Mickey Mouse Disco | |
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Studio album by Mickey Mouse | |
Released | July 1979 |
Genre | Disco |
Length | 29:29 |
Label | Disneyland |
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Mickey Mouse Disco is an album released by Disneyland Records in 1979.[2] A late entry in the genre of disco, Mickey Mouse Disco included disco versions of Disney songs and Disney-fied versions of disco hits. The album was re-released on CD in 1995, and later as a download. On April 13, 2019, in honor of the album's 40th anniversary, the original LP was reissued for the annual Record Store Day.[3]
The album peaked at number 35 on Billboard's Pop Albums Chart and was certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA.[4]
Arrangement is done by Dennis Burnside (except "It's a Small World").
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Australia (ARIA)[6] | Gold | 20,000^ |
Canada (Music Canada)[7] | 2× Platinum | 200,000^ |
United States (RIAA)[8] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Mickey Mouse Disco | |
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Directed by | Riley Thomson Dave Hand Charles Nichols Jack King Ben Sharpsteen Jack Kinney Norman Ferguson |
Produced by | Ron Miller Walt Disney (archival footage, uncredited) |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 7 minutes |
A short film based on the album, a music video clip show of classic Disney cartoons comprising five of the nine songs featured[9] was released theatrically on June 25, 1980, alongside the feature The Last Flight of Noah's Ark.[10][11]
The clips featured in the short were Thru the Mirror (1936), Clock Cleaners (1937), Mr. Duck Steps Out (1940), Mickey's Birthday Party and Symphony Hour (both 1942), the first appearance of Panchito Pistoles from The Three Caballeros (1944), Mickey's Delayed Date (1947) and How to Dance (1953). It was also included in episodes of various Disney cartoon compilation shows, such as Mickey's Mouse Tracks, The Ink & Paint Club and Donald's Quack Attack.
"Disco Mickey Mouse" has appeared on more Disney compilation albums like Hallmark Celebrates 75 Years With Mickey [12] and Walt Disney Records Archive Collection, Vol.1 [13]
D23 celebrated the album's 40th anniversary with a roller disco party.[14]
A sample of the discofied version of "It's a Small World" can be heard on Fatboy Slim's 1999 recording "Praise You".[15]
The outfit that Mickey wears on the cover of the album is on display as one of his costumes in the queue of the Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway attraction at Disneyland. In addition, a selection of songs from the album can be heard from sound equipment next to the costume.[16][17]
The album may have been titled Mickey Mouse Disco, but Mickey's voice is nowhere to be heard. However, Donald Duck makes a memorable appearance in "Macho Duck", Tom Worrall's spoof of the Village People hit "Macho Man", with lead vocals by Nashville studio singer Eddie Frierson. In this song, Jim Tadevic, who was on the Disney studio staff as location spotter, plays Donald. Tadevic had filled in as early as 1964 when Clarence Nash was unavailable to voice Donald for one reason or another, appearing first in commercials and later in Disney educational products. Tadevic's Donald differed from Nash's because Tadevic generated the voice in his throat rather the back of the mouth, as Nash and most other successors had done. Disney executives believed that Tadevic's vocal process made him more suitable for narration and other duties in which Donald's normally poor diction would have been a hindrance. For "Macho Duck", Tadevic was called in to listen to the completed song and ad-lib responses. "The version you hear on the album is the result of four different takes, with the best stuff from each edited together," he explained. The end result was so entertaining that Tony Pope was then brought in to add comic dialogue to "Watch Out for Goofy", as the lovable bumbler made a shambles of the dance floor and its patrons.