The Disney Song Encyclopedia - fieldi

224 “WHEN THERE WAS ME AND YOU”
The clever song is both ominous and playful as their imaginations run away
with them.
“When There Was Me and You” is the teenage torch song Jamie Houston
wrote for the television movie High School Musical (2006). When “brainiac”
Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) overhears her boyfriend,
Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), tell his basketball teammates that auditioning
for the school musical is not important to him, she questions if she herself
means anything to Troy. She longs for the time when it was just the two of
them, before their friends got involved and influenced their relationship.
“When You Wish Upon a Star” is one of the most beloved of all movie
songs, a dreamy and optimistic number by Leigh Harline (music) and Ned
Washington (lyric) that has become the theme song for Walt Disney’s entertainment
empire. The plaintive ballad, about wishes coming true if you
firmly believe in yourself, is first heard (minus the heartfelt verse and release)
at the beginning of the movie Pinocchio (1940), where Jiminy Cricket
(voice of Cliff Edwards) sings it as the camera moves into Geppetto’s house
and the story begins. Although the music does not have a wide range, it has
an expansive feeling as the notes at times seem to reach up to the stars. The
ballad immediately became a favorite, won the Oscar for Best Song, and
was forever after associated with Disney, being used for everything from
the theme song for his weekly television show to ads plugging the various
theme parks. Over the years the song has often been recorded by various
and diverse artists, including popular discs by Glenn Miller, Kate Smith,
Ringo Starr, Johnny Mathis, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Barbara Hendricks
and the Abbey Road Ensemble, Jack Teagarden, Dick Haymes with
the Harry James Orchestra, Louis Armstrong, Linda Ronstadt, Billy Joel,
the Drummonds, Mary Martin, the Ken Peplowski Quartet, Jazz Networks,
Barbara Streisand, Michael Crawford, ’N Sync, Jimmy Scott, Michael Feinstein,
Susan Egan, Steve Tyrell, and Barbara Cook. A violin rendition of the
ballad was used in the live-action television musical Geppetto (2000), and
the Cliff Edwards recording was used in a dream spoof at the beginning of
the animated film Teacher’s Pet (2004).
“Where Do I Go from Here?” is the musical query sung by Pocahontas
(singing voice of Judy Kuhn) in the animated video sequel Pocahontas II:
Journey to a New World (1998). As winter arrives in her homeland and the
animals prepare for the change in season, Pocahontas wonders what she