Winnie the Pooh - Shanghai Quartet

Way back on April 14 in 1969, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day was awarded an Oscar for Best Short Subject. The short, which originally aired in 1968 before The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit, is an important one in history because it is the first appearance of Tigger in a Disney production. The story of the storm that floods the 100 Acre Wood and destroys Owl's house was later compiled with the other Pooh shorts to create the feature film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

I have chosen to post this classical version of the Winnie the Pooh theme by SHANGHAI QUARTET. The track comes off HEIGH-HO MOZART, an album in which Disney songs are interpreted in the styles of famous classical composers. Winnie the Pooh is arranged in the style of the famous Russian composer, SERGEI PROKOFIEV.

Sergei Prokofiev was a child prodigy. In 1896, he composed his first piece when he was five and he asked his mother to write it down because he couldn't do it himself. He continued to pursue his music and composed many symphonies, operas and even a film score for the 1938 film Alexander Nevsky.

Prokofiev's life got harder after WWII when the Soviet government decided that his music was a form of Russian Formalism and needed to be censored. This caused Prokofiev to withdraw from society in order to work on his music. It soon became common for theatres to refuse to play his compositions causing Prokofiev to withdraw even further. His health suffered and soon he was only working on his music for about an hour a day.

His last public presentation of his work was his Seventh Symphony in 1952 which he was asked to rewrite the ending to make it more cheery. He died a year later of a cerebral hemorrhage. Prokofiev's life and his work have become important in Russian history as he is considered to be one of the greatest composers in the 20th century.

Winnie the Pooh Shanghai Quartet 1995

Hip Hip Pooh-ray - Domino & Stormy Seven

Today is the 31st anniversary of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, the feature film that took the three Winnie the Pooh short subjects, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, and tied them together in a seamless package.

Today I have chosen to celebrate this anniversary with a song heard at the end of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day from 1968. Hip Hip Pooh-Ray was sung to Pooh after he 'saved' Piglet from almost certain death and to Piglet after he gave up his home for Owl. It was written by the Sherman Brothers and is one of the lesser known Pooh songs.

In 2000, Eurobeat record label A-Beat-C released a series of Eurobeat Disney albums. The fourth in the series focus on Pooh and featured a few obscure Pooh songs, all by Eurobeat's top talent.

One of most recognized names in the Eurobeat is DOMINO who has recorded a number of Disney songs. Domino, whose real name is Allesandra Mirka Gatti, was part of the duo Dave and Domino with her husband until they divorced in 2004. Together, they were one of the top Eurobeat groups and have made a name for themselves since their split.

Thanks to Jamie for turning me onto this album! He doesn't think it's that great (I do agree that it is super cheesy and can get quite annoying a few songs) but the Eurobeat albums are far greater than any of the American produced Dance remix albums.

Hip Hip Pooh-Ray Domino & Stormy Seven 2001