Baby Mine - Bonnie Raitt with Was (Not Was)

IMPORTANT NEWS! For all of you in the Los Angeles area, there is a special event coming your way! Hal Wilner, producer of the STAY AWAKE Disney tribute album, is planning Stay Awake: The Official 20th Century Anniversary Concert. The live event will take place at UCLA’s Royce Hall on October 30th, 2008.

Wilner, who brought in a wide variety of musicians for the album, hopes to get as many of the same artists to take part in this event. Sounds like a good time! I wish I lived in California!

The concert features a mix of enchanting, moody and, at times, sardonic adaptations of tunes from The Jungle Book, Snow White, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, and more.

Here is a track from the album. It's Baby Mine sung beautifully by nine-time Grammy award-winning blues artist BONNIE RAITT with backup vocals from WAS (NOT WAS)

Song Title Artist Year

Baby Mine - Debra Byrne & Arja

Over here in North America we don't really hear about famous Australian musicians. In fact, I have a whole CD of Disney music by famous Australians and I haven't heard of any of them! But a little bit of research reveals that these artists are very accomplished and should be made known to the world. DEBRA BYRNE is one of those artists. Debra started her career on an American Idol style talent show for youth that produced a record contract and a hit single in the 70s. She has acted in many Aussie productions and more recently Aussie Broadway productions like Cats and Sunset Boulevard.

Debra's version of Baby Mine, taken from DUETS: A FAMILY CELEBRATION pairs her up with her 19 year old daughter Arja. The two voices are very similar and it sure seems like Arja has had some training from mom. However, the vibrato in their voices causes me to not like the parts they sing in unison. Separately they would be fine and I'm sure they would sound great in harmony.

This cover draws heavily from Bonnie Raitt's version that appeared on the STAY AWAKE compilation album from 1988. I haven't posted that version yet so you'll have to go elsewhere to compare (It's better).

Baby Mine Debra Byrne & Arja 1999

Baby Mine - Jim Brickman & Kassie DePaiva

It was 66 years ago on this day that Walt Disney released his fourth animated feature film to theatres! Dumbo is one of the most touching and enduring movies from the House of Mouse and it is still a favourite of children and adults today!

The film has a many songs but the obvious favourite is Baby Mine, the lullaby that Dumbo's mother sings to put him to sleep. As far as covers go most artists tend to stick pretty close to the original. Any why shouldn't they? It works so well as a love ballad and to drastically change it would be like eating garlic flavoured ice cream.

JIM BRICKMAN'S version combines his beautiful piano playing with the sweet voice of KASSIE DEPAIVA. DePaiva is a soap opera actress in my mind. I was surprised to hear her singing on this track but upon research I found that she perfomed at the Grand Ole Opery at the age of 18 and has a few albums out. Who knew?

Baby Mine Jim Brickman & Kassie DePaiva 2005