This is it! The last day of March Blog Madness 2! I should probably post something about Easter, since today IS Easter…but I decided I want to go out with a salute to my on extended hiatus video series, Kingdom Comedy! I do miss it so, but I just haven’t had the time/money to do more Disneyland videos. I hope to bring the series back with a slight twist in the near future, but for now I’ll have to settle for a simple blog post. I’m counting down my High 5 songs from the Happiest Place on earth!

So here are my self-imposed rules. The songs had to be park originals. What does that mean? It means that they weren’t used in a movie before they were used in the parks. So despite the fact that I LOVE the arrangement of How Do You Do? in Splash Mountain, it was disqualified for being in Song of the South. They also can’t be covers or parodies per-existing songs. That’s why Small World Holiday (Small World), Thank God I’m a Country Bear (Country Bears), and Home on the Range (America Sings) don’t make this list…despite the fact that I love them wholeheartedly. However if the songs were used at Disney World or one of the other Disney parks before they made their way to Disneyland, I’m allowing them on the list. That’s right my list, my rules! So as Van (from another “extended hiatus” Disney fan series) would say, “Here we go…”

5) We Are Here to Change the World

C’mon (or “chamon”) you knew I had to include Michael Jackson on this list. This is the song from Captain Eo that WASN’T available on the Bad album. So before the internet, the only way I could hear it was to watch the movie. After they took it out, that became REALLY difficult. Fortunately it’s back for a while so we can all enjoy it again. (Also a version was released on one of Michael’s “greatest hits” type collections)

4) Space Mountain (2005-present)
When they first added a soundtrack to Space Mountain, I wasn’t exctly blown away. It was a nice song in the beginning, but it was basically just a copy of that song that’s at the beginning of Pulp Fiction. But then when they refurbished Space Mountain for the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, they added the current song and I LOVE it. It’s futuristic and retro at the same time. Kinda James Bond meets Star Trek. IN fact, I like it so much, I wrote words to it…

3) People Mover
This is an odd one. I used to love the People Mover. I don’t know why. It wasn’t an amazing attraction but I got a lot of joy out of it. SO much so that when I was a kid, I actually used a little tape recorder to record the narration of the ride so I could imagine I was on it when I was back home. (What? You don’t think this strange adult started as a strange kid?) There is a music que on the ride that has always stuck with me. It reminds me of that early innocent time in my life and of a certain era at Disneyland. It’s impossible to find on it’s own (although you can hear part of it in the line for Autopia these days.) You can hear it when ever we have technical difficulties these days on TANcast (listener discretion advised) or you could watch this video someone took of a ride through on the People Mover back in the day. The particular part of the music I like starts just after 11:16.

2) Believe…in Holiday Magic

Technically, this should violate my “original to the parks” rule since there are plenty of traditional Christmas (and on Hanukkah) songs in here. But I’m actually talking about the original song in the opening and finale of the fireworks That is just a great Christmas heartstrings song. When I was having trouble letting go of Christmas last year, this was one of the things I would listen to in order to make me feel like it was still that magical time of year. Enjoy a little Christmas in March!

1) It’s A Small World (1990ish-2005)

“Wait…’1990ish-2005?’ Why is Tim putting a specific time period on this? Isn’t Small World pretty much the same song since it opened?”

No it isn’t, hypothetical smarty pants! …ok well technically it is. They haven’t changed the song itself since it opened (unless you count the Small World Holiday). However when Disneyland Paris opened, they got their own version of It’s a Small World and they really changed the accompanying music that went with the song. Someone must have liked it so they put that music into the original Small World in California. I LOVE it. The brass, the strings….they really made the song sound a lot more powerful, But then in 2005, they went back to the ride’s original score. And then in 2008 they added other songs from Disney films into the mix like When You Wish Upon A Star and Golden Afternoon. But I will always have a soft spot in my heart for this version. I couldn’t find the American version on line, but you can here the French version below. Listen for the strings at 1:19….my favorite part 🙂

Side note…I was going to include “Two Brothers” from Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln, but it turns out that is a song that existed before it was brought into the parks. Who knew? It’s still awesome, though.