An Interview With Randy Thornton
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LP: Do you work on the Paris or Tokyo CDs at all?

Randy Thorton: No, I�ve been trying to � Tokyo has their own kind of thing, and they�re very good about their albums. Again, I have a very unique way of looking at these things. I don�t want it to seem behind the scenes in any way, and there�s very much a thought process that goes into how I produce these things and in the sequencing of the tracks and how they flow from one another, and it�s different than a lot of people.

But Tokyo has always done some things, but Paris has never really done an official album. They�ve had some singles here and there, and I�ve often offered, and I�ve told the people over there that I have these tracks, ones that you can use, from the American parks over there as well, and nothing�s been going on. However, recently, I�ve been contacted by our international division that Paris is looking at doing an official album, and I said I�d be more than happy to help in any way. They seem uninterested in that at the moment. But I sent them over to Imagineering, to all the guys that I work with � John Dennis, Michael Fracassi, Glen Barker and those guys. These guys, they�re terrific.

I can�t say enough about the guys at Imagineering. They�re so helpful, and they really have an understanding of what it is that I�m trying to do, and I think they also are very well aware of the fact that I want to highlight all their hard work and � �cause when you go through an attraction at a park, there�s no credit roll like there is at a movie. These guys toil away, and they design these things and get the praise when it�s good and get thrashed and hung up outside the castle and beaten with sticks when somebody perceives that something might be wrong.

LP: Yes, on my website.

Randy Thorton: Yeah � oh. Yeah, we won�t go there. I visit your site. I visit all the sites. I visit all the major sites, and I read the discussion boards to keep my finger on the pulse of what the fans are interested in. I�m mainly focusing on music, so I�ve sort of stayed out of the brouhaha so far.

LP: Smart man.

Randy Thorton: But I also understand where fans are coming from, it�s their passion. I know a lot of the fans on some of these boards always complain, �Oh, �Yo Ho�s� on there again, and �Small World�s� on there again.� Well, yeah, of course it is. It�s a souvenir of Disneyland, man. That�s who it�s for. It�s for the casual viewers. It�s not for the hardcore fans. I try and put some obscure stuff on there, but I have to focus on the people that are coming there. Like I said, that family of eight that spend all year trying to come out there. This is a way they can take some of that home along with their pictures and their memories. It�s just a reinforcement.

LP: Given that this is made for the casual visitor who wants a souvenir to take home, and those probably aren�t going to be impacted too much by things on iTunes, do you think it�ll reach the point where you will just fill iTunes with attraction soundtracks as well to keep the fans happy while knowing the regular guests will still buy the souvenir album.

Randy Thornton: I would very much like to do that. One of the problems is is that Walt Disney Records doesn�t own these records. They�re all Imagineering, and it�s one thing for us to put out an album � one of the reasons why the albums aren�t available to the general public as far as regular retail goes is that Disneyland Merchandisers wants this as an exclusive.

Now, I tell you, if I knew anybody that was going to Disneyland just so they could pick up the album, first off, I would send them to a doctor, and I would pay for their admission to get into the park. That�s not why people go to the park. But that�s what they want, and they�re footing the bill, so there ya go.

As for iTunes, it�s something that I�d like to approach. I would probably start off with attractions that are no longer there. One of the things that I plan on putting out with the next couple of waves of iTunes is the original Epcot Center album, which has � we released it as a record, so we�ve already done the clearances, and all that�s out there and everything, and it�s representative of attractions that aren�t there anymore. So there�s that nostalgia to it. Who knows what it leads to.

It�s difficult to go to an organization like Imagineering, who spends millions and millions of dollars for their attractions and just as much money for their music, and the time of negotiating all the deals and getting all that recorded and perfected and making egos happy and all that kind of stuff, to come back and be this guy from the record company, �Hey, can we take all that work that you�ve just done so we can sell it and make money off of it.� Because they don�t get any money back from it. They�re not a retail base. They�re not a profit-generating entity.

So to take all their hard work, and for us just to sit on our laurels, and even though I do a lot of work to make these things a record, it�s a weird kind of thing, and it�s something that I�ve talked with the guys at Imagineering before, but there�s so many things going on right now that it�s just not really a high priority as far as that goes. It�s something that I really, really want to do, and I think there�s a place for it.

I would like to do something like what Disneyland and Disney World Forever did, except instead of just being a collection of sound files I want to group these things together. If you want the area from Main Street, it�s all there. Everything that isn�t licensed, isn�t from another record label, anything that�s generated by us. If you want Carousel of Progress, you get the entire show like was on the Disneyland boxed set, plus maybe the music-only section for the orchestra and the big parts and a couple other ancillary things on the side, putting it together that way. That�s another thing too.

But I�m also really focused on trying to get Walt Disney Records� old material out there. It�s taken me a long time to get to this point, and now that the opportunity�s there � and with the success the record company�s had with High School Musical and Hannah Montana, the hardcore fans can pooh-pooh those all they want to, but that�s the reason why I was able to get 20,000 Leagues out.

So it�s not like these are movies that go out and tell you to kill your neighbor�s parrot or pets or things like that. These movies do have good messages to them, and they�re being incredibly successful. That brings revenue into the company that allows me to do some of these more obscure things that people like us are interested in.

So there�s good and bad in everything, and take the money when you can, and get as much stuff out there as you possibly can within the time you�ve got it. And I was given quite a big chunk of money this last year to transfer all of our masters and get them ready. So they may not have been restored yet, but everything�s all transferred now. So now it�s going to be easier than ever just to start pulling titles and doing it. Unfortunately, that�s only my side job. I�m kind of doing all the iTunes things on my own time as opposed to the regular work stuff like the Read Alongs and park albums and other projects.