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RR 2010/186 The Disney Song Encyclopedia Thomas S. Hischak and Mark A. Robinson Scarecrow Press Lanham, MD, and Plymouth 2009 xvii + 347 pp. ISBN 978 0 8108 6937 0 £31.95/$49.95 Also available as an e-book (ISBN 978 0 8108 6938 7)
Keywords Cinema, Encyclopedias, Music
Review DOI 10.1108/09504121011045827
Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho - It's off to work we go . . . Is there really anyone who does not know this well known song that the seven dwarfs sing on their way to and from work at the mine in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Walt Disney's 1937 masterpiece? Actually it did not only feature in Snow White but was in the 1938 comedy, Having Wonderful Time. It has also been recorded by such artists as Louis Armstrong, Mary Martin and Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights. A bluegrass rendition was recorded by Mike Toppins, Glen Duncan, Billy Troy, Jim Brown, James Freeze, and David Chase. It is one of the most recognisable pieces of music in American popular culture.
Heigh-Ho and other songs appear in The Disney Song Encyclopedia written by a couple of film academics and enthusiasts, Thomas S. Hischak and Mark A. Robinson, who point out, that, for the purposes of the book, a Disney song is any new song written for a Disney product, be it a feature or short film, a Broadway musical, a television show or special, a made-for video production, a record, or a theme park.
The encyclopedia begins with a short preface and A Brief History of Disney Music (four pages) before launching into the A-Z entries which begin with Absolam, My Absolam, a song of regret and loss from the biblical concert King David (1997) which was presented on Broadway to open Disney's newly restored New Amsterdam Theatre. Alan Menkin composed the...