Production information
Produced by A.A. Records, Hudson Productions, Inc. 250W. 57th street, New York, N.Y. 10019
Record production number: LP93 Golden records
Release date: 1963
Orchestra and chorus conductor: Jim Timmens
Composed by Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, Larry Morey, and Paul J. Smith
Cast
Narrator: John Allen
Snow White: Rose Marie Jun
Prince: Ray Charles
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A Copyright issue
This LP-93 “Golden Records” album published in 1963 is an interesting experiment, the result of a complicated situation: the producers of this album only had the rights held by Bourne Inc, i.e. the songs from the Walt Disney film, but they had no right to use the story or the images.
The first obvious consequence is that the cover art depicts characters quite different from those in the film.
The story is an adaptation of the Grimm fairy tale, but it’s twisted enough for the songs to fit in. Even the vocabulary seems to have been deliberately modified so as not to evoke possible plagiarism. For example, the Queen now has a “magic looking-glass” and a “hunter”.
The songs are thus at the heart of the album, which is divided into tracks bearing their titles, even if the story is effectively told between them by John Allen. Rose Marie Jun sings for Snow White and Ray Charles (not the famous one) for the Prince. The stereo album sold for $1.89, as the back cover indicates and it was later rerleased in a double album (GD-609) with a Pinocchio record. Greg Ehrbar provides more information about the album on his website.
The story
After a musical medley introduction, the story unfolds:
Snow White is no longer a scullery maid, just a happy orphan who sings “With a Smile and a Song” for the neighborhood kids. One day, she sees a Prince who falls in love with her and sings “One Song”. The Queen overhears it, asks her magic looking glass if she is the fairest and learns that Snow White is fairer than she.
She commands her hunter to kill the girl, which the man cannot bring himself to do. Snow White escapes in the forest and after hours of walking, she finds an empty cottage and settles there.
Seven dwarfs come home singing “Heigh Ho” and persuade her to stay and help them take care of their home. They all sing “Whistle While You Work” as the girl teaches them about cleaning.
That night, as Snow White wakes up from a dream of her Prince, she goes to the window and sing “Some Day My Prince Will Come” gazing at the stars.
The Queen finds out about Snow White being still alive and plots her revenge.
The Princess sends the Dwarfs off to work. They sing “Dig Dig Dig” and “Heigh Ho”.
As Snow White gets some water from the well, she sings “I’m Wishing”. When she returns, she finds the Queen, disguised as an old peddler, who offers her an apple in exchange from a drink of water. The girl puts the apple on a shelf for later. When the dwarfs come home, she requests that they clean before dinner, and she sings them “The Washing Song”.
To show her how happy they her, the dwarfs sing “The Silly Song” (in which the infamous verse of Sneezy is included).
The Queen spies on them, but Snow White waits until the middle of the night to grab a bite of the apple that the Queen poisoned, killing her instantly.
When the dwarfs discover her, they build her a bed and rest her on her and cry. The Prince finally finds her and sings “Snow White”. He kisses Snow White and wakes her up and they both walk away.
The Queen asks the same question to the mirror. The unsatisfying answer makes her face twisted and it freezes that way when she sees the happy couple under her window. She then spends her remaining days « posing for Halloween masks ». As you may have noticed, the rather rare song “Snow White”, that was published on music sheet, but not included in the film, is on this record.
Track listing
Side A
- Overture
- With a Smile and a Song
- One Song
- Heigh-Ho, Heigh Ho
- Whistle While You Work
- Some Day My Prince Will Come
Side B
- Heigh Ho, Heigh-Ho
- I’m Wishing
- Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum
- The Yodel Song
- Snow White
- Hapilly Ever After
