David Bowie "The Man Who Sold The World"

Much like "Random Ridiculous Songs That Have No Business Being Played In Public Again But I Heard In The Grocery Store Today," I keep an ear out for songs in public places, that are strangely out of place.

For instance, standing in front of the elevators of the Florence, South Carolina Doubletree Hotel, it does not seem like they should be playing David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World."

But on the tail end of a long vacation, somehow it seemed appropriate.

I'd just come from Disney, where the art of merchandising is perfected, and amazing.

I mean, it's no revelation that the amusement rides promote the movies and the movies promote the rides, and they both promote the t-shirts and stuffed animals and acres of plastic crap that is every which way you turn.

But I did find myself both impressed an horrified and the marketing onslaught.

And as I stood there in front of the elevators, I thought, yeah Bowie, you're right, you can slap a logo on just about anything and sell it.  Even the world.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Amy Adams "Happy Little Working Song"

This week, I'm on vacation with the family at Disneyworld.  So I thought I'd write some posts about Disney songs.

If you're like a younger me, maybe you feel like you're too old for Disney tunes and Disney movies.

So maybe you saw the previews for "Enchanted" and thought that there was no chance that you'd go so it.

If that's you, then reconsider.

Because while "Enchanted" is great for fans of Disney, it's also great for folks who can't stand the tropes and schmatlz of some of their films.  It doesn't an incredible job of lovingly skewering the whole genre.

Watch the scene for "Happy Little Working Song," and tell me it doesn't make you laugh.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Cliff Edwards "When I See An Elephant Fly"

This week, I'm on vacation with the family at Disneyworld.  So I thought I'd write some posts about Disney songs.

Do you feel guilty like I do, for enjoying this ditty from "Dumbo"?  Or how about "The Siamese Cat Song" from "Lady & The Tramp"?

I mean, each song on its own, is very funny and cute.  But it's impossible to ignore that in their original form, they're pretty frickin' racist.


Hear "When I See An Elephant Fly" on Youtube.


Hear "The Siamese Cat Song" song on Youtube.

Sarah McLachlan "When She Loved Me"

This week, I'm on vacation with the family at Disneyworld.  So I thought I'd write some posts about Disney songs.
Well, you couldn't be blamed for missing a few details tucked into the sequence of "Toy Story 2" where Sarah McLachlan sings "When She Loved Me" and you learned Jessie's cruel fate.

No doubt you were balling your eyes out, like the rest of us.

Have you read this piece, which theorizes that Jessie's former-owner Emily is . . . bomp-bomp-bommmmm!  Andy's Mother?!?!

It's a little nutty.  But it's a pretty thorough examination . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Replacements "Cruella De Vil"

This week, I'm on vacation with the family at Disneyworld.  So I thought I'd write some posts about Disney songs.

With a 6 year old in the house, I'm starting to see the change . . .

She has a younger brother, and every once and a while there will be some thing that she used to love, but she suddenly rejects, because "That's for little kids."

There is a lot of this in life.  At a certain point, you age out of particular toys, games, music, activities, etc.

But an unexpected delight of adulthood, is that sometimes you age back in.

By high school, I had aged out of Disney movies.  In the 80s, there was no way you were going to catch me in the theaters for "The Great Mouse Detective" or "The Black Cauldron."

Then a funny thing happened in college.

The Replacements covered "Cruella De Ville" for a compilation of Disney songs called "Stay Awake."  And while I think their delivery was somewhat ironic, I think it also holds an appreciation for the classic song-craft that went into tunes like this one.

And suddenly it was okay to like Disney songs.  Even find them fun, enjoyable and cool.

Which is why it's not unheard of for me to be the one in our house who is most enjoying Sesame Street or the Sit-N-Spin . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Bambi "Let's Sing A Gay Little Spring Song"

Hopefully, you are celebrating the end of winter and the first day of Spring by singing a gay little song . . .

Here's to getting Twitterpated!


Hear the song on Youtube.


See the scene on Youtube.

Frozen "In Summer"

We took the kids to see the Disney movie "Frozen" this weekend.

We're only on December 2nd, and I have already seen "Elmo's Christmas Countdown" three times, and "The Grinch" twice.

The switch in my brain the kinda turns off the holiday-kiddie-fare has been activated.

That said, "Frozen" was actually very, very good.  Like, I walked out of the theater humming the songs, feeling good about the message, and not having to console any small children because the villain was too f-n scary.

My wife enjoyed it too.  And before we were even to the car she said what I knew she was going to say:

"Oh, we are buying that soundtrack!"

The songs were particularly good in this Disney effort.  On par with Disney's best modern musicals, like "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty And The Beast."

On the whole, big thumbs up for this film.

If I had any minor critique about the film, it was that the Snowman character seems a little out of place.  The rest of the movie has this mystical-realism style, similar to "Brave."  And the Snowman is straight out of something very cartoon-y, almost like a computer-animated Chuck Jones creation.  It's like he's wandered in from a different film project.

That said, I expect to see more of Olaf the Snowman.  I would not be surprised to find him showing up in his own future shorts and specials.  He is hilarious (voiced by Josh Gad of "Book Of Mormon" fame), and has one of the best songs in the film, where he imagines the wonderful life of a snowman in summer.


Hear the song on Youtube.