I Heart Randy Thornton


So recently I was on a long car ride and suddenly got in the mood to listen to some Disney music. Luckily, I had my park albums along, ranging from the 91 CD to the one before the current issue. I wound up listening to them in order.

What I came away with was a great appreciation of what Randy and his crew has done for us as WDW music fans.

The 1991 Album will stay in my esteem because it gave a wide sampling of music, and was the last gasp for so many great tracks that aren't around anymore. But it was put together with little sense of coherency or aural quality.

The later releases just get better and better. Listening to them in sequence only gives you a sense of the progress. Corners that had to be cut due to what he was given to work with were rectified on subsequent releases. It's an amazingly noticable progression, especially since the music in the attractions themselves were only dropping in quality during the period. Great songs were lost and replaced with not-so-great songs or nothing at all. Yet the albums improved.

And then I come on here and find that WDW is destined for a multi-CD soundtrack. That's great news. Really great news. Thanks for fighting for that.

My only hope would be that now that the current classics (Pirates, Mansion, Splash) have been nailed down with a perfect album cut, attention can be turned to extinct tunes and have them be brought back to life with the sonic clarity that they missed out on before.

Maybe we can also see a return to recordings of live acts in the park that added so much atmosphere to the old vinyl soundtracks.

Anyway, I'm glad to see the man is still around and fighting, and I really look forward to what's next.

Mikl
 

Dr. Know

Member
I doubt that we will ever see "extinct" tunes on the current OA... we can only hope that some of them will be made available again when the Wonderland music-on-demand system returns to WDW. I also think that the OA's have improved in subtle ways over the years, but have been generally disappointed in recent years with the lack of new music. It is especially frustrating that some of the great orchestral scores that are heard throughout the parks are so poorly represented on the OAs. I'm thinking here specifically of HISTA, Ellen's Energy Adventure, and the current Epcot entrance medley. Here's hoping for some great new material on the 2004 album.
 

micca

Member
I concur that Randy Thornton is doing a great job. I would guess that it is sometimes a struggle to survive and thrive in his position. I hope he continues to do both :)
 

Dr. Know

Member
Here's the scoop on the new OA, from the thread "2004 Walt Disney World Official Album -- Longest Yet!" in the wdwmagic.com forums. "Grandmath" wrote to Mr. Thornton and got the following details:

"The 2004 edition of the WDW Official album should be out in a matter of weeks. The artwork is in it's final phases before going off to be printed.

There are six new tracks. They are:

"Main Street Medley" - a recording of the Magic Kingdom's opening performance on Main Street
"The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" - a musical ride-thru of the new attraction
"Destiny" - the exit song from Mission Space
"Star Tours" - the music from the attraction with a different intro than what appears on the Disneyland Official Album
"Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular" - the music from the stunt show
"Cinderella's Surprise Celebration" - with the fireworks show "Wishes" having it's own CD, I included this show soundtrack.

This edition is has the longest playing time of any official album we have released to date - clocking in at 1 hour 17 minutes 21 seconds. If all goes as planned, this will be the last edition that is a single disc. It is our intention to make the WDW album a 2 disc set, so that we may better represent all four parks."
 
THANK YOU, RANDY! :D

I will definitely pick a copy of this up.

I wasn't all to impressed with Destiny, the Mission Space song. I think even the new One Little
 
THANK YOU, RANDY! :D

I will definitely pick a copy of this up.

I wasn't all to impressed with Destiny, the Mission Space "song." I think even the new One Little Spark would have been more appropriate.

However, the other tracks are most intriguing - especially Main Street and Winnie the Pooh.

Can't wait, Mr. Thornton! :D :D :D
 

xfkirsten

Member
That's wonderful! Even though I'm over on the left coast now, I'll definitely be ordering a copy of this CD!

The track I'm curious about, though, is the Cinderella's Surprise Celebration one. Is it going to be the same as one of the versions on the rehearsal CD? Or will it actually have Cindy's spoken parts included?

-Kirsten
 

Dirk

Member
Hey there, Hi there, Ho there,

sounds really good if compared to the amount of new material on the recent new OA-releases ... it will also be interesting where Randy placed the songs on the CD ... in the past the MK fireworks track was the grand finale of the CD (as it was also the finale of a day in the park), so what is in its place now? Maybe Cinderella's Surprise Celebration??


>>
"Main Street Medley" - a recording of the Magic Kingdom's opening performance on Main Street
>
"The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" - a musical ride-thru of the new attraction
 

WishesFan

Member
I think "Kiss Goodnight" from the closing ceremony at MK would be a good finale. From what I hear, it is quite an experience. What do you think?

-Rick
 

Jessica L

Member
Will Test Track go for it??


Please please!! I'm sorry - but I hate that Test Track Medley. This is in no way a reflection of Mr. Thornton's work (which I HIGHLY admire, and thank him for everything he's done!). But I personally do not enjoy this attraction and that song grates on my nerves.

But maybe it's just me... :-

~Jessica
 

Jessica L

Member
Actually - I'd take Small World over the Test Track Medley! :eek: :)

~Jessica
 

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