This week at Covering the Mouse is Disneyland Week, celebrating 53 years since the beginning of the magic. The actual day isn't until Thursday but I'll be sharing with you some info about the park, the rides and the music leading up to that day.
Since Main Street is the first thing to greet you as you enter the park, I though it would be fitting to begin this week by greeting you the same way. This version of the Main Street Electrical Parade is covered by the Japanese group ECCENTRIC OPERA and was recorded in 1998 for yet another Japanese Disney cover album called WE LOVE MICKEY: HAPPY 70TH ANNIVERSARY. You will hear the Baroque Hoedown and Unbirthday Song as well as some samples from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The song's main theme is actually called the Baroque Hoedown and was written in 1967 by Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley who were composing music with their early version of a synthesizer. The song became an early electronic hit and it wasn't long before Disney would secure the rights for his Electrical Parade in 1972. In 1977 the song was re-written, covered if you please, by Don Dorsey and Jack Wagner (that's Jack's voice you hear at the beginning of the track) which is the version you still hear to this day. So this cover is actually a cover of a cover.
The Eccentric Opera is Naomi Sagara, a soprano who graduated from The Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and Nahoko Kakiage, who also graduated from the TNUFAM but in composition. Nahoko is the one behind keyboards, computers and sampling. Together these two girls arrange and record classical music in their unique style. I suppose that this Baroque-esque piece is very suiting for them to cover.
 | Main Street Electrical Parade Eccentric Opera 1998   |
3 comments:
I have been hearing various versions of this Main Street Electrical Parade music, and this is certainly the most unique, with the vocals giving an accapella sound amongst the electronic beats.
This is one of those covers in which it will grow on me the more I listen to it.
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I have been able to lead a semi-functional life despite constantly having the parade version of this song in my head since I witnessed the Electric parade in 1979.
Today I found several versions of the song because my kid asked me about it when we heard snippets on the Disney shuttle from the airport. This was the only time in the park I heard it. I was impressed by all of them that this tune had more heft then I had remembered.
The Jean-Jacques Perrey version, the Style of Vivaldi versions were cool. I was excited when I heard the They Might Be Giants version, becuase the kids could identify that. Call it Disney-world withdrawal but when I heard the Eccentric Opera version. I started crying and thought I was having a heart-attack. I love it and will look for more recordings by Eccentric Opera!
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