Tenor - Peace on Earth?


MerlinJones, I must correct you and the website that gave you that info.

The singer of "Peace on Earth" is Bill Days, who was the lead tenor of The Sportsmen. Listen closely and you'll hear he is NOT Donald Novis. Maybe Randy Thornton will read this and PLEASE CORRECT the credit.

I was friends with Mr. Days before he passed away and he confirmed the credit.
 
Randy?! Read this?!

How long have you been gone, Ludwig?

I don't understand. If you mean, how long Mr. Days has been gone...he passed away in May 2002 at the age of 91. He had a long and successful career in Radio, TV, Movies and Personal appearances. He is also credited as "The Prisoner" in The Haunted Mansion. If I listen to the soundtrack I can hear his voice.
 

Joseph

Member
No, I think Bill was referring to the fact that Randy Thornton hasn't been in touch with this board much lately, so the fact that you weren't aware of this means you've been "gone" from the board for awhile.

Just to correct one minor thing. Bill Days is actually the voice of the "Executioner" in the Haunted Mansion, the big guy holding the axe. The "prisoner" is the bearded dwarfish guy standing next to him, and he is voiced by Candy Candido. I guess the Imagineers thought it would be humorous to have the little man singing in an extremely low, deep bass and the tall, beefy Executioner singing in a very high tenor voice. If you look closely at the mouths of the figures(and I have after someone pointed it out to me, believe it or not) you can see that they match up with the respective voices. Mr. Days did a good job with it. He manages to sound creepier than Candy Candido, which is quite an accomplishment.
 
Wasn't there a credit that Thornton fixed? Something involving credit being given to The Wellingtons when it was really The Mellomen? I vaguely remember something like that. If he fixed that one...he might fix this one :)

According to his profile he was lurking on November 26 so he is around.
 

David S.

Member
Wow, I always thought it was Donald Novis! The vocal sounds a lot like the voice of "Love Is A Song" and the Golden Horseshoe track on the DL boxed set, so I never doubted the credit. Learn something new everyday.

In any case, it's a beautiful song, and I love the mood it sets to start this film...

Speaking of which, I was messing around with my Lady and the Tramp DVD the other day, experimenting with whether the 5.1 ("Enhanced Home Theatre") or 3.0 (Original Theatrical) mix sounded better while using my headphones, when I noticed something about this track I had never noticed before although I've watched the film and listened to the soundtrack many times...

I'm sure most if not all of you know this already, but the backup choral sound in "Peace On Earth" is actually to the exact melody of Silent Night. I felt kind of silly for just noticing this now - I attribute it to the fact that when I listen to music I tend to follow along with the main melody (especially lead vocals) and usually don't "isolate" any other sounds in the mix other than how they sound against the main vocal/melody line.

But comparing the 2 mixes on some of the songs, I was actually listening for how clear/audible the various elements in the mixes sounded in each mix, and that's how I finally noticed this!
 

Joseph

Member
Yeah, it always sounded like Donald Novis to me too. But it also sounds like Bill Days. It's interesting how they sound so much alike. A lot of the tenors from that time period (40's, 50's) sound very much alike, however. It makes you wonder why Donald Novis wasn't used on the Peace on Earth track, since he seemed to be Disney's favorite tenor singer.
If Randy Thornton does read this post and tries to correct the credit, he will probably need to locate concrete proof that it was in fact Bill Days and not Donald Novis. If the Disney archives or the paperwork from the recording sessions list Donald Novis as the vocalist then I'm afraid he probably couldn't do much about it.
The "Lady and the Tramp" CD messes up on another performer's credit. It gives credit to Peggy Lee as the vocalist for the song "What is a Baby?" when it is actually performed by Barbara Luddy, the voice of Lady in the movie.
 
I don't think he sounds like Donald Novis at all! It's funny...Bill mentioned the credit and I even told him that everyone thought it was Donald Novis. He laughed and said that he was there and was sure he sang the song. I went back and listened to the CD and sure enough, it's Bill Days. I have many recordings of The Sportsmen and I know what he sounds like. That's him! :)

Not that any of this would help changing the credit.
 

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