Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Thomas O'Malley - Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen


Hi folks! Jamie here once again from Fong Songs. Today I've got a cover for you from the 1970 feature The Aristocats. Probably my favourite all-time Disney song is Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat and even though I have about eight covers of that kicking around, I wanted to share a rarely covered track from the same film.

Today's track is Thomas O'Malley sung in the original by the inimitable Phil Harris whose voice you should recognize as Baloo from The Jungle Book and Little John from Robin Hood. This is the song where we're introduced to the singing, strutting alley cat Thomas (full name: Abraham de Lacey Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley) who lends a paw to the kidnapped Duchess and her kittens.

This cover is performed by KENNY BALL & HIS JAZZMEN who released an all-Disney cover album in 1996 called IN DISNEYLAND. Kenny Ball is a legendary trumpet player from Britain who formed his jazz band in 1958 and still performs to this day even as he approaches his 78th birthday this year-- kinda like the Rolling Stones! If you like dixieland jazz like me, then this collection of Disney jazz covers is for you. I'll have to give this CD to Kurtis since it's got some uncommonly covered Disney tracks on there... fodder for future posts.









Thomas O'Malley
Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen
1996

1 comments:

linklewtt said...

I love it! I'm a fan of that song and upbeat jazz in general. The two together are perfect.