Well, it seems that the Pooh Recordings were never cleared for record. I imagine that the reason is similar to why "101 Dalmatians" wasn't originally cleared - few songs. Obviously, I know that The Pooh Series has a number of songs, but most are transitionary story events, or gags. The Sherman's view them as 'song moments' - much like "Alice In Wonderland" (which also wasn't originally released as a soundtrack for the very same reasons). Without a releasable soundtrack, Tutti Camarata and Buddy Baker reproduced the songs and bits of score for the early storyteller albums. They even had the luxury of getting the real Pooh: Sterling Holloway. However, Paul Winchell didn't return.
We found out about the recording's status in 1987 when we began production on our first Greatest Hits CD - "The Disney Collection" Volumes 1 & 2. At that time, we were able to clear the original theme song. A year later, when (my Boss) Ted Kryczko was to produce "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" Storyteller CD, there was no way to finance the clearances. If this were to have been a soundtrack, it may have been different, but this was a storyteller where most of the music would be obscured, so it was difficult to justify the expense. Keep in mind this was 1988. CDs were new to us and we hadn't even done our first soundtrack CD ("Mary Poppins"). Adding to that, the original recordings are mono, and Ted was producing a whole new recording on the new CD Technology. So the mono recordings wouldn't have worked well anyway. But Ted is quite fond of Pooh, and he wanted to faithfully recreate the story. So he decided to pull the original orchestrations and re-record sections of the score and all of the songs. These musicians played off the very same manuscripts that the original musicians had. To me, they sound fantastic. I had the opportunity to play these recordings for Buddy, and he loved them.
Ted asked Sterling to record, but he was extremely ill and was unable to participate. Also, at the time, Paul Winchell was in dispute with Disney (about Tigger in fact), and he too was unavailable. That was even more unfortunate (in my opinion) than not being able to record Sterling. Jim Cummings' Pooh works well enough, but Paul Winchell had an even more distinctive sound than Sterling, and I have yet to hear someone even come close to Paul (I was also a big fan of the original "Jerry Mahoney Show", so there may be bias). Mr. Cabot had already passed away, so Ted was able to get Christopher Plummer to narrate, and it just turned out great.
Since that time, I've never had the opportunity to recommend a soundtrack release. Partly because there was Pooh Saturation for quite some time, and I really didn't want to add to it. Also, with these clean stereo recordings, it's harder for me to prove the necessity of going back to restore the original mono. You and I know the importance and the significance of the original, but I'm sure you can see how some (without our passion) can see the folly.
The new recordings were an actual benefit for Ted's production. I don't think the CD would have sounded as good with the original. However, because we now had these great new stereo tracks, Ted and I have never been able to get back to the originals. I have to admit though, Pooh probably wouldn't be high on my priority list for a soundtrack. Only because there too many yet unrestored soundtracks that never had the exposure of even one Pooh song (particularly recently).
That whole thing back in 87 was a lessoned learned for me. It's from situations like this, that I will hold off on releasing something until I can make sure I can release it the way it's supposed to be. Be careful with what you release, it may prevent you from what you really want later on. That's one of the reasons it took 10 years to get "20,000 Leagues" done.
Probably more than you cared to know, but that's the story.
Randy
