The Magic Song (Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo) - Mary Martin

MARY MARTIN is an artist who has recorded many Disney songs and this is the first one to grace the pages of Covering the Mouse.

A star of Broadway, Mary Martin is most well known for her roles as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music, two characters that she had the pleasure of portraying for the first time for the original Broadway performances. She is also quite well known for her portrayal of Peter Pan for the Broadway show as well as her famous Peter Pan television special. Martin won a Tony Award for all three roles.

In 1958, Martin recorded HI HO! MARY SINGS AND SWINGS WALT DISNEY FAVORITES for Disneyland Records. The wonderful arrangements are by Tutti Camarata who produced hundreds of records for Disneyland records over his 19 year association with them. I love his arrangements and this album is full of his great work.

Included on the album is this cover of Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo which is a noteworthy cover because it is the first time the song is called The Magic Song. Here is an excerpt from the liner notes:

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo from Walt Disney's Cinderella got a new title for this album - The Magic Song and Tutti Camarata's arrangement, like many in this album, is full of surprises from the low-down New Orleans-style verse in the beginning to the gentle slip into samba half way through to the Bibbidi-Bop-iddi burst of brass at the end.

The Magic Song (Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo) Mary Martin 1958

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo - Louis Armstrong

Here is another track from the LOUIS ARMSTRONG Disney album from 1968. In this track, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo from Cinderella, Louis takes this bouncy, happy tune and gives it a laid back jazz swing.

I'm a few days behind on this blog so I'm just giving you something quick to catch you up! If you want more info on this album, click here

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo Louis Armstrong 1968

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo - Joyce

Happy Wednesday, folks! It's guestposter Boyhowdy once again, taking a few moments away from my usual folkgenre coverblog Cover Lay Down to bring you a surprisingly sweet version of Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, my favorite lighthearted song from Walt Disney's Cinderella.

Single-named Brazilian artist JOYCE is a long-time mistress of bossa nova lite known for her scatjazz approach to interpretations of originals and songs from her Portuguese-speaking compatriots. Though at her worst her songs can seem a bit sappy, at her best, she comes across as a Portuguese-speaking Ella Fitzgerald, precise and playful, with a clarity of voice that can't be beat.

Happily, her version of this classic Cinderella song falls into the latter camp. After almost 40 years as a recording artist, Joyce has a confidence that only lends credence to this crisp, almost scat-song cover. The typical rhythmic style and light acoustic guitarstrum of the Bossa are a perfect compliment to this song.

Bossa nova isn't that popular outside the latin world, but those unfamiliar with the genre will find Joyce's Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo a fairly solid introduction to the jazzier end of the genre, and a strong Disney cover to boot: it's all jazzed up, it's in Portuguese, and it's as magical as the original. This shining star is available on DISNEY BOSSA NOVA, yet another in the huge series of single-genre compilations released over the last decade.

Thanks, as always, to Kurtis for having me over to guest-post! And if you're into that sort of thing, don't forget to stop by Cover Lay Down for more acoustic coversongs.

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo Joyce 2001

Silly Symphony - On the Record Cast

In 2004 Disney produced a Broadway musical that would feature over 70 over the songs from their ever impressive library. The musical was called Disney's On the Record and was about four young people who were brought together in a magical recording studio to record a compilation album. There's magic, there's romance, blah blah blah... but the most important part is that the soundtrack features two discs full of Disney cover songs!

Some of the songs don't stray far from the originals while others are quite different. Many are medleys, such as this one that I have posted today.

The main quartet on this soundtrack are Ashley Brown, Kaitlin Hopkins, Brian Sutherland, and Andrew Samonsky. Katlin Hopkins replaced Emily Skinner who was the original Diane for the live show.

This medley, dubbed the Silly Symphony, is made up of several Disney songs that feature nonsense lyrics. This medley is probably the best and most clever of all the songs in this musical!

It starts out with a verse from Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo and features the choruses from Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious (Mary Poppins), Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (Pinocchio), Following the Leader (Peter Pan), Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (Song of the South) and Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo (Cinderella). The best part of the song is when they start singing all of them AT THE SAME TIME! Brilliant!

Then, to top it off, they use The Dwarfs' Yodel Song (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) as a bridge! Perfect!

In the liner notes it says that Higitus Figitus (Sword in the Stone) is the first song in the medley, but I can't seem to hear any of it anywhere. If anyone can't help me out with this please leave a comment! UPDATE: Thanks to Jane Dark who let me know that the fanfare intro is the chorus to Higitus Figitus! It's so obvious to me now! I don't know how I missed that before!

Also thrown in there are tiny snippets from Chim Chim Cher-ee (Mary Poppins), Hakuna Matata (The Lion King), and the Mickey Mouse March (Mickey Mouse Club). Wow. They put that together very well. This is the best song in the show and a masterpiece of a cover song.

Silly Symphony On the Record Cast 2005

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo - Jo Stafford & Gordon MacRae

JO STAFFORD'S career started in the late thirties when she started singing with her sisters. The Stafford Sisters made a name for themselves and soon Jo found herself joining another group, the Pied Pipers.

In 1944 she decided to go solo and recorded many records for Capital Records. It was here that she met GORDON MCRAE and together they recorded the hit Say Something Sweet to Your Sweetheart. They recorded a few more songs together, including Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo in 1949.

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo is not an original Disney song. It was written in 1948 and was popularized by two recordings in 1949. One by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters and this one. This is why you will hear a few extra verses that were not included when Disney introduced this song in Cinderella in 1950. The Jo Stafford and Gordon McRae recording can be found on CAPITAL SINGS KIDS' SONGS FOR GROWN-UPS.

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo Jo Stafford & Gordon McRae 1949

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo - Bobby McFerrin

Even though majority of the world only knows BOBBY MCFERRIN as a one hit wonder from his song Don't Worry, Be Happy, he actually has quite an impressive body of work. He has never been popular in the commercial world because of his unusual jazz-influenced vocal arrangements but that never stopped Bobby from doing what he loves. In fact, he only recorded Don't Worry, Be Happy because his label rep told him to write something that could be commercially sold.

Bobby McFerrin has recorded a couple of songs for Disney, including this one: Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo (the Magic Song) from Cinderella. This track was recorded in 1995 as part of a compilation album called THE MUSIC OF DISNEY'S CINDERELLA featuring famous pop stars singing the songs from Cinderella as well as a newly recorded version of the film's score.

This song is right up McFerrin's alley. His clever arrangement and his skill at manipulating his voice work perfectly with the nonsense words in this song.

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo Bobby McFerrin 1995