The Disney Song Encyclopedia - fieldi

128 “MARCH OF THE CARDS”
Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman wrote the quiet lament, in which Mr.
Banks confesses to the chimney sweep Bert (Dick Van Dyke) that he is
financially ruined and that his guidelines for happiness may have been
wrong. David Haig played Mr. Banks in the 2005 London stage version of
Mary Poppins and sang the number to Gavin Lee as Bert. On Broadway
two years later, Daniel Jenkins played Mr. Banks and sang it with Lee,
reprising his role as Bert.
“March of the Cards” is a regal piece of instrumental music by Sammy
Fain that is used to introduce the Queen of Hearts (voice of Verna Felton)
in the animated film fantasy Alice in Wonderland (1951). The Queen’s
army, in the form of a pack of playing cards, enters the garden as this musical
piece full of pomp and blaring brass instruments is played, followed by
the Queen of Hearts and her feeble husband, the King. The musical piece
has enjoyed popularity with marching bands, particularly in the Disney
theme parks.
“Marley and Marley” is the daffy yet haunting song for Scrooge’s dead
business partners in the film The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992). Paul
Williams wrote the sinister number that the crotchety old Muppets Statler
(voice of Dave Goelz) and Waldorf (Jerry Nelson) sing as the two ghosts of
Scrooge’s deceased business partners, Marley and Marley. The oppressive
number about the evils of money is accompanied by the clinking of the
heavy chains that the two wear as they float through the air.
“The Martins and the Coys” is the hillbilly narrative ballad by Al Cameron
and Ted Weems that make up one of the sequences in the animated
movie anthology Make Mine Music (1946). The King’s Men sing the banjostrumming
number on the soundtrack while the tale of two feuding families
in the Appalachian backwoods unfolds. The Martins and the Coys have been
feuding so long that only one member of each brood is left alive: the beautiful
Grace Martin and the dashing Henry Coy. When they wed, it seems the
feud is over, but marital discontent brings on a new rivalry, much to the
delight of all the deceased Martins and Coys watching from clouds above.
One section of the sequence is a lively square dance song at the Martin-
Coy wedding. The whole piece is a satire on the famous Hatfields and Mc-
Coys feud, with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and a lighthearted tone. Because of
all the violence and the politically incorrect gunplay, the tale is upsetting to
some modern audiences, and the whole sequence was cut when Make Mine
Music was released on DVD in 2000.