Question for Randy about Winnie the Pooh


Gurgitoy2

Active Member
Hey, Randy,

I have a quick question that's been bothering me for a while. Why is is that since the mid-90's (give or take) we've only had the re-recorded Winnie the Pooh tracks on CD? Is there a mandate from somewhere that says anything released must be the new stuff? Will we ever see a soundtrack release of all of the original recordings? The new ones just don't sound as good as the originals...and you can't really replace Sterling Holloway.

A few years back, I ended up getting my hands on the "Disney Dreams" boxed set from Japan. It had 20 soundtracks in it, and one of them was "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh". Needless to say, I was most excited to hear that one since it's never been released before. There were even a few score tracks included. Well, imagine my disappointment to hear it and find that everything, including the score, was the newly recorded tracks!! Even Japan can't get the originals??
 

BLM07

Member
I was wondering the same thing. Inquiring minds want to know.
 

Turbollama

New Member
I admit, I'm curious as well. The only authentic track I've seen released was 'Winnie the Pooh' itself which was released on

The Music Of Disney: A Legacy In Song - Disc 2
Classic Disney Volume IV

Aside from that, it appears none of them have been released. I recently purchased a few records (LPs) of Winnie the Pooh recordings, and even then many of them do not have the original recordings. Although they're much closer than those currently being distributed.
 
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
 

cschurr

Member
No Randy, it is never enough info! Now I'm wondering, what do you have in the wings, just waiting for the *right time*? :D
 

almandot

Member
I really loved going on WDW's pooh ride, not just because it's better than ours, but because of Winchell doing Tigger. I'd heard there was a sort of hand-off that took place for DL's version, where Cummings had already been doing Tigger for the most part but Winchell still did it occasionally and did it on WDW's ride but turned down doing DL's and let Cummings do it. If so, that's fun and I enjoy it, almost makes me want to keep our ride around... not really, but almost
 

BLM07

Member
Is this also the reasons that stuff from "The New Adventures of Winnie the pooh" has never been released?
I like the theme song / credits of the show as well. Were there any songs in the show? Score would be nice, but I somehow doubt that would ever be released.
 

Gurgitoy2

Active Member
Thank you, Randy, that did answer my question. It's not exactly what I wanted to hear, but it makes sense. I do agree that they did a good job on the new stereo tracks, but I still think they aren't as interesting as the originals for some reason. Oh, and I agree about Paul Winchell. Sure, Jim Cummings does an ok Pooh, but his Tigger is nowhere near what Paul Winchell did.

Anyway, thanks for answering that, it looks like it was something a few of us were wondering about.
 
In my opinion - and I'm a longtime poster, for about 7 years to this board in its many incarnations - I have less respect, if ANY for Mr.Jim Cummings after the Pooh and Tigger replacement [did Sterling Holloway, who passed away in 1992, after he'd been replace, retire and okay it?I know Mr.Paul Winchell sure didn't!]. This taking credit away is a sore point with a lot of us cartoons fans.
 

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