Review: A Musical History of Disneyland
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New Orleans Square

Track 15 - Mark Twain Riverboat
Ah, the whistle of the Mark Twain Riverboat.  Something incredibly comforting about it.  I'm fairly sure that this is the most recent version of the Mark Twain Riverboat narration.

Track 16 - Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean has already been given several treatments at a "float-thru."  While the "Theme Park Sing-A-Long" was simply a nice musical version of the theme song, the Pirates of the Caribbean 30th anniversary CD created an extensive track with sound effects and narration.  Well again, this version is in my opinion definitely the best version.  Not only does this feature most of the primary audio of the ride, but you'll also hear the boat careening down the waterfalls. You know you're a geek when you recognize and get excited to hear the little clicking sound the chain makes when it pushes the boats over the last hill at the end of the attraction.  Sometimes it's the little things in life you treasure and thankfully this compilation does include nods to those little touches that add to the aural memory of the attraction.

Track 17 - Feed the Birds (Club 33)
Maybe not quite as cool as getting to visit the club itself, but this track features a hauntingly beautiful arrangement of this great song.

Track 18 - Love is a Song (Disney Gallery)
Somewhat forgettable chamber music arrangement of Love is a Song from Bambi.  It's a short track though, and a nod to the Disney Gallery is nice.

Track 19 - Frontierland Station
You hear the Disneyland Railroad pulling into the station as the telegraph office sends a Morse code.  No matter how many times we visited that station my dad would continually remind us that the message was Walt Disney's opening day speech of Disneyland.

Disc 2

Track 1 - (New Orleans Square area music?)
I believe this track is part of the New Orleans Square area music.  Nice light Dixieland jazz.

Track 2 - Haunted Mansion
A fantastic ride-through mix of arguably the best theme park attraction in the sound category.  The wonderful Paul Frees narration sounds better than ever.  The mix uses the post mid-90s attic, complete with the Wedding March phantom pianist (I always was convinced that the song sounded like a funeral dirge).  I was particularly blown away by the graveyard mix.  It's very easy to make that show scene sound chaotic and messy, and this was done perfectly.

Track 3 - Rufus, The Snoring Bear (Cave at Bear  Country)
Nice homage to what was a simple but fondly remembered theming touch.

Track 4 - Bearless Love (Country Bear Playhouse)
This simple country instrumental is my favorite pre-show song for the original Country Bear Jamboree.  If you owned the Country Bear Jamboree LP, this was featured on the "B" side.

Track 5 - Country Bear Jamboree
I owned this LP as a kid, and it's wonderful to hear with the sound quality that it deserves.  Of course the fact that my record skipped and scratched just makes it sound all the better.  The track features the complete show, which is still being performed at the Magic Kingdom in Florida. This show skews a little too country for my personal tastes, but how can you not enjoy Big Al's hopeless version of "Blood on the Saddle?"

Track 6 - All I Want (Critter Country area music)
This beautiful song from the Song of the South plays around Critter Country and through the queue of Splash Mountain.  An interesting choice out of the possible selections and thankfully not one of the more obvious ones like Laughin' Place or Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.  While previously available on Disneyland Forever this version sounds considerably better.  One thing I've always loved about the music in Critter Country is how the arrangements have a fluid sound, almost as if they're trying to mimic the watery nature of it's star attraction.

Track 7 - Splash Mountain
The track starts with a cute recording of a "splashdown" then it's on to an aural "float-thru" the entire attraction.  Unlike Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion, this unfortunately has some omissions that have me scratching my head.  In the How-Do-You-Do?  segment, the cute alligator ("How do you do? I'm an alligator) is missing. Also instead of using the pre-climb song, the "Don't go to the Laughin' place"  song they included the original Burrow's Lament song.  This version only lasted a couple weeks, and while nice to have, I've been after the ominous version of Laughin' Place for quite some time.  Yes, nit-picking again.  Sorry, I'll stop and get back to the track.  Overall the track is fantastic with the nice addition of the bees buzzing around the hives version of Laughin' Place previously unavailable on the Official Album Splash Mountain mixes.

Track 8 - Country Bear Vacation Hoe-down
I'm very glad to finally have an official copy of this soundtrack.  This is the version of the show that I grew up with and it sounds better than ever.  The vocal performances on this show are hilarious, especially on "Two Different Worlds" and Big Al's number.  The track even includes the exit music.

Track 9 - The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down (Many  Adventures of Winnie-The-Pooh)
Quite probably the longest title of a Disney song, this arrangement of the Sherman Brothers song plays in the queue. Even though I don't hold the Many Adventures of Winnie-The-Pooh attraction in that high of regard, I've always loved the music that accompanied the ride. 

Track 10 - Many Adventures of Winnie-The-Pooh
An instrumental ride-thru of the attraction.  There's something soothing about the music, fittingly enough for the equally gentle Winnie-the-Pooh stories.  I love the arrangements of the classic Sherman Brothers music, especially "The Wonderful Things about Tiggers" which gets more and more frantic yet keeps the light sensibility.