The Jungle Book (soundtrack)
| The Jungle Book | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | ||||
| Released | 1967 | |||
| Recorded | February 1964 - June 1967 | |||
| Genre | Traditional, jazz | |||
| Label |
Disneyland Walt Disney |
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| Producer | Larry Blakely | |||
| Disney film soundtracks chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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The Jungle Book, the soundtrack to the eponymous Disney film, has been released in three different versions since the film's release in 1967. The film score was composed by George Bruns, with songs written by Terry Gilkyson and the Sherman Brothers.
The instrumental music was written by George Bruns and orchestrated by Walter Sheets. Two of the cues were reused from previous Disney films, with the scene where Mowgli wakes up after escaping King Louie using one of Bruns' themes for Sleeping Beauty, and Bagheera giving a eulogy to Baloo when he mistakenly thinks the bear was killed by Shere Khan being accompanied by Paul J. Smith's organ score from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
"Overture" and "Jungle Beat" are acores are separated from one deleted score "The Sand of Time" from The Sword in the Stone.
Longtime Disney collaborator Terry Gilkyson was brought in to write the songs for the film. Gilkyson delivered several complete songs which were faithful in tone to Rudyard Kipling's novel, but Walt Disney felt that his efforts were too dark. The Sherman Brothers were brought in to do a complete rewrite, on the condition that they not read Kipling's book. The only piece of Gilkyson's work which survived to the final film was his upbeat tune "The Bare Necessities", which was liked by the rest of the film crew. In one of his first union jobs, famed songwriter Van Dyke Parks arranged the version of "Necessities" heard in the film. Walt Disney asked the Shermans to "find scary places and write fun songs" for their compositions, and frequently brought them to storyline sessions. The duo decided to do songs that fit in the story and advanced the plot instead of being interruptive. The song "Trust in Me" is based upon a song entitled "Land of Sand" which had been written by the Sherman Brothers for, but not used in, Mary Poppins. "We're Your Friends" was originally conceived as a rock and roll song, sung by the quartet of vultures. The vultures were even designed based on The Beatles, with moptop haircuts and Liverpudlian accents, and would be voiced by the band, which did not come into fruition due to problems with their schedule. During production Disney decided the 60's style rock would cause the song to be considered dated later, leading "We're Your Friends" to be changed to the barbershop quartet that appears in the film. One of The Mellomen's members, Bill Lee, sang as Shere Khan during the final recording of the song because George Sanders was unavailable, and can be heard on the soundtrack.
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