The Disney Song Encyclopedia - fieldi

“BEING MRS. BANKS” 15
on a magic bed with three children (Roy Snart, Ian Weighill, and Cindy
O’Callaghan) and observe the animated flowers and sea life. The scene
climaxes with an acrobatic dance at the Beautiful Briny Ballroom where
Miss Price and the professor win a trophy for their fancy footwork. Richard
M. and Robert B. Sherman originally wrote the jovial song, having fun with
“b” alliteration in the lyric, for a sequence in the earlier film Mary Poppins
(1964), but it was cut. The Bedknobs and Broomsticks scene is similar to
a superior one in Mary Poppins in which the governess Mary (Julie Andrews),
her pal Bert (Dick Van Dyke), and two children (Karen Dotrice
and Matthew Garber) enter an animated world and win a trophy for a horse
race. Yet “The Beautiful Briny” has a charm all its own, and the scene is
perhaps the finest in the film.
“Beauty and the Beast” is the entrancing title ballad from the 1991
animated film. The teapot Mrs. Potts (voice of Angela Lansbury) sings the
gentle number while the Beast and Belle dance in the castle ballroom. The
song is also reprised at the end of the film with a chorale version as Belle
and the transformed prince dance in the same ballroom. Alan Menken
composed the flowing music and Howard Ashman wrote the simple but
affecting lyric about how two tentative hearts are united in love. A record
three songs from the movie were nominated for the Best Song Oscar, and
this one won. Peabo Bryson and Céline Dion sing a duet version of the
ballad over the closing credits of the movie, and their recording was very
popular. Among the other versions recorded were those by flutist James
Galway, jazz musician Earl Rose, harpist Carmen Dragon, the Jazz Networks,
Barbara Cook, Steve Tyrell, Paige O’Hara, Debbie Shapiro Gravitte,
the group Jump 5, and Barbara Hendricks and the Abbey Road Ensemble.
In the 1994 Broadway version of Beauty and the Beast, Beth Fowler was
Mrs. Potts and sang the number.
“Behind the Clouds” is the optimistic country-western song written
by Brad Paisley and Frank Rogers for the computer-animated film Cars
(2006). Paisley sings the laid-back number on the soundtrack, reminding
one that even on dark, cloudy days, the sun is still shining above those
clouds.
“Being Mrs. Banks” is the revealing character song written by George
Stiles and Anthony Drewe for the stage version of Mary Poppins, which
opened in London in 2004. The former actress Winifred Banks (Linzi Hat-