WONDERLAND MUSIC STORE reviews and news!!!

[Louis Gonzalez]

Hello friends!
This is a very exciting time for Disney music fans! I took the time to sit and listen to a few CDs that I recently purchased at Disneyland from the Wonderland Music Store system. I have to say, I was impress by the effort. As you might know, out of the 40 CDs re-issued, 8 have NEVER been on CD before. Since I already own the rest, I only purchased the 8 exclusives. I assume the rest of the CDs are the exact same Master as previously issued so I won?t review those. I think it?s great that fans can now purchase out of print CDs! With all those negative reviews by only 1 person who didn?t even buy them (he copied them), I decided to take a deeper look into these:

WALT DISNEY TAKES YOU TO DISNEYLAND: What a trip! Walt Disney narrating a trip through Disneyland with great music by Camarata. The music is great and retro. Very nice theming in each land. How did they get this old record to sound that great? The Master obviously held up very nicely on this one. This doesn?t contain any actual park soundtracks (is the organ music from the park?) because there was no audio-animatronic shows or Rides yet. This also marks the first Disneyland themed LP! Highly recommended.

GOLDEN HORSESHOE REVIEW: I?ve always seen this LP go for something like $100! So, this has missed from my almost-complete collection?.until now. It?s a very enjoyable show and it?s great to be able to listen to it after it?s been gone for so long. It?s recorded live at Disneyland back in the 50?s with Wally Boag. Whoever mixed this show live sure knew how to do it properly and this is a testament. Frontierland fans rejoice.

WD?S ENCHANTED TIKI ROOM/JUNGLE CRUISE (1962): The complete Enchanted Tiki Room followed by a Thurl Ravenscroft narrated Jungle Cruise. The Tiki Room sounds better than I have EVER heard it. No idea what Grinning Ghost was talking about. He probably hear an early demo or something. Wonderful STEREO. I cranked this baby up and it sounded better than being there. There was this Gong sound missing from the current show and mysteriously also from the old WDW Forever version. Well, I?m happy to say it?s back on this CD! So, that kills Grinning Ghosts Forever theory. The Jungle Cruise features actual sound effects from the attraction down to the original native sounds! If you like Tiki, or Disneyland, this has got the be the Grooviest CD around. And the hidden track? Spoiler: When you first press play and it starts playing, hit the rewind button and there it is! It?s a segment from the Tiki Room barker bird talking about the premier. How did they do that? Randy?

GREAT MOMENTS WITH MR. LINCOLN: This is the complete Mr. Lincoln show plus material that could make 5 more shows! Yep, these are the complete recordings for the Lincoln recordings including lots of Paul Frees narration. There are some nice speaker separations so you can isolate the score from the narration! I liked that. There is a little bit of hiss, but I only noticed it because GG mentioned it. I looked up my old LP and synchronized it with the CD. Guess what!....The LP has LOTS of hiss. So, it?s obviously in the master. Overall, the CD is an improvement over the LP. Nice fidelity too.

IT?S A SMALL WORLD: Lots of versions of the song with Winston Hibler narration. This contains most (or all?) of the music from the World?s Fair version of the show including Queue version. This is mono, like the original LP and Master (I assume). While the original LP doesn?t sound incredible, the CD is able to produce a better sounding soundtrack. This wasn?t re-mixed, it was only cleaned up as a whole. Regardless of this, I was happy with the quality and enjoyed listening to this a great deal. If you are a Small World fan, you HAVE to get this. It?s the best representation of the ride ever on CD.

AMERICA SINGS: WOW!!!!!! This CD really rocks. The quality is AMAZING. Obviously, great care was taken into producing this originally and it shows. This is one of my favorite Yesterdayland attractions, and I?m sure as heck glad to have it all, complete, including the original ?Who Shot the Hole in my Sombrero?. What a treat! This sounds like it was recorded yesterday. HIGHLY recommended.

COUNTRY BEAR JAMBOREE: Another winner. This has never sounded better even in person. This sounds like it was restored or remixed further. The original LP has some nasty flaws that this CD corrects! Someone pointed out something about the bee sounds. My LP was missing those too. Now they are back! And the Mile Long Bar soundtrack is included also. This also sound very nice. Can we have the Winnie the Pooh ride torn out and replaced with this show?

And finally HEIGH HO MARY MARTIN: I didn?t know anything about this LP. I never owned it before. I have to say, it was better than I expected. The best part is that the music is with Camarata and Trumpets and Orchestra. Very nice sound. Very creative arrangements of classic Disney songs. You can?t go wrong with Camarata. This is now my favorite Disney covers CD. It?s better than any of the current cover albums of recent decades. A fun listen.

Wow, thanks so much Randy. This is a real treat and I?m looking forward to the many February re-issues. Any hints? I have to say that GG remarks saddened me a bit. It?s great to see that he was so wrong. Maybe he has other motives? He just appeared out of nowhere and started complaining. That was his first post! Could he be a bitter ex-Forever system employee? Anyways, get these CDs, listen to them for yourself and ENJOY!!!! You can buy them through Deliver-Ears at 1 (800) 362-4533. You can get them all through them now. Get ready for a retro trip!

Your friend,
Louis

 

[Steve LeVine]

If GG is the person I think he is he definitely is not just a bitter ex employee. He has done a lot of great restoration work himself. I do not know if the files he heard were different then what you heard though.

 

[Gurgitoy2]

I wonder whatever happened to Rosita?

 

[GrizzlyHall]

Yippee!

As for the CBJ bees...there actually aren't any in the show (the new buzzes on the album).

I can't wait to buy these! I'm going for Country Bear Jamboree, Tiki Room/Jungle Cruise, America Sings, It's a Small World, and Great Moments.

Could you IMAGINE music from the extinct Walt Disney World attractions?! (World of Motion/Horizons/Dreamflight/JII?) That would REALLY milk these pockets! ;D ;D

 

[Grinning Ghost]

WD?S ENCHANTED TIKI ROOM/JUNGLE CRUISE (1962): The complete Enchanted Tiki Room followed by a Thurl Ravenscroft narrated Jungle Cruise. The Tiki Room sounds better than I have EVER heard it. No idea what Grinning Ghost was talking about. He probably hear an early demo or something. Wonderful STEREO. I cranked this baby up and it sounded better than being there. There was this Gong sound missing from the current show and mysteriously also from the old WDW Forever version. Well, I?m happy to say it?s back on this CD! So, that kills Grinning Ghosts Forever theory.

Hardly. I pointed out some editing errors. Fritz and Pierre swap places inexplicably. Just after the War Chant, there is a very obvious and poorly-done edit. At 14:33, just after Jose says "ooh, papa!" (well I think that's what he's saying) there is a cross-fade of two different mixes. The end of the first one (War Chant) has the principle cast in the center. The second has them on the sides in stereo. The two recordings weren't synchronized properly and they echo during the transition. The intended effect was so that they move gradually from the center out to the sides as in the rest of the Tiki Room. (1963, not 1962).

In the Disneyland Forever versions, the principle cast has some reverb (about the same as "Medium Room - Bright" in my software) and the effect is supposed to sound as if the voices are reverberating off the walls of the room. While most of this new version doesn't have that type of reverb (a great improvement), a portion does, and it's exactly the same as the Forever version. "Let's All Sing like the Birdies Sing" is lifted directly from the DLF version. The dialog ("Let's give the little birdies a great big hand.") has that same funky reverb until "And now Senors and Senoritas, please place your eyes into the center - of the room, that is." when it mysteriously changes to a more normal-sounding reverb, in exactly the same way as the DLF version. My whole point is that it's not a complete rebuild as has been claimed. Only portions have been rebuilt. The rest is from the Forever series, and why not? Why not use some of those tracks? They are already done and already sound quite good (for the most part), so why not use them? Makes perfect sense to me, from a cost perspective.

GREAT MOMENTS WITH MR. LINCOLN: This is the complete Mr. Lincoln show plus material that could make 5 more shows! Yep, these are the complete recordings for the Lincoln recordings including lots of Paul Frees narration. There are some nice speaker separations so you can isolate the score from the narration! I liked that. There is a little bit of hiss, but I only noticed it because GG mentioned it. I looked up my old LP and synchronized it with the CD. Guess what!....The LP has LOTS of hiss. So, it?s obviously in the master. Overall, the CD is an improvement over the LP. Nice fidelity too.

Compared the Lp with this new one just last night. Portions have been replaced with restored versions from the unreleased World's Fair box set, and certainly for the better! It's not all the original Lp master, but most of it is, and in general they did a good job with it overall, except for the reduced but still-noticeable and annoying tape hiss. Paul Frees starts out on the left channel on the Lp, but here he starts out in the center (where he should have been all along). So it is not absolutely identical to the Lp all the way through. And the levels of hiss are slightly reduced from the Lp. However, last night, I was able to remove darn near all of it, so now my copy sounds very good! All that's left for me to do is replace "Battle Hymn" with my higher-quality restored version, and I'm all set!

IT?S A SMALL WORLD: Lots of versions of the song with Winston Hibler narration. This contains most (or all?) of the music from the World?s Fair version of the show including Queue version. This is mono, like the original LP and Master (I assume). While the original LP doesn?t sound incredible, the CD is able to produce a better sounding soundtrack. This wasn?t re-mixed, it was only cleaned up as a whole. Regardless of this, I was happy with the quality and enjoyed listening to this a great deal. If you are a Small World fan, you HAVE to get this. It?s the best representation of the ride ever on CD.

There are several other high-quality versions available in stereo which sound so much better, but they don't have the narration or the charm of this version. However, it's the original Lp master from start to end. No changes were made, and no flaws were corrected. Only a bit of enhancement. I've remixed the choral versions at the beginning and end and replaced them in my copy, then reduced the noise (noticeable in the narration) and so now - as a whole - it sounds quite good! I may post that one tonight on a.b.m.d., if anyone wants to hear it....

GG

 

[Aaron Ulmer]

Louis,

Thank you for your wonderful review! I can't wait to hear these (my first two discs are on the way). After hearing Grinning Ghost's comments, I was worried, but I have a feeling that his ears are far too sensitive for his own good.

Since I've cleaned my hard drive of illegally downloaded material, I'm glad that I finally have an option of legally owning these great classics. I hope for many more releases in the near future.

Thanks for the heads-up on Deliver-Ears!!!

Aaron

 

[Kenster]

While I think the remixing idea is pretty cool, we might be jumping the gun a little. If I understood Randy correctly - there are 40 releases out now, plus another 20 coming early next year. That equals 60. At which time Randy says the sounds of Disneyland will be arriving. If the rest of the releases are to be the sounds of disneyland, that leaves us withbover 140 recordings devoted to Disneyland of which I will find myself to be very ecstatic. It may be possible that we will receive a Great moments with Mr. Lincoln in it's entirety remastered in several versions, the park version of "it's a small world" and complete park versions of other attractions as they are presented. I see nothing wrong with remixing these recently released albums as it seems they have been mixed too. I'm wondering if there will be a need to do it. For so long, we have had to mix scraps, pieces, and tracks to complete loops and attractions. I think of the bits of lincoln from the forever system and the world's fair and now this release. I have high hopes that tons of material will be released in their full presentations. Instead of recreating loops, I have hope that the loops are presented as a whole, a main gate cd, a main street cd, christmas version, parade cds, attraction cds etc. I personally hope to see a tomorrowland concourse cd as well as the music loop from the tiki room garden. We shall see next year. While it has been fun recreating this stuff, I hope the cd's to come will reduce the amount of mixing we have to do now.

 

[Grinning Ghost]

WD?S ENCHANTED TIKI ROOM/JUNGLE CRUISE (1962): The complete Enchanted Tiki Room followed by a Thurl Ravenscroft narrated Jungle Cruise. The Tiki Room sounds better than I have EVER heard it. No idea what Grinning Ghost was talking about. He probably hear an early demo or something. Wonderful STEREO. I cranked this baby up and it sounded better than being there. There was this Gong sound missing from the current show and mysteriously also from the old WDW Forever version. Well, I?m happy to say it?s back on this CD! So, that kills Grinning Ghosts Forever theory.

UPDATE: The ENTIRE Tiki Room show is made up of a combination of the Disneyland Forever, Walt Disney World Forever, and the "Official" park album version of "In The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room." Not one new mix in the whole show. How do I know? I just finished rebuilding it exactly the same way as the Wonderland version, using the EXACT same tracks from the Forever series. The one and only thing added is the gong sound, and that was simply dubbed into the WDWF version. (or was it DLF? Whichever one is the complete version of the War Chant, and has the principle cast in mono.)

Randy's claim that "For the Tiki Room, the entire show was remixed and rebuilt" is pure fiction. I fixed the editing flubs left in the Wonderland mix, which would not have been there at all if this had been an actual rebuild from scratch. The track where the birds swap places is the "In The Tiki Room" number, and it's that way in the "Official" Park CD version as well. That's how I knew which track he used. All the surrounding dialog came from the DLF version, because it was in stereo, as well as the entire Offenbach number. The rest of the musical numbers are the WDWF version. The gong is heard at the end of the Pre-show track, and that's most likely where he got it from to dub into the War Chant number.

Randy also claimed that they had the original cover art, and they don't. The Tiki Room cover has been changed, and a major spelling mistake left in - "The Adventurours Jungle Cruise". So much for quality and truth in advertising. If you've already got the all the Forever versions, then don't waste your money on this one. It's not worth $15.99 plus shipping for only one entirely new track (the World Premiere version of the Barker Bird spiel.) On the other hand, if you don't own the Forever tracks or have never had the original Lp, then by all means, buy it!

GG

GG

 

[Zarpman]

Save for the typing error (which I'm sure the audio production people had NOTHING t do with), most of your arguments are invalid. Randy's statements were pretty much true -- that the entire show had been remoxed. Now mind you, he didn't say they were remixed exclusively for this project. This is the art of marketing. The show was remixed, and is NOT the original LP version. So it is, in essence, a new recording.

Most people don't have as much time on their hands to sit around and remix all of the elements from official and unofficial sources to create their own "ultimate mix" of a particular attraction or show soundtrack. The mass majority of people are anxiously awaiting the pros to do just that. These are the people Disney is specifically catering to. Not the auio-philes who are nuts about absolute perfection, but the 50-something-year-old who remembers listening to the album as a child and buys the CD for nostalgia.

I've made a comment or two on these forums stating the somewhat inccurate mixes (and noticable, but not terrible edits) found on officially released Eectrical Parade albums. I would never suggest to not buy the albums because of these small inaccuracies, though. These small nusances of mine are probably not even noticed by 75% of this forum, and I'm sure this is probably the highest concentration of Disney purists and audiophiles out there.

Also, we must look to see that Randy probably wasn't given much time to work with 40 albums that probably will sell less than 1,000 copies each. He was probably told to go to the original vinyl masters and clean them up a bit for the CD release. This being the case, he probably threw the Forever remix together knowing that most of it was represented there, and that it would provide a much cleaner sound. Kudos to Randy.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and while I respect Grinning Ghost's decision for his opinion let's not let one very negative take on the production of these CDs ruin anyone's thoughts of owning them for themselves. I'm personally looking to buy most of the available set within a few weeks, and I bet you'll hear many more praises from the system from me.

 

[Louis Gonzalez]

Hello Zarpman!
I agree with you HIGHLY. I don't know if you have noticed, but this Ghost dude has been doing nothing but complaining. Ok, so he has his own opinion on this, but have you seen how many times he's posted the exact same thing on this Tiki issue? Please do a search and read all his posts in a row. You'd think he's got a personal problem with a certain someone. Just one message to the Ghost dude: ENOUGH!!!!!!!! Please go post in the disney.bitter.group instead or is it disney.jealous.because.i.don't.have.randy's.job.group? I have a separate post about the Tiki Room audio that has nothing to do with this new mix. Go look at it. The Ghost dude striked again! He went on there and changed the subject and started this whole Tiki Room mix all over again. It is no secret that Disney officials monitor this site for feedback. Do you want this re-issue program to continue? If you have bought any of these CDs, please give some feedback. The only one being heard is this ghost person and all he has to say is negative. Have you heard the America SIngs CD? Have you heard the Country Bears CD? Have you heard the Horseshoe CD? Can you find anything wrong with these CD? ..... I didn't think so. The masters were PERFECT. ANother sign that he is only picking on small issues: He's complaining that the artwork is not the original. Of course it is. He's speaking out of his *$#@*. Of course they had to remove the promise of the booklet included. They couldn't leave those references on the cover when the booklet isn't included! Hello! Are you just an **%$&hole or what? Sorry, I'm just sick of this guy. Please go out and support this program. We'll all be glad we did. I'm looking forward to future releases. Please listen to them yourself before you form an opinion.
Your friend,
Louis

 

[Gurgitoy2]

You know what I'm "sick" of? I'm sick of people posting their slightly music related Ebay auctions in the forum. If I wanted general Disneyana, I coudl find it on my own thank you. This is the Disney MUSIC discussion forum, and not the place for that kind of junk. I don't care how "limited" or "rare" it is...

There's only one person who's been talking out of his *$#@* here, and it ain't Grinning Ghost.

 

[narkspud]

I don't know if you have noticed, but this Ghost dude has been doing nothing but complaining. Ok, so he has his own opinion on this, but have you seen how many times he's posted the exact same thing on this Tiki issue? Please do a search and read all his posts in a row. You'd think he's got a personal problem with a certain someone. Just one message to the Ghost dude: ENOUGH!!!!!!!!

Actually, it sounded to me like a rebuttal to your review, which he IS entitled to. And honestly, unless the two of you really did get two different versions, I thought you were a lot more effusive in your praise of this particular title than it deserved. The problems GG described are major ones, and they shouldn't have left the studio no matter how low-budget a production it is.

We're all entitled to our opinions here, and shouldn't be subjected to personal rants when we disagree about something.

 

[Louis Gonzalez]

Ben,
This website message board was created exclusively to sell, buy and/or trade Disney music. It grew into more than that, but that was the intent to start with. You can contact the webmaster if you have any additional questions. This issue has been brought up before, and the webmaster has answered personally to reflect what I just said. The only times I post on here regarding my eBay auctions is when I have DISNEY MUSIC listed. Maybe you didn't check my auctions out but I have SEVERAL DISNEY MUSIC items on there. I have Splashdance, Disco Mickey, Mary Poppins (2), Bambi, WInnie the Pooh, and Snow White soundtraks, and even a Newsies music book. The previous soundtracks are in different form to what is available on CD. Now, if you don't think all those listed soundtracks are DISNEY MUSIC, then you have a strange idea as to what Disney music is and you might be posting on the wrong message board. Yes, we discuss DIsney music also, but that just happened accidently. Trent wanted us to be able to sell and buy rare Disney music between us Disney music fans and that is EXACTLY what I'm doing. HELLO!!!.....
Over and Out,
Louis

 

[DisneySpirit]

You know, I just don't see the problem here? We have 8 previously unavailable CDs available to us now AND GG has uploaded a new 4th STEREO mix of the Tiki Room for us if we want it!!! It's a win - win! I bought 7 of the 8 new CDs so far and am very happy with them. The fact that I also had previously purchased (not downloaded) all the original DLF and WDWF CDs did not stop me from wanting to buy these previously unavailable LPs on CD. Let those who want to (and can) tweak these tracks have at them and sit back and enjoy the music! It's all good! En-joy it. it's DISNEY!

 

[Gurgitoy2]

Louis,

Although you say you only put auctions on here that list Disney MUSIC...that's stretching it a bit. Yes, Trent had/has no problem with people selling/trading music on here, but don't give me that BS that you're only posting music auctions. You might have a few lousy tapes or LPs, but I will quote your topic you created on November 11th.

>>Remember the old Disney tapes that came in a 12" package similar to a record? (i.e. Oliver & Co. story and songs, Splashdance), pre-opening EPCOT books, WDW opening programs, Disney autographs such as Sebastian, pins, Lincoln souvenirs, 1st Haunted Mansion Holiday, rare versions of Poppins, Disco, Bambi, Snow White, Pooh, and more, lots of posters, park souvenirs, even the Haunted Mansion Hitchhiking Ghosts WDCC, and LOTS more are available for a couple of days at:

(Link removed...on purpose)

Get these while you can!
Your friend,
Louis

 

[Louis Gonzalez]

Hello friends,
Thanks for all the support in your e-mails about this. And thanks to Ben for the boost on my auctions! It appears that this made people curios about them even more! Sometimes controversy works this way. With the moeny I make on these, I will buy myself an ultra delux Disneyland annual pass and give Disney back the money. Oh well. But it's all good as long as we are all happy. Ben doesn't sound very happy. :'(

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/atomobile/

Thanks again

PS: Regarding the quality of the Tiki Room CD, if you download the MP3 that GG made, you automatically loose some quality over the official CD! Before GG says it's not true (he would!) make an MP3 of a track that you have, and play it one after the other through your home stereo...

 

[Gredo G.]

Where can I find this uploaded version of the Tiki Room by GG?

Thanks and Happy Listening

 

[Grinning Ghost]

PS: Regarding the quality of the Tiki Room CD, if you download the MP3 that GG made, you automatically loose some quality over the official CD! Before GG says it's not true (he would!) make an MP3 of a track that you have, and play it one after the other through your home stereo...

You're right! I will say that it's not entirely true about the loss of quality, in this particular case. It was true a couple of years ago, but not now. Mp3 encoding software has improved dramatically. I use LAME 3.92 vbr encoding on my mp3s, and when encoded with the right settings, they can sound every bit as good as the original CDs - and in this case, a tad better than the original, since I didn't filter the tracks like was done on the CD. Any loss of quality is virtually imperceptible, if it's done right. Have you even bothered to check it out and hear it for yourself? It's on the alt.binaries.multimedia.disney newsgroup. Go ahead, give it a whirl. It won't bite, you - I promise! ;D

GG

 

[Louis Gonzalez]

Yes, they can sound good. It would be even better if you could download WAV files. GG, have you had a chance to listen to the other releases? America Sings, Country Bears, Walt Disney Takes you to Disneyland, and Horseshoe?
And what's up with that Ben guy...he's getting violent! Now he's calling DIsney tapes "lousy". That sound kinda personal. What bothers me is that he's not going around criticizing all the Lion King DVD posts, nor the Treasures DVD posts, nor half of the post on here which are not Disney music related! I guess he has selective judgement. Even though I defended my eBay post and pointed out that they ARE music related, I have no problem with the discussion of other Disney non-music topics. Can't we all just get along? And can't we just see all sides of the story?
Your friend,
Louis Gonzalez

PS: On the topic of non-music Disney, I wonder if anybody knows if the extra on the Pirates DVD about the Disneyland Pirates show will be the complete show or just excerpts?

 

[Gurgitoy2]

Whatever, Louis...how two-faced are you? So now you want us all to "get along"? You insult GG, and now you're trying to get him to side with you against me? What, is this grade school?

I'm happy that your auctions are doing well...nice for you. I'm glad you have so much "support" too. For the record, I don't find the other off-topic posts as offensive as your auctions, because we know what they are about right off the bat. You, on the other hand are no better than those "discount Viagra" spam emails. You create misleading topics like "Rare Disney Music Update...". It woulnd't be so bad if you said something like "Check out my new auctions", or "Disney Music for Sale". There aren't any questions there.

So, I'm willing to get along, as long as you drop the juvenile antics. I'm sorry if I bothered anybody else with my rant.