"What a Perfect Day" from Fun & Fancy Free


was there ever an official recording of "My, What a Perfect Day" from Fun & Fancy Free? on LP (I'm guessing)?

I just watched it and I forgot that we used it in the Winnie the Pooh tour.

That harp has a beautiful voice!

*t
 

Joseph

Member
The song is actually entitled "My, What a Happy Day." I'm not sure if the soundtrack version (sung by Anita Gordon) was ever officially released. There was a version of the song (sung by Marilyn Hooven) on the 1963 Disneyland LP "Mickey and the Beanstalk", narrated by Robie Lester, and then reissued on a book and record set (ST-3974) in 1968.
 
thanks for the info! you're totally right on the song title. On the Pooh show, the song was sung (by Piglet) as "My, What a Perfect Day".
Thanks again :)
 
"My, What a Happy Day" was also sung in full on the RCA cast/kids record of the 40's. - - But of note to folks with iTunes, there is a gorgeous contemporary piano recording of the song available at the iTunes store played by Bud Noble, son of composer Ray Noble. He also does a nice version of "In My Favorite Dream." Do look for both, they are worth finding.
 
Thanks, MerlinJones! I'm always looking for additional versions of Disney songs, especially lesser-heard ones like this.

FYI -- A special version of the song was also created for the "Walt Disney World Today" in-room TV channel.
 

Joseph

Member
merlinjones,
Are you sure there was an RCA album released of "Mickey and the Beanstalk"? I know there was a 3 record 78rpm set issued by Capitol in 1947 and subsequently reissued on LP, but I wasn't aware that RCA had ever released songs from the movie.
 
Actually, it was a Capitol 78 RPM book and record set narrated by Johnny Mercer with Luana Patten and Bobby Driscoll. The songs were sung as part of the story, so they blend in with the narration and don't really stand on their own as separate tracks.

I don't know offhand if Capitol reissued the 78's as a Capitol LP, but Wonderland Records (formerly Golden) reissued this backed with Mickey Mouse's Birthday Party in the late 70's. Several other Capitol children's LPs were reissued at that time either by Wonderland or Ziv International, including other Disney titles, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker and Bozo.
 

Joseph

Member
Greg,
R. Michael Murray states in his book "The Golden Age of Walt Disney Records" that the Wonderland/ZIV LPs you mention were actually put out by Capitol Records and were not the same Wonderland Records that were put out by A.A. Records, owner of the Golden catalog. Is he mistaken about this?
 
No he is correct, because they were produced and manufctured by Capitol and had Capitol labels. They were marketed and distributed, though, by Ziz first and then Wonderland. If you look at the labels you'll see little Ziv or Wonderland logos.

Wonderland was indeed part of A.A. Records, which produced Golden Records from the mid-sixties. They changed to Wonderland in the late 70's because Western Publishing owned the Golden name. In addition to Golden recordings, A.A. also marketed and distributed reissues of the earlier Riverside/Wonderland children's records (an entirely separate label), most of which were recorded in London.

A.A. Records folded after a long legal dispute and were out of print for many years. About a decade ago, Drive Entertainment reissued about two dozen Golden LP's on CD. I did the liner notes and was consulted on the songs and performers. When Drive folded, Liberty International re-re-issued some of the albums again, and also issued others under different titles and covers. It was difficult to identify what some of these recordings were by the new packages (I was not involved with these). Then a company called Digiview Entertainment re-re-re-issued a small number of items with even less package information and pretty shabby cover art.

The good news is that Shout! Factory is now involved with the Golden Records catalog and I'm hoping they will find good ways to utitlize all this great stuff. Getting back to your original thread, though, I don't know how the Capitol Children's Series figures into this, because they may have reverted back to Capitol. You can, however, find a few old Capitol children's recordings on imported CDs like the Don Linden series from New Zealand (http://donlinden.com/).

Sorry to ramble!
 

narkspud

Member
Lest anybody doubt the great Greg Ehrbar, who is to be trusted in all matters Disney music, I can confirm that Murray just plain got this wrong, and Greg's post is exactly right. It is most definitely the same AA/Wonderland outfit that had the Golden catalog, with the same logo and everything. Capitol did the pressings, AA/Wonderland did the distribution.
 
>>Are you sure there was an RCA album released of "Mickey and the Beanstalk"? I know there was a 3 record 78rpm set issued by Capitol in 1947 and subsequently reissued on LP, but I wasn't aware that RCA had ever released songs from the movie.
 

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