Around the world there are grandparents, parents,
and children who can still sing ditties by Tigger or Baloo the Bear or the Seven
Dwarves. This staying power and global reach is in large part a testimony to the
pizzazz of performers, songwriters, and other creative artists who worked with
Walt Disney Records.
Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records
chronicles for the first time the fifty-year history of the Disney recording
companies launched by Walt Disney and Roy Disney in the mid-1950s, when
Disneyland Park, Davy Crockett, and the Mickey Mouse Club were taking the world
by storm. The book provides a perspective on all-time Disney favorites and
features anecdotes, reminiscences, and biographies of the artists who brought
Disney magic to audio.
Authors Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar go behind the
scenes at the Walt Disney Studios and discover that in the early days Walt
Disney and Roy Disney resisted going into the record business before the success
of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" ignited the in-house label. Along the way, the
book traces the recording adventures of such Disney favorites as Mickey Mouse,
Donald Duck, Cinderella, Bambi, Jiminy Cricket, Winnie the Pooh, and even Walt
Disney himself. Mouse Tracks reveals the struggles, major successes, and
occasional misfires. Included are impressions and details of teen-pop princesses
Annette Funicello and Hayley Mills, the Mary Poppins phenomenon, a Disney-style
"British Invasion," and a low period when sagging sales forced Walt Disney to
suggest closing the division down.
Complementing each chapter are brief performer
biographies, reproductions of album covers and art, and facsimiles of related
promotional material. Mouse Tracks is a collector's bonanza of
information on this little-analyzed side of the Disney empire.
Tim Hollis lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Three of
his previous books—histories of tourism and children's television—are published
by University Press of Mississippi. Two-time Grammy nominee Greg Ehrbar, a
twenty-year Disney company veteran, is a writer of advertising, books,
television specials, radio shows, compact discs, and Walt Disney Records Read-Alongs.
