Today marks the 60th anniversary of Disney's Cinderella, the first fully-length feature since Bambi in 1942. All throughout WWII, Walt released a series of compilation films (Melody Time, Saludos Amigos, etc.) that were made on a much cheaper budget. Cinderella saw the return of the magical fairy tale storytelling that Disney had established for himself in the early 40s.
Rather than having in-house songwriters for this film, Walt turned to Tin Pan Alley to write some songs for him. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo came out of Tin Pan Alley and went on to be a big hit.
Around the time of Cinderella's release, many people recorded their own versions of this song, including BING CROSBY, who had previously worked for Disney as the narrator of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.
Bing Crosby recorded the song with the Vic Schoen Orchestra and Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires on January 3, 1950, a over month before the release of the film. The B-side of this record was Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy.
There are lots of Disney connections here! The Jud Conlon Chorus sang the opening number for Cinderella as well as other Disney classics through the 50s, like Second Star to the Right and Alice in Wonderland. And Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires sang many songs for Disney, including the Donald Duck theme song! The fact that they were backing Bing makes me think that Disney had asked Bing to record this song as a tie-in for the movie. After all, there weren't many people more well known than Bing Crosby at that time.
This song can be found on the album GOOD & RARE
which came out a few years ago.
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