The Disney Song Encyclopedia - fieldi

184 “A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR”
folk song about how a tenderfoot comes to the Triple-R knowing nothing
about horses and gets saddle sores, but eventually learns that it is the best
horse camp of all. The catchy song, filled with repeating versions of “yippee
yay hay yipper-o,” is usually sung by the boys sitting around the campfire
at night or as they ride along together on a trail. The tale of two boys, who
are rivals at first at the Triple-R Ranch summer camp then become friends,
was so popular that the one-season series was extended into The Further
Adventures of Spin and Marty (1956) and The New Adventures of Spin and
Marty (1957). There was even a television movie in 2000 called The New
Adventures of Spin and Marty: Suspect Behavior. The song was heard in
all the different versions.
“A Spoonful of Sugar” is the contagious march number by Richard M.
and Robert B. Sherman that teaches how to make a game out of an unpleasant
task. Nanny Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) sings the tuneful ditty in the
film Mary Poppins (1964) as she snaps her fingers and magically makes her
young charges’ room tidy, then adds sugar to their bedtime medicine. At
one point in the scene Mary trills away in a duet with a chirping bird that
sits on her finger. The march melody is also used throughout the film as a
kind of theme song for Mary and her unorthodox ways. In the 2004 London
stage version of Mary Poppins, Laura Michelle Kelly played the nanny and
led others in the household in the song. On Broadway two years later it was
sung by Ashley Brown as Mary Poppins. Burl Ives made a notable recording
of the march tune.
“The Stage Blight Opera” is the mock opera sequence written by George
Kahn and Diana Zaslove for an episode of the animated television series
Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers (1989). The chipmunk sleuths Chip and Dale
want to see an action movie, but by mistake they go into an opera house
where a Puccini-like piece is being performed. A huge Wagnerian diva and
a dashing cavalier sing of their love for each other separately and then in
a duet, the scene ending with a sword fight, which pleases the chipmunks
more than the music.
“Stand Out” is the driving rock song Patrick DeRemer and Roy Freeland
wrote for the animated film A Goofy Movie (1995). The teenager Max impersonates
the rock star Powerline (voice of Tevin Campbell) and lip-synchs
to the idol’s video as he performs on the stage of his high school auditorium
during an assembly. The lyric is a cry to be noticed, and Max sings it to get
the attention of Roxanne, a pretty student in the audience.