When You Wish Upon a Star/Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee - Mormon Tabernacle Choir

As with every third Friday of the month, today is When You Wish Upon a Star Friday and this time I'm featuring a version of the song sung by one of the most famous choirs in the world.

THE MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR formed in 1847 almost immediately after the Mormons settled in the Salt Lake Valley. Over the years they have toured the world, recorded many albums (its first was recorded in 1910), won many awards, performed for many presidents, and have hosted their own radio program(Music and Spoken Word, the longest running program in history) and television programs. The choir is made up of 360 men and women.

In 1990, under the direction of JEROLD OTTLEY, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir recorded a Walt Disney tribute album called WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR. The choir is backed by Columbia Records very own Columbia Symphony Orchestra and together they create a beautiful journey through the history of Disney music classics.

When You Wish Upon a Star/Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee is the lead track on the album and a great blend of the two classic Pinocchio tunes.

When You Wish Upon a Star The Mormon Tabernacle Choir 1990

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