This posting comes at a year when Disneyland Park is celebrating its 55th Anniversary and the recent news about the return of the Main Street Electrical Parade at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and the 30th Anniversary of the very first Official Album of music from the Disney Theme Parks. This album undoubtedly one my favorites and
Remains the best of Official Albums.
After my very first visit to Disneyland back in 1981, this was a fantastic audio souvenir of Disneyland and something to recall the wonderful classic attractions including America Sings, Country Bear Jamboree, It’s A Small World and the nighttime classic, The Main Street Electrical Parade. From that year on, the Official Albums have been reissued with new material while updated versions of the main stay tracks from The Haunted Mansion, It’s A Small World, etc have been released. Still, the 1980 release holds a special place in my heart due to the aforementioned attractions no longer being at Disneyland. Here are the track listings of the album:
Side One
The Main Street Electrical Parade (Baroque Hoedown and a medley of Disney favorites)*
Pirates of the Caribbean (Yo Ho, A Pirates Life For Me)
The Music of Main Street
+The Dapper Dans (Coney Island Washboard)
+ The Saxophone Quartet (Minnie’s Yoo Hoo)
+ The Main Street Pianist (Maple Leaf Rag)
The Enchanted Tiki Room (The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room)
The Blue Grass Boys (Foggy Mountain Breakdown)
Country Bear Jamboree (Pianjo, Bear Band Serenade, Fractured Folk Song, How Long Will My Baby Be Gone, Ballad of Davy Crockett, and Come Again)
Side Two
The Disneyland Band (Mickey Mouse March)
It’s A Small World (It’s A Small World After All)
The Steel Drum Band (PP 99)
The Haunted Mansion (Grim Grinning Ghost)
The Royal Street Bachelors (Swanee River)
America Sings (Yankee Doodle, Dixie, My Old Kentucky Home, Polly Wolly Doodle, Down By The Riverside, I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, Old Chisholm Trail, She May Be Somebody’s Mother, The Bowery, After The Ball, Bill Bailey)
The Fife and Drum Corps (British Grenadiers)
The Hall of Presidents-Mr. Lincoln
*= Longer version features Casey Jr, and a Disney Neon Finale medley consisting of Heigh-Ho, When You Wish Upon a Star, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Whistle While You Work, The Mickey Mouse March, and Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. CBJ Track has “Heart, We Did All That We Could” sung by Teddi Barra.
What is interesting is that there are TWO versions of this release and it’s due to the fact that the first version features a longer medley of the Main Street Electrical Parade track and a different version of the Country Bear Jamboree with the song, “Heart, We Did All That We Could” sung by Teddi Barra. In order to obtain this track, look for this inscription on the dead wax (that’s the end of a record) WW-480* Otherwise, versions with the 680 on the dead wax will featured the above tracks.
