Disney's Karaoke Series: Theme Park Favorites


Zarpman

Member
Found it for $9.88 at Wal-mart. This is amore exciting release to me than "Walt Disney Takes You to Disneyland" because that's been on CD before. For everyone who is skeptical about the newest release, the album art is really the only difference. The Wonderland Music version has an enlarged image of the original album label covering the disc, while the recent one mimicks the look of an actual vinyl record (grooves and all).

For the Karaoke disc, YES all of the tracks (except for "Heffalumps and Woozles" and "Remember When") are the original versions from the parks. The mixes are a little bit different than on the recent official albums, so for those of you who like the varieties in the songs (or for those completists who must have every version of the song), most tracks have some things in them that differentiate them from their Official Album/previous release counterparts:

It's a Small World (After All)
- Original World's Fair/Disneyland/Magic Kingdom/Tokyo Disneyland version of the song (thank God the lifeless Paris version is not on this release). Instrumental version has four cycles of the song, with only voices during the choruses. Vocal version has the voices during the verses as well. Interestingly enough, the second verse (just one moon and one golden sun... et al) is not present on either track.

There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow
- Original Disneyland version of the song. Instrumental includes background vocals on all cycles. Vocal version includes Rex Allen's leads. This is the same mix, without the load music and intro narration, that appears on the recent Disneyland Official Albums.

Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)
- Instrumental starts with splashdown and "dead men tell no tales" sound effects, and then followed by two cycles of the burning city music: once without any vocals, and the second with the entire Pirates' cast. The vocal version includes Thurl's solo performance on the first cycle.

Grim Grinning Ghosts
- Instrumental has two cycles of the graveyard music: once with the singing busts (without Thurl's lead vocals) and once without any vocals. The track ends with the exit music and Madame Leota snippets. The vocal version includes the full singing busts cycle and another cycle with several other graveyard ghosts performing.

Heffalumps and Woozles
- Re-recorded version. The very synthetic sounding voices used in this version make it sound cheesey. I'm sorry, but wouldn't something like "One Little Spark" been a much better choice for this spot? I know it's Disneyland's 50th, but I hate to see Walt Disney World always treated as the bastard step-child on merchandise releases such as this. (such as the older "Theme Park Sing-Along" release, or the "Music from the Park" album that was SUPPOSED to celebrate Walt Disney World's 25th Anniversary, but used pictures and music from Disneyland instead). Ho-hum.

Remember When
- Re-recorded version. Seems a little bottom-heavy to me, with too much emphasis on bass and not enough of the mid- to high-tones. I do prefer the LeAnn Rhimes version over this. Instrumental track has background vocals singing the chorus.

Bear Band Serenade
- The very same track from the recent Official Albums. The instrumental version is, to my knowledge, the very first time this track has been released officially, and is the hidden treasure of this release.

Ev'rybody Has a Laughing Place
- Instrumental is similar to the tracks found on Disneyland Forever, but there are splash down and laughter sound effects. Vocal version has Br'er Rabbit's track singing the melody.

All in all, it's cheap and hopefullt it's a trend we'll see continue. Perhaps we can see a volume 2 with stuff like "The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room" and "Golden Dream"? Randy, I see your name on here! Kudos for the release. Here's hoping we'll see s'more in the future!

As a side note, I've seen this album titles "Disney CARAFE Series: Theme Park Favorites" all over the Internet, but it's obviously the "Karaoke" series.
 

xfkirsten

Member
I picked up a copy at the park on Sunday, and had fun singing along on my way home! (hey, when you've been awake for 44 hours straight, you're easily amused...) Some of the song choices seemed a bit odd to me, but I too was love to see a second Disney theme park karaoke CD come out with even more. :)
 

schnebs

Member
Kudos from me, too, Randy and WDR-type folks. PLEASE consider a volume 2!!! (Now I can sing along without drowning out someone else's lead vocals... :p
 

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