We've got a couple of bits of Disney music news to bring you today.   One concerns an ongoing series and the other concerns material that many have long hoped would see release!

First up, we can confirm more details about the next volume of Walt Disney Records' Legacy Collection: Cinderella.  Celebrating its 65th anniversary this year, Cinderella was Walt Disney's twelfth animated feature and was released on February 5, 1950.  It starred the voices of Ilene Woods as Cinderella, Eleanor Audley as Lady Tremaine and Verna Felton as the Fairy Godmother.  After some disappointing box-office returns on previous animated films, Cinderella turned the company's fortunes around, becoming the Disney studio's biggest hit since Snow White and Seven Dwarfs in 1937.  It also received good critical notices, garnering three Academy Award nominations.  In 2008, AFI placed it at No. 9 on its list of the best animated feature films of all time.  Of course, Cinderella has also become a key presence at Disney's theme parks (even inspiring the castle at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom) and received two direct-to-video sequels.  Earlier this year, the original animated film was basis for a hit live-action version directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Lily James and Cate Blanchett.

Cinderella's music marked a couple of firsts for Walt Disney.  It was the first time that Tin Pan Alley songwriters were used to compose the music - in this case, Mack David (brother of Hal), Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman.  It was also the first music published and copyrighted to the Walt Disney Music Company.  The score contains the classic Disney songs "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo."  Both songs have had numerous cover versions over the years.  The first appeared before the film actually opened.  In 1949, both songs were recorded by Cinderella herself, Ilene Woods, backed by "The Woodsmen" with the Harold Mooney and his Orchestra for RCA.  Later that year, Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters also recorded the two songs for RCA on a 78 and 45.  Their version of "Bibbidi" reached No. 14 on the Billboard charts.

Several records with song selections were released over the years, but a full, proper soundtrack for Cinderella was not released until 1997.  It featured 11 tracks: 10 from the movie and a demo of a cut song.  A 2005 reissue added three tracks: another cut song demo, a new song and a cover of "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes."  Another expanded edition followed in 2012.  This time the CD featured 24 tracks.  The cover and new song were dropped and fourteen "Lost Chords" tracks were added.  These featured seven cut song demos (including the two which were previously released) and a modern recording of each of the demos.  The new Legacy Collection edition now expands the soundtrack to two CDs.  The first contains the 10-track sequence from the movie soundtrack.  The second disc has the 14 "Lost Chords" tracks and the nine additional tracks which were on 1995's Cinderella: A Tribute to a Classic.  (The new recordings of songs from the film by artists such as Linda Ronstadt and Bobby McFerrin from that CD have not been included.)  This new Legacy Collection CD is due in stores on June 16.

Coming out later in the year, but going back even earlier into the Disney music vaults, is the newly announced eight-volume, 16-LP set entitled The Silly Symphony Collection devoted to the music of Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies. The Silly Symphonies were a series of 75 animated short films produced between 1929 and 1939.  They lacked continuity (other than a few sequel shorts) and were basically animated vignettes set to a piece of music.  However, the series was groundbreaking and laid the foundation for much of Walt Disney's later success in animation.

There are several notable shorts in the series.  The first, The Skeleton Dance from 1929, has several iconic sequences.  1932's Just Dogs was the first cartoon to star Pluto as a solo character.  Also from 1932, Flowers and Trees was the first cartoon to be filmed in Technicolor and also the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.  The next year, Three Little Pigs won that honor.  Pigs also became a large box office hit and introduced the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"  Other shorts in the series to win the Academy Award include 1935's The Tortoise and the Hare, 1935's Three Orphan Kittens, 1936's The Country Cousin, 1937's The Old Mill (also Disney's first use of the multiplane camera) and 1939's The Ugly Duckling.  If all of that weren't enough, 1934's The Wise Little Hen featured the debut of Donald Duck.

The Silly Symphonies series has never received a proper, full, soundtrack release and fans have clamored for one for years.  This release fills that void.  Disney's press release states that the vinyl LPs are "housed in 8 tip-on gatefold jackets with original animation art in a beautifully constructed foil-stamped and numbered slipcase" and that "each gatefold jacket includes detailed liner notes for every short by Disney historians J.B. Kaufman and Russell Merritt, authors of the definitive book on The Silly Symphonies."  (Note the retro-cool Disneyland Records logo on the box set!)

Pre-orders will begin to be taken at the D23 Expo event from August 14-16 and will begin on the Internet on August 17 at the Disney Music Emporium website.  Every guest who pre-orders a copy will receive a special 10-inch single featuring the complete soundtracks to The Skeleton Dance and Three Little Pigs.  (It is unclear whether this is only for attendees of the D23 Expo or if Internet pre-orders also include the single.)  Pricing for the set has not been announced nor has a specific release date.  In addition, it is unknown if this set will be available to normal retail outlets.  Updates will be featured on thesillysymphonycollection.com and we will of course keep you updated here.  The D23 Expo will also feature a live orchestra concert with music being performed in conjunction with a selection of the shorts, hosted by Leonard Maltin, on August 16.

You can peruse the track listing of both Cinderella and The Silly Symphony Collection below, and you can also pre-order Cinderella now!

Various Artists, The Legacy Collection - Cinderella Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Walt Disney Records, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

CD 1

1. Main Title / Cinderella
2. A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes
3. A Visitor / Caught in a Trap / Lucifer / Feed the Chickens / Breakfast Is Served / Time On Our Hands
4. The King's Plan
5. The Music Lesson / Oh, Sing Sweet Nightingale / Bad Boy Lucifer / A Message from His Majesty
6. Little Dressmakers / The Work Song / Scavenger Hunt / A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes / The Dress / My Beads / Escape to the Garden
7. Where Did I Put That Thing / Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo
8. Reception at the Palace / So This Is Love
9. The Stroke of Midnight/Thank You Fairy Godmother
10. Locked in the Tower / Gus and Jaq to the Rescue / Slipper Fittings / Cinderella's Slipper / Finale

CD 2

1. I'm in the Middle of a Muddle (Demo)
2. I'm in the Middle of a Muddle
3. I Lost My Heart at the Ball (Demo)
4. I Lost My Heart at the Ball
5. The Mouse Song (Demo)
6. The Mouse Song
7. Sing a Little, Dream a Little (Demo)
8. Sing a Little, Dream a Little
9. Dancing on a Cloud (Demo)
10. Dancing on a Cloud
11. The Dress That My Mother Wore (Demo)
12. The Dress That My Mother Wore
13. The Face That I See in the Night (Demo)
14. The Face That I See in the Night
15. Cinderella: Prologue
16. Cat and Mice/The King's Plans
17. Entanglements/Dress Building
18. The Palace at Evening/ A Dress for the Ball
19. Royal Fanfare and Reception at the Palace
20. So This is Love: Waltz
21. Midnight Chase
22. A Perfect Fit
23. Cinderella: Finale

CD 1, Tracks 1-10 originally released in this sequence on Walt Disney's Cinderella (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Walt Disney Records 60879, 1997
CD 2, Tracks 1-14 originally released in this sequence on Walt Disney's Cinderella (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Collector's Edition, Walt Disney Records D 001412702, 2012
CD 2, Tracks 15-23 from Cinderella: Tribute to a Classic, Walt Disney Records 860886, 1995

Original Soundtrack Recordings, The Silly Symphony Collection 1929-1939 (Walt Disney Records, 2015)

Volume 1: 1929-1930

1. The Skeleton Dance
2. El Terrible Toreador
3. Springtime
4. Hell's Bells
5. The Merry Dwarfs
6. Summer
7. Autumn
8. Cannibal Capers
9. Night
10. Frolicking Fish
11. Arctic Antics
12. Midnight In A Toy Shop

Volume 2: 1930-1931

1. Monkey Melodies
2. Winter
3. Playful Pan
4. Birds of a Feather
5. Mother Goose Melodies
6. The China Plate
7. The Busy Beavers
8. The Cat's Out
9. Egyptian Melodies
10. The Clock Store
11. The Spider And The Fly

Volume 3: 1931-1933

1. The Fox Hunt
2. The Ugly Duckling
3. The Bird Store
4. The Bears and the Bees
5. Just Dogs
6. Flowers and Trees
7. Bugs In Love
8. King Neptune
9. Babes In The Woods
10. Santa's Workshop
11. Birds In The Spring
12. Father Noah's Ark

Volume 4: 1933-1934

1. Three Little Pigs
2. Old King Cole
3. Lullaby Land
4. The Pied Piper
5. The China Shop
6. The Night Before Christmas
7. Grasshopper and the Ants
8. The Big Bad Wolf

Volume 5: 1934-1935

1. Funny Little Bunnies
2. The Flying Mouse
3. The Wise Little Hen
4. Peculiar Penguins
5. The Goddess of Spring
6. The Tortoise and the Hare
7. The Golden Touch
8. The Robber Kitten

Volume 6: 1935-1936

1. Water Babies
2. The Cookie Carnival
3. Who Killed Cock Robin?
4. Music Land
5. Three Orphan Kittens
6. Cock O' The Walk
7. Three Little Wolves
8. Elmer Elephant

Volume 7: 1935-1937

1. Broken Toys
2. Toby Tortoise Returns
3. Three Blind Mouseketeers
4. The Country Cousin
5. Mother Pluto
6. More Kittens
7. Woodland Café
8. Little Hiawatha

Volume 8: 1937-1939

1. The Old Mill
2. Wynken, Blynken & Nod
3. Moth and the Flame
4. Merbabies
5. Farmyard Symphony
6. Mother Goose Goes Hollywood
7. The Practical Pig
8. The Ugly Duckling