Whistle While You Work/Heigh-Ho! Heigh-Ho! - Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Here is a short Snow White medley from the Walt Disney tribute album WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR recorded by THE MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR.

There are two songs in Snow White about working, one sung by Snow White as she cleans the dwarfs cabin and one sung by the dwarfs as they mine for diamonds. It is rather peculiar that both of these songs are about making work fun. As a Canadian, I don't know much about American history but I do know that the Great Depression was in the 30s and took most of that decade to recover from. So could it be that Disney had it in mind to create a movie about a poor working girl, forced to live in poverty, who has a cheery outlook on life and sings happy songs about working in order to help the general public through these tough times? Walt started production on this movie in 1934 so I'm sure that the depression must have been on his mind and I wouldn't be surprised if it was an influence on the film.

Under the conduction of JEROLD OTTLEY, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra take these two songs and combine them to make a jolly work song every bit as jolly as the originals.

Whistle While You Work/Heigh Ho! Heigh Ho! Mormon Tabernacle Choir 1990

Heigh-Ho (The Dwarfs Marching Song) - Louis Armstrong

I haven't done many weekly themes that focus on a movie. Usually I focus on a musical style, but this time I want to feature the music of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with a different musical style everyday.

A movie soundtrack automatically comes packaged with the release of a movie these days. Fans wonder and even get upset if a companion soundtrack is not released. But back in 1937, when Snow White was released, this was not the case.

Disney had the brilliant idea to release a set of three 78 RPM records that contained one song from the film on each side. He thought that people would be interested in listening to songs after hearing them in the movie.

He was right! Victor released Songs from Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (with the Same Characters and Sound Effects as in the Film of That Title) in January 1937 and every songs featured on the records became top 10 hits a month later!

Here is LOUIS ARMSTRONG'S take on Heigh-Ho from his album DISNEY SONGS THE SATCHMO WAY.

Heigh-Ho (The Dwarfs Marching Song) Louis Armstrong 1968

Heigh-Ho - Shanghai Quartet

If WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART was still alive, yesterday he would have turned 252! To celebrate Mozart's birthday I am posting another track from HEIGH-HO MOZART, a collection of Disney songs arranged in the styles of great composers. Here is the title track, Heigh-Ho in the style of the great Baroque composer played by the SHANGHAI QUARTET.

Mozart was a child genius. He started playing the clavier at the age of three and composing his own tunes at five! He is one of the most well known and most popular classical composers of all time. Along with his many symphonies, piano and violin concertos and sonatas, and operettas, he also composed many pieces for string quartets. This version of Heigh-Ho mimics this style.

The Shanghai Quartet is a very well known string quartet that formed in Shanghai in 1983. They have grown in popularity and have played some of the nicest venues all over the world. They have recorded many albums along with such musicians as Yo-Yo Ma, Ruth Laredo, and Arnold Steinhardt. They also provided the score for Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda

Heigh-Ho Shanghai Quartet 1995

Heigh Ho (The Dwarfs Marching Song) - Tom Waits

Hi folks. I'm Steve from Cover Freak, a blog devoted to cover songs. Kurtis has generously invited me to be a guest poster on his blog and I'm happy to contribute to such a fine endeavor.

Folks tend to either love TOM WAITS or hate him. He started his musical career as a nicotine-stained booze-soaked piano-jazz beat poet. Boy that's a lot of hyphens. You might be familiar with his songs Step Right Up or The Piano Has Been Drinking from that era.

In the mid-80s he radically reinvented his music, adding unconventional instruments and developing a more primitive sound. This song was recorded shortly after he made that transition but it's relatively mainstream in its arrangement, at least compared to his later stuff.

Even as a child I realized that mining is a very dangerous job. There's a simulated coal mine at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry that emphasizes the dangers of mining, and of course there are the unfortunate news stories of miners being trapped when mine shafts collapse.

So it always seemed weird to me that the Seven Dwarfs were so chipper about going down to the mine. What's wrong with those guys, I wondered. Seems that Tom Waits was wondering the same thing. In this song woozy keyboards and trash-can percussion conjure up a harrowing world where the dwarfs are condemned to a lifetime of hazardous backbreaking manual labor. And they're not happy about it. They'd much rather be back home, getting freaky with the tall chick.

Thanks Kurtis for letting me post on your blog. Shameless plug: For more demented covers, swing on over to Cover Freak.

Heigh Ho (The Dwarfs Marching Song) Tom Waits 1988