Music Month: Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films

Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films has some interesting interpretations of some Disney classic songs. Some are virtually unrecognizable. Most are not from fairy tale films. After all, the CD was produced in 1988 before Beauty and the Beast and some of the more recent films had become classics. Snow White, however, has two songs with unusual treatments.

And since the new Snow White film is released today, I thought sharing these Snow White songs was rather appropriate and even a little ironic (if you listen to them).

SurLaLune reader Cindy recommended this CD and here are here words:

For your music month, I would like to recommend STAY AWAKE: VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF MUSIC FROM DISNEY FILMS. This is NOT a Disney release, but re-interpretations of Disney fairy tale songs from everybody from Tom Waits to Sinead O'Connor, Suzanne Vega and Bonnie Raitt (and many more). The best is Tom Waits doing his renditon of "Heigh Ho, The Dwarf's Marching Song" (he turns the dwarf's mining into forced labor - you can hear the chains dragging in the background and the despair in the "Heigh Ho" chant.) "Someday My Prince Will Come" by Sinead O'Connor is another good one. You might better call this "Alternative Disney."

A little more palatable for a larger audience is Someday My Prince Will Come by Sinead O'Connor:



A little more difficult and with a narrower taste is Tom Waits' Heigh-Ho! (The Dwarfs' Marching Song):



Rumor has it that Disney was upset by this interpretation and managed to keep the CD from being reprinted or rereleased, hoping it would disappear after the first printing went out of print. But the internet keeps it alive now thanks to YouTube and others.