from 2007
GREG EHRBAR
talks about "Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records"

by Scott Wolf

When I first met Greg Ehrbar we immediately hit it off. I'm a huge fan of Disney music, but the more we talked we found out that our DVD collection had a lot in common even beyond Disney.

His book "Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records" (available at mousetracksonline.com) is a really fascinating and fun read. You don't have to read it from beginning to end in one sitting and you don't have to even go chronologically. I like to just skip around and choose a story to read. They are all interesting.

Much more than just an author, Greg has written for everything from Disney taffy packaging to the Walt Disney World televised "Very Merry Christmas Parade."

I'm sure you'll enjoy reading what he has to say.

SW: What is “Mouse Tracks”?

GE: “Mouse Tracks” is the very first comprehensive story of Walt Disney Records.

The first chapter covers the early part of the century and what led Walt & Roy to start a record company which they didn’t want to do for a long time. We tell why they were reluctant and why they finally did it.

Our last chapter is about the post vinyl era, the CD era, and the recent successes they had with tween pop and the “Lion King” and things like that.

We wanted more than anything to tell the story of people whose stories were never told. There are loads of anecdotes that were never published before. Lots of photographs that were never published before. A fun thing for people like us who grew up listening to these records is we didn’t know what these people look like.

SW: I know. It’s so much fun to see these people, and you’ve got great photos of them. How long did it take you to do the book?

GE: Four years. Plus a lifetime of loving the records. I don’t know if we could have written this without loving it.

We wanted to make it a book that anybody could pick up and be entertained by so it’s not a book about a business unit, it’s a book about people and what they did. We have over forty biographies in it. Some are people you may have heard of like Annette Funicello and Fess Parker, but there are a lot of people that were just completely unknown, some to me before we started the book.

SW: You have so many people in the book, I can’t imagine a person in America who’s going to open it up and not see a bunch of people that they know. Even people who they may not have realized were ever associated with Disney Records.

GE: Exactly, if you look at the Table of Contents some of your favorite films and actors are mentioned, just look at the Table of Contents and you’ll get the idea. We have a never-before-told story about a recording session with Steven Spielberg and Drew Barrymore that’s kind of funny, for example.

Even the story of Fess Parker, everybody knows about Davy Crockett, but a lot of people don’t know about his singing and how he literally studied opera. He wanted to be a legitimate singer and he still to this day has sing-alongs every week at his house.

There are some stories about Cliff Edwards, Jiminy Cricket.

SW: One of my favorite singers.

GE: He was a huge star and then had a tragic life. He died in a hospital where he wasn’t even identified. People didn’t know who he was.

He had a failed marriage that just soaked him dry and he just desperately needed money. Well, Jiminy Cricket was his comeback and they loved him so much at the studio that whenever they could they would bring him in to do something.

Another thing that a lot of people may not realize is how diverse the Disney label was... diverse in its style and diverse in its artistry. They had jazz and classical and gospel. They had the Ward Gospel singers live at Disneyland on an album in the early 60s.

They had their first African American soloist on an album, Billy Storm who came from the Valiants, he was an R&B singer... incredibly talented singer. In 1963, for a mainstream label to do that wasn’t that common, especially with an unknown singer. They not only even gave him his own album, but one side of the album isn’t banded, it’s a one-sided album. It’s one song that he sings in about six different ways. It’s very experimental and it’s very very cool.

They did experimental things. Sometimes they succeeded and sometimes they failed. Walt had an idea for an album where these mice live underneath the recording studio and in the middle of the night they grab these instruments and start playing and do an album like that. It was his idea.

So they made this thing called “Walt Disney’s Christmas Concert” with “Ludwig Mousensky and his All Mouse Symphony and Chorus.” It was not only speeded up voices for the mice much like the “Cinderella” mice, but the orchestra was speeded up, too. It was an EP 45, it wasn’t even an album.

When it first came out in 1957 it didn’t do well. There are several reasons. One is that you don’t necessarily know they’re mice because they don’t really say that. They didn’t have original songs, they were well-known songs. They didn’t have a signature song for them. And the characters weren’t well-defined. They mentioned a few, Squeaky and Zeke but they don’t have defined personalities.

However, one year later, somebody took three speeded up voices and gave them very well defined personalities. The Chipmunk song came out one year later and was the best selling novelty record in history. Walt wouldn’t let his people forget it.

Ironically, in the 1980s, Buena Vista, which was Disney, re-released Chipmunk records. The soundtrack to the “Chipmunk Adventure” feature film was a Disney album and they did a Greatest Hits called “Solid Gold Chipmunks” and they did a couple of read-alongs, because in the late 70s and early 80s they started licensing outside projects. All the “Star Wars” records, the “Star Trek” records, Charlie Brown and all the Peanuts albums, Rankin Bass recordings, “The Hobbit,” “Alf,” “Garfield,” the list was endless. They did all kinds of incredible action adventure things and children’s things that weren’t even Disney things.

SW: Which is why I said your book is really for everybody, even if you’re not a “Disney fan.”

GE: Even if you’re not a Disney fan, because it’s about so many different eras that you’re sure to pick it up and go, “Oh, I remember that!”

We go on and on about Rainbow Brite because they took this character and they made this lavish album out of it with this huge orchestra. We interviewed Bettina Bush who was the voice of Rainbow Brite and how she did the album and how she was selected. Even if you don’t care about Rainbow Brite, I couldn’t believe how interesting making the album was, because Disney would take so much more care with these. It wasn’t just buy the license because it will sell and slap the name on it. It was more like, “Let’s make something really good that people will love.”

There was so much talent and so many people who were dedicated to doing it well.

More from Greg:
His eclectic career

See other interviews

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in the interviews are solely those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mouse Clubhouse. Mouse Clubhouse accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed within.