label company started its read-along series in 1965.[6]

By 1971, Disneyland Records was also called Disneyland/Vista Records. Also, A Child's Garden of Verses was still in their line.[2] Disneyland/Vista worked with Rankin/Bass to release six recording tied to The Hobbit 1977 animated film as Rankin/Bass had Disneyland/Vista do soundtrack for two of their earlier holiday specials, Frosty's Winter Wonderland and ’Twas the Night Before Christmas.[6][7]

The company was successful with Mickey Mouse Disco album found Disneyland looking to expand again into pop music by October 1980. Plus lead to the issuance of an animated theatrical short version of the album. Two such original productions were "That Waddlin' Crazy Guy" and "Partners".[8]

Walt Disney Records

In 1988, Disneyland Records was renamed "Walt Disney Records". In addition to the Buena Vista label, the Disney Audio Entertainment (1990–1991), Disney Sound (2004–present) and Disney Pearl labels were established to delineate the many varied styles of recordings the company released. Today, Walt Disney Records' selection of products ranges from traditional studio albums and original soundtracks to audiobooks and karaoke albums. It releases music from Walt Disney Pictures' feature films, Lucasfilm's Star Wars franchise, Disney Channel Original Movies, Walt Disney Theatrical productions and other feature-length productions. It also releases the Disneymania and Radio Disney Jams albums while still keeping to its family-oriented representation by endorsing read-along albums for pre-schoolers and Disney music.

On June 24, 2014, Walt Disney Records started releasing The Legacy Collection. The series includes original soundtracks, as well as unreleased music, and composer and producer liner notes. The collection includes 14 albums ranging between various anniversaires of various Disney films and Disneyland.[9]

The Disneyland Records name is still occasionally used for certain retro-themed releases, such as the soundtrack to Up, or The Silly Symphony Collection box set of LP albums.

In December 2017, Disney announced the formation of D Cappella, a seven-member touring a cappella group singing music from Disney films.[10][11]

Albums

Notable soundtracks
Compilations
Album series

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Universal Music Group (UMG) & Disney Music Group (DMG) Expand Agreement Globally," PR Newswire, March 20, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Johnson, Jimmy (March 27, 1971). "The Disneyland Records Story". Billboard. p. D-2. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Studio Entertainment". Our Businesses. The Walt Disney Company. Archived from the original on March 12, 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  4. ↑ Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (March 16, 1959). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 26. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved July 26, 2013.
  5. ↑ Press, The Associated (April 19, 2005). "Salvador Camarata, 91, Music Arranger, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  6. 1 2 Ehrbar, Greg (December 17, 2013). ""The Hobbit" on Disneyland Records". Cartoon Research. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  7. ↑ Culhan, John. Will the Video Version of Tolkien Be Hobbit Forming? The New York Times, Nov 27, 1977.
  8. ↑ Sippel, John (October 25, 1980). "Disneyland Label going into Pop". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  9. 1 2 Grisham, Lori (May 7, 2014). "Walt Disney Records to release legacy collection". USA Today. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  10. ↑ Brian Alexander, "Meet The 14 Members Of Disney's New A Cappella Group, 'D Cappella'," collegeaca.com, January 26, 2018.
  11. ↑ John Frost, "'D Cappella' the newest a cappella sensation features Disney music," The Disney Blog, May 1, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Armin van Buuren, Avicii tapped for Disney remix album". Los Angeles Times. March 12, 2014. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  1. ↑ Smith, Dave (1998). Disney A to Z - The Updated Official Encyclopedia. p. 593.
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