For fans of Disneyland, Disney music or both, let me say that this is hands down the most extensive, best put together, longest set of park music ever put out. At a whopping 7 1/2+ hour running time, this collection can certainly sate even the most ardent Disney maniac, and if you listen to the whole thing in a row, you might just start hallucinating and believe you are actually physically in the park. That said, the collection doesn't include absolutely everything one might want in a 'complete' set, so this review warrants a little detail about what is and isn't included.
The 65 track collection covers pretty much every major attraction in Disneyland, and some minor ones, and the remastered recordings truly sound great. Comparing the track 'Fantasyland Darkride Suite', which has appeared on almost every park music cd put out over the past 20 years, with previous versions, the clarity of the remastered tracks is indeed noticeable.
I should also mention that there is a great hardcover book included with the collection that speaks specifically about the park and its music. This has obviously never been available with previous sets, and is in itself a fascinating Disneyland collectible. The coffee table-style book is in beautiful full-color, and details the development of music in the park on a land-by-land format.
There are quite a few selections in this collection that are either 'rare' or 'previously unreleased', and one of the great features of this set is that Disney decided to include quite a few tracks that would not have made the cut on a single or double disc collection. Main Street usually gets shorted on park cds, but in this case they included a selection by the Main Street Sax Quartet, The Melomen, Alexander's Ragtime Band and others. This is an excellent beginning to the set, since almost any visit to the park begins with the familiar sounds of these groups. There are some oddballs on the set, which in most cases are also nice to have. For example, a violin quartet version of 'Feed the Birds' is featured as music that one might hear when dining in the exclusive Club 33. 'Love is a Song' as played in the Disney Gallery is also included. I'm not sure that these stand out as very relatable to Disneyland, but they are nice recordings and flow well on the collection.
As far as the soundtracks for the rides, one of the great things about this set is that in most cases Disney splurges with time and puts the full soundtrack on here. Pretty much any ride with a well-defined pre-recorded musical track is included. Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye is on here, as well as Star Tours, Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin, and many others. Some previous collections have short shrifted two of the most important rides - The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. Happily, this set includes a full 14 minute Mansion track and a 16 minute Pirates track. There are longer versions available on previous sets (specifically the ride soundtracks for either attraction, which are rare but obtainable), but the tracks for this set tend to be a little more accessible and enjoyable to listen to. The versions here include the full show, but blend the track and music together better so as not to be quite as disjointed as they are when floating through the ride. There are also quite a few gems from closed attractions. Most notably, the original Submarine Voyage narration is on here, as well as Voyage Thru Inner Space.
The shows make a decent appearance on here. You get the full Tiki Room show, which is nice, as well as the original Golden Horseshoe Revue, the 50th Anniversary fireworks show (which is great) and the full Fantasmic! show. A 9 minute version of the Main Street Electrical Parade is included, which is considerably shorter than the 15 minute version on the Main Street Electrical Parade and Fantasmic! soundtrack cds. I am also happy they included Small World Holiday and Haunted Mansion Holiday, which previously were only rarely available.
So, given the laudable inclusions on this set, what's missing? There do seem to be a few glaring omissions, which is probably understandable since there's no way Disney could include everything from the past 50 years. Still, it would have been nice to have 'Fantasy in the Sky' (the fireworks show that ran for several decades) and 'Light Magic' (a short run replacement for the electrical parade, which failed but had an excellent soundtrack). These have not appeared since the 1992 Official Album, which is quite impossible to find.
There are also no tracks from Disney's California Adventure on this collection, which is most likely because they wanted to keep this a Disneyland collection. This is fine, except that DCA is now part of the Disneyland experience and it would have been nice to have some of these tracks, particularly Jerry Goldsmith's rousing soundtrack to Soarin' Over California. There are DCA tracks available on the 2-disc 'Happiest Celebration on Earth' set, but this doubles up on almost every Disneyland track.
It might also have been nice to have more selections from former attractions. Perhaps there aren't a lot of closed rides with good soundtracks, but as someone who never visited the park before 1980 (due to not having been born), I'd like to hear some of the classic attractions that no longer exist.
In the category of 'unnecessarily included', I would point out there are three full shows from the Country Bear Jamboree - the original show, the vacation hoedown, and the holiday show. I'm not sure 45 minutes of Country Bear Jamboree was warranted, and these tend to stick out as some of the only 'unlistenable' tracks.
So, overall this is a great offering by Disney with relatively few problems. For the casual park fan, this is probably all you'll ever need to sufficiently satisfy your Disneyland craving. For the truly devoted, this is also a must-have, but you will probably want to supplement it with the 2-disc 50th anniversary set, both the 1991 and 1997 versions of the 'Official Album of Disneyland', and perhaps the Disneyworld 2 disc 'Happiest Celebration on Earth' set (if you like Disneyworld music, which tends to be a little lame). Hardcore fans will also want to get the ride soundtracks to Pirates and Haunted Mansion, which are rare and usually only available in the park or by online auction.
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A Musical History of Disneyland, 50th Anniversary
Box Set, Remastered
$300.96$300.96
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Audio CD, Box set, Original recording remastered, September 20, 2005
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Track Listings
Disc: 1
| 1 | Walt Disney's Dedication of Disneyland |
| 2 | All Aboard - Main Street Station |
| 3 | Minnie's Yoo Hoo! |
| 4 | Meet Me Down on Main Street |
| 5 | Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln |
| 6 | Disney Medley: March of the Toys/Whistle While You Work/Zip-A-Dee- ... |
| 7 | Alexander's Ragtime Band |
| 8 | Let's Dance at Disneyland |
| 9 | Tiki Room Barker Bird |
| 10 | The Enchanted Tiki Room Garden Show |
| 11 | Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room: The Tiki Tiki Tiki ... |
| 12 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye |
| 13 | Swisskapolka |
| 14 | Tarzan Medley |
| 15 | The Mark Twain: Waiting for the Robert E. Lee/Crusin' Down the River |
| 16 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me) |
| 17 | Feed the Birds |
| 18 | Love Is a Song |
| 19 | Sounds of the Frontierland Station |
Disc: 2
| 1 | Happy Rag |
| 2 | The Haunted Mansion: Grim Grinning Ghosts |
| 3 | Rufus |
| 4 | Bearless Love |
| 5 | Country Bear Jamboree: Pianjo/Bear Band Serenade/Fractured Folk Song |
| 6 | All I Want |
| 7 | Splash Mountain: How Do You Do/Ev'rybody Has a Laughing ... |
| 8 | Country Bear Vacation Hoedown: The Great Outdoors/Life's No Picnic ... |
| 9 | The Rain, Rain, Rain Came Down, Down, Down |
| 10 | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Winnie the Pooh/A Rather ... |
Disc: 3
| 1 | Battle Cry of Freedom |
| 2 | A Cowboy Needs a Horse |
| 3 | Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland and the Rainbow Caverns |
| 4 | All Aboard the Mine Train |
| 5 | The Golden Horseshoe Revue: Hello Everybody/A Lady Has to Mind Her PS ... |
| 6 | The Columbia Sailing Ship |
| 7 | When You Wish Upon a Star |
| 8 | Once Upon a Dream |
| 9 | Fantasyland Dark Ride Suite: Little Wooden Head/Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee ... |
| 10 | Matterhorn Yodelers |
Disc: 4
| 1 | It's a Small World |
| 2 | The Sound of Toons |
| 3 | Steamboat Willie |
| 4 | Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin |
| 5 | 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea Medley: Main Title/Whale of a Tale |
| 6 | America the Beautiful |
| 7 | The Monorail Song |
| 8 | Adventure Thru Inner Space |
| 9 | Miracles from Molecules |
| 10 | Star Tours |
| 11 | The Carousel of Progress: There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow |
| 12 | Progressland: There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow |
Disc: 5
| 1 | Nation on Wheels |
| 2 | Flight to the Moon |
| 3 | America Sings: Yankee Doodle/I Dream of Jeannie with the Light ... |
| 4 | The Submarine Voyage Thru Liquid Space |
| 5 | Space Mountain |
| 6 | Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters |
| 7 | Space Mountain |
| 8 | Remember Dreams Come True: Wishes Fanfare and Theme/When You Wish Upon |
| 9 | Closing: Mickey Mouse Alma Mater |
Disc: 6
| 1 | The Country Bear Christmas Special: Rudolph the Red-Nosed ... |
| 2 | It's a Small World Holiday: Jingle Bells/It's a Small World/Deck ... |
| 3 | Haunted Mansion Holiday /Graveyard Finale/Hitchh ... [Premiere Edition/ |
| 4 | The Main Street Electrical Parade: Electric Fanfare/Fanfare of ... |
| 5 | Fantasmic!: Main Themes, Pts. 1-2/Kaa and the Monkeys ... |
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Product Dimensions : 13 x 13 x 1.75 inches; 4.56 Pounds
- Manufacturer : Walt Disney Records
- Date First Available : January 28, 2007
- Label : Walt Disney Records
- ASIN : B000AA4MHM
- Number of discs : 6
- Best Sellers Rank: #119,549 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #461 in Disney Music
- #76,553 in Pop (CDs & Vinyl)
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
4.9 out of 5 stars
4.9 out of 5
47 global ratings
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Almost Perfect
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2006
W. Smith and others already had a good review on details of this CD box set. I would like to point out some other things. This set is almost but not perfect; I appreciate every original track and found the book is very informative.But in term of collection I have some comments, first this box set has very big size (W x H), it's difficult to place it on shelve with other collections. Second, there always have very small pieces of paper on CD, they come from the package itself, because they use a low quality paper for CD package. Third, (from my point of view), screen on CD is very ugly. It looks like they use free download clip art for screening.
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2006
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Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2007
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Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2011
The other reviews of Musical History are very well written, so I'm just going to say this:
The sound quality is unbelievable. The soundtracks for some of the oldest attractions in the Park, like The Tiki Room are as clear, bright, clean, loud, powerful, deep, and perfect as recordings made last week. Also, great job on the mixing, and there Are many, many tracks here that have Never been on any Disney Parks CD or LP. But...
There is a lot missing from this set. It's wonderful that this release is on 6 CDs, but they're Not full. There was room on each CD for a lot more stuff... The Area Music in this box set, for example, represents less than 10% of what's available.
Also, this collection has Mr. Lincoln with a shortened ending, instead of the entire America Golden Dream song. It was a challenge mixing that for myself, using this recording and the song itself from a Parks CD, but I managed it, and it turned out perfect.
The Jungle Cruise LP with Thurl Ravenscroft is very good, but it's not on here.
There's no ride on the Disneyland RR around the Park.
And I love that many of the tracks in this collection are mixed with ambient sounds, nature sounds, the Horse Drawn Streetcar, and other sound effects, but it would have been nice if some of those ambient sound mixes would have been a Lot longer.
Randy's mix of Pirates is amazing. He did a fantastic job on that. Everything is perfect. I totally love it. But for some reason, he added a lot of reverb to the Tiki Room. I have a version with less reverb, and louder chanting near the end, and it sounds a lot better.
One more thing - The Book. I was actually very disappointed in the book in this box. I would like to see a lot more information on the original taping sessions, and on Mr. Thornton's search for the tapes, and mixing them for this set. Also names of performers, and where they did the recording sessions.
So, if a second edition of Musical History of Disneyland is ever done, maybe some of the suggestions found in these reviews could be taken into consideration.
Thank You though, Mr. Thornton for the Happiest Box Set on Earth.
The sound quality is unbelievable. The soundtracks for some of the oldest attractions in the Park, like The Tiki Room are as clear, bright, clean, loud, powerful, deep, and perfect as recordings made last week. Also, great job on the mixing, and there Are many, many tracks here that have Never been on any Disney Parks CD or LP. But...
There is a lot missing from this set. It's wonderful that this release is on 6 CDs, but they're Not full. There was room on each CD for a lot more stuff... The Area Music in this box set, for example, represents less than 10% of what's available.
Also, this collection has Mr. Lincoln with a shortened ending, instead of the entire America Golden Dream song. It was a challenge mixing that for myself, using this recording and the song itself from a Parks CD, but I managed it, and it turned out perfect.
The Jungle Cruise LP with Thurl Ravenscroft is very good, but it's not on here.
There's no ride on the Disneyland RR around the Park.
And I love that many of the tracks in this collection are mixed with ambient sounds, nature sounds, the Horse Drawn Streetcar, and other sound effects, but it would have been nice if some of those ambient sound mixes would have been a Lot longer.
Randy's mix of Pirates is amazing. He did a fantastic job on that. Everything is perfect. I totally love it. But for some reason, he added a lot of reverb to the Tiki Room. I have a version with less reverb, and louder chanting near the end, and it sounds a lot better.
One more thing - The Book. I was actually very disappointed in the book in this box. I would like to see a lot more information on the original taping sessions, and on Mr. Thornton's search for the tapes, and mixing them for this set. Also names of performers, and where they did the recording sessions.
So, if a second edition of Musical History of Disneyland is ever done, maybe some of the suggestions found in these reviews could be taken into consideration.
Thank You though, Mr. Thornton for the Happiest Box Set on Earth.
7 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2010
For the Disneyland enthusiast -- this collection is for you! Yes, Disneyland sells 2-disc collections at their parks that give you a nice, but edited taste of the park's music and sounds, but this set covers the entire history of the park.
For me, the biggest selling point was to be able to take a full audio ride through the likes of The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain whenever I wanted to feel some of that Disney magic when I can't actually be there. There are also other full-ride tracks from former attractions that let you relive old memories or maybe experience some of the rides that you never got a chance to go on. Having the entire audio to the evening shows -- Fantasmic, the Remember Dreams Come True fireworks display and the Main Street Electrical Parade -- is also a very nice perk as well.
This set certainly could be even more complete by having more complete audio of Star Tours, Indiana Jones and others, but they still managed to cram A LOT of goodness onto these 6-CDs and that still makes this collection quite worthy of 5-stars.
I don't think that I'd recommend this set for the casual Disneyland goer. For something that costs as much as this set does, this is more for those who have an emotional tie to the park and might enjoy experiencing the park now and again from the comfort of their home.
For me, the biggest selling point was to be able to take a full audio ride through the likes of The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain whenever I wanted to feel some of that Disney magic when I can't actually be there. There are also other full-ride tracks from former attractions that let you relive old memories or maybe experience some of the rides that you never got a chance to go on. Having the entire audio to the evening shows -- Fantasmic, the Remember Dreams Come True fireworks display and the Main Street Electrical Parade -- is also a very nice perk as well.
This set certainly could be even more complete by having more complete audio of Star Tours, Indiana Jones and others, but they still managed to cram A LOT of goodness onto these 6-CDs and that still makes this collection quite worthy of 5-stars.
I don't think that I'd recommend this set for the casual Disneyland goer. For something that costs as much as this set does, this is more for those who have an emotional tie to the park and might enjoy experiencing the park now and again from the comfort of their home.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries
たこっち
4.0 out of 5 stars
値段以上の価値あり!
Reviewed in Japan on January 3, 2006
カリフォルニアのディズニーランドのアトラクションの曲を中心に集めたかなりマニアックなCDです。
値段がかなり高価なので購入を躊躇される方も多いと思いますが、下記の人達は買って損は無いと思います。
・アトラクションの曲を集めている方。
・カントリーベアシアターが大好きな方。(3シーズンのすべての曲が入っています)
また、下記の項目に3つ以上当てはまる方も買って損が無いと思います。
・昔のチキルームが大好きな方。(チキの神様の紹介から全て入っています)
・カリブの海賊が大好きな方
・ホーンテッドマンションが大好きな方
・CD 「Haunted Mansion Holiday」 の購入を考えている方
・イッツ・ア・スモール・ワールドが大好きな方
・クリスマス限定の「It's a Small World Holiday」が気に入っている方
・ファンタズミックが忘れられない方(WDW版とは異なる部分がありますが、それでも楽しめると思います)
値段がかなり高価なので購入を躊躇される方も多いと思いますが、下記の人達は買って損は無いと思います。
・アトラクションの曲を集めている方。
・カントリーベアシアターが大好きな方。(3シーズンのすべての曲が入っています)
また、下記の項目に3つ以上当てはまる方も買って損が無いと思います。
・昔のチキルームが大好きな方。(チキの神様の紹介から全て入っています)
・カリブの海賊が大好きな方
・ホーンテッドマンションが大好きな方
・CD 「Haunted Mansion Holiday」 の購入を考えている方
・イッツ・ア・スモール・ワールドが大好きな方
・クリスマス限定の「It's a Small World Holiday」が気に入っている方
・ファンタズミックが忘れられない方(WDW版とは異なる部分がありますが、それでも楽しめると思います)
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