MousePlanet readers get a special price from MouseShoppe on this title!

From my review of this title elsewhere on this site:

When I was a kid Disneyland postcards used to run a nickel each - they were inexpensive because 'ol Walt quite simply knew that they were a terrific way of advertising the park. Over the years, if you've managed to hold on to a precious few of them, you've been able to see how the park has grown and changed.

Now two Disney Imagineers, David Mumford and Bruce Gordon, have compiled many of these charming souvenirs, along with the stories behind them, into a delightful book titled: Disneyland, The Nickel Tour.

Beautifully printed, this was originally an extremely limited first edition three hundred and sixty eight page, full-color book, with over a thousand illustrations. As of this update, the new edition is finally back out and it includes even more pages and stories for you to enjoy!

Not only will this book take you back to visit some of the most famous of long gone park attractions, but also gives you a little history about each of them and the park overall. The droll sense of humor you'll find throughout the book is an unexpected pleasure - for example check out the story about Walt presenting wife Lillian with a Petrified Tree as a wedding present. Well worth a purchase.

Both authors of the Nickel Tour have also finished a more recent book with the Sherman Brothers:

Walt's Time
From Before to Beyond
Click to buy from MouseShoppe 
Image © Walt Disney Enterprises
All rights reserved

MousePlanet readers get a special price from MouseShoppe on this title!

Really more of a coffee-table type photo scrapbook than a sit down read-through, this two hundred fifty two page volume not only documents the Sherman Brother's Disney career but also their efforts before and after Walt's Time.

Although they honestly comment on their work on these pages, this is not a serious appraisal of what they've done - it's more like a whirl-wind first person tour of what it was like to put together some of the projects that they worked on over the years.

If you've been lucky enough to see the Shermans at any of their many appearances either at Disneyana conventions or park functions, more than a few of their stories here already may be very familiar to you.

If you are new to all of this - it's great that they finally documented their creative history in such a uniquely pictorial way - as opposed to doing a traditionally written book.

This unique approach is all thanks to the magic of desktop publishing, since Gordon and Mumford could now scan in all the bits and pieces of things relating to their career that the brothers have so meticulously saved all these years.

The Nickel Tour is still your number one choice to have as far as a park history goes, but Walt's Time makes a fine companion if you are completing a reference library of Disneyland related material.  It's an especially pleasant way to spend a lazy afternoon sometime.

Mouse Tales: Hardback
Mouse Tales: Paperback
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Mouse Under Glass
Click to buy

More Mouse Tales: Hardback
More Mouse Tales: Paperback
Click either above to buy

MouseShoppe also offers the Koenig books - autographed by the author just for you!

Author David Koenig goes behind-the-scenes at Disneyland in the first two Mouse Tales books, and takes a look at what goes on behind the feature films and park attractions in the third one [Mouse Under Glass].

Fun, alarming, thoughtful and never boring if you are a park fan, his books are a must if you want to get past the overly sanitized history of the park that the company gives out nowadays. Here's the back blurb from the dust jacket on the first title, which does a great job of getting your appetite whetted for it:

This first ever unauthorized backstage peek at the park divulges:

What it's like to work at the Magic Kingdom.  Take the controls of a steamship or a submarine.  Climb inside the skin of your favorite cartoon character.  Are all these clean-cut, ever-smiling cast members really as innocent as they seem?

What's behind the "Keep Out" signs and security cameras.  Explore the underground beneath Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.  Visit Never Neverland, the Matterhorn's secret attic, and the park's private, members only club.

How the park has changed since the death of inspirational founder Walt Disney, and the arrival of shrewd Michael Eisner.

And what happens when reality invades Fantasyland.  Witness the breakdowns and blackouts, riots, fires and fatal accidents.  And the lawsuits that follow.

And I can vouch for all that and so much more.  :)

Walt Disney Imagineering - Paperback
Click to buy

A beautiful book to look at, but there's really not much inside to read.  The art is what sells this book for the park fan - it's an explosion of concept materials and current park icons for you to enjoy.

Walt Disney always wanted to bring the look of a movie set to his parks - this book shows you in detail just how much is involved to get to that particular look.

Designing Disney's Theme Parks
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Building a Dream
Click to buy

These two books shown above are pretty dry reading - but again showcase what goes on before Disney gets a park built.  [Sadly, the newer parks are no longer getting this kind of attention to detail and design, so these volumes may end up being historical documents more than anything.]

Of the two, the first is more scholarly, and stiffly written, but is focused on the parks.  The second book is better in its graphic design, with a focus not so much on the parks but on the newer Michael Graves type corporate buildings.

The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2000
Click to buy

If you need a guide other than this site to plan your visit with - this is the one.  You need to AVOID the competing Birnbaum guide - it was taken over by Disney and the bias towards the park is just plain out of hand in it.

Yes, the Unofficial Guide does have some minor mistakes in it, but hey, that's why you're here on the site for, right?  Using both resources will really help you enjoy your day - especially if your time in the park is limited.

Out-of-Print Disneyland Books
that may still be available via Amazon special order

The following two books are essential reading if you really are into the park - both are out of print, but Amazon does offer a special order search service for them and will follow up on any inquiries you may have.

Disneyland: Inside Story
Click to order

The late Randy Bright wrote one of the definitive books about the park - and he lovingly details just how much goes into the making of such a wonderful place.  Although it is an officially sanctioned publication, he does cover some areas you wouldn't expect, even if it isn't anywhere as exhaustive or near the detail of the Mouse Tales books [above].

This is the book to find out about how detailed the theming is for the park - what went into the creation of the Disney park style - and it's a great historical collection of pictures to boot.

If only the executives running the parks division now had a copy of this title on their desks - maybe they'd begin to understand just what kind of quality and detail the company had striven for in the past that made Disneyland so special.

Van France is probably most famous for helping to create the "guest" / "cast member" employee system concept for Walt Disney when Disneyland opened.  Sadly, he recently passed away.

His book is probably one of the least polished of the titles I've ever seen on the park [probably due to the collaborator involved], but it is a treasure trove of information and an unvarnished history of the park.  In a way the roughhewn and almost haphazard way this volume was put together gives you an idea of just how Van, along with all the opening day crew, were trying to find their way in operating this first of / one of a kind operation.  

His gracious charm and exhaustive park knowledge [if you'd ever met him] comes through on every page. This volume is well worth the trouble to locate and read.

Ward Kimball put together this band made up of Disney animators and they made a quite a second career of playing top flight ragtime, not only in concert around the country, but at Disneyland too.  

To imagine the sound, think classic ragtime, with a touch of Spike Jones and you get the idea of what they are doing here.  It's fun stuff, well played and respectful to the genre - but with a real twist to it.

This disc was recorded at the Golden Horseshoe and will take you back to a time when Disneyland used to have all sorts of musical entertainment throughout the park on Summer evenings, instead of just one big river show.

This album is important to Disneyland fans for one rather short track - Baroque Hoedown. If that title doesn't sound familiar to you, maybe you'll know it better if I tell you it was used as the main theme for the Main Street Electrical Parade. This fun collection is early Moog-style electronic music at it's campiest best, and you've probably heard more than a few of the tracks used as background for TV shows and commercials in the past.

The short Hoedown track gives you a chance to hear the Electrical Parade melody in its original state, before Disney tweaked it with lusher sound, interpolated Disney tunes though it and added the electronic voice introduction we all know so well.  The disc itself has twenty five more tracks and runs over sixty two minutes, a terrific value if you love [for lack of a better term here] "Lounge Moog."

PLEASE NOTE: The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra CD, The Whistler and his Dog which featured music tracks used on the Main Street loop [and was featured on this page] is now apparently out of print.

Rod Miller
Disneyland's Coke Corner pianist

Rod Miller: Ragtime - CD
Click to buy an autographed copy from MouseShoppe

Rod Miller has wowed fans at Disneyland's Coke Corner since 1969, and this 22-track collection of ragtime favorites is a best-seller at the park's music store on Main St.

Titles include, I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire [got a lighter?], the Entertainer Rag [which Rod delights in playing the wrong note in at the park, but of course plays correctly here], Alexander's Ragtime Band, Irving Berlin's Always (I'll Be Loving You) and I'm Always Chasing Rainbows.

Four Hand Piano
Miller & Thompson - CD
Click to buy an autographed copy from MouseShoppe

Rod Miller and Alan Thompson as a team play at Coke Corner now on a regular basis with their four hand piano routine, and you probably have seen them on TV recently plugging away to promote this 18-track disc of ragtime and classic song favorites.

If you can't make it to the park on a Summer night to hear them play while nibbling on a big ice cream sundae, putting this CD on the player is the next best thing.

Heigh-Ho! Mozart / Bibbidi Bobbidi Bach
Favorite Disney Tunes in the style of Great Classical Composers

Heigh-Ho! Mozart - CD
Heigh-Ho! Mozart - Cassette
Click either above to buy

Bibbidi Bobbidi Bach - CD
Bibbidi Bobbidi Bach - Cassette
Click either above to buy

The albums above were dreams come true for me - I had wanted to do an album that took the great Disney tunes and performed them in the style of the classical composers for over ten years. At RCA no one wanted to do it, and would tell me that it would never sell. Finally after moving over to Delos, I got the go-ahead, and then got on the phone to good friend Donald Fraser to ask him to arrange it.

We did the whole project on the sly, just terrified that if Disney had found out, they would probably rush something out on their own. We put it together as a sampler of all the artists at Delos, tacking on the songs we needed at the end of sessions to keep costs down.  One of the fun parts for me was writing up the quick little notes on the origins of each of the songs, and researching all the little stories about the creation of each to put into the liner copy.

At the time of recording that Thanksgiving season, [we had planned a Spring release] Disney was previewing Pocahontas in theaters with a trailer of Colors of the Wind. Since we knew the album and sheet music were probably not going to be released until the May debut of the film, (and we had upcoming sessions planned during those six months), we snuck a tape recorder in to the El Capitan Theater here in Hollywood, taped the song as the trailer played, and fired off the cassette to Donald in the U.K..  This way he could rush an arrangement and we could have the Colors on the first CD as the lead-off track.

Thanks to that, we were able to release the album a week after the soundtrack to the film debuted - in order to give Disney their first rights on the Colors track in recorded form. But I'm sure they didn't expect the lead song on our disc to be their brand new movie's big song and see it available in stores the week after their album had shipped.

Heigh-Ho! Mozart was enthusiastically embraced by the classical radio community right from the start - because the shorter tracks were ideal to program at the end of an on-air hour to fill in after longer symphonic works. Also the main goal of the album, which was to introduce classical music to children, was not lost on them.

As we rushed the second disc [Bibbidi] into production, we heard Disney was also gearing up to do their own "genre" albums, apparently having seen the opportunity they had missed on this one.  Shortly thereafter, imagine that, "official" Disney country [The Best of Country Sings the Best of Disney] and dance collections [House Mouse] came out [see below].

These two discs are not the biggest selling albums I ever worked on - but they still generate all sorts of mail about how people have used them in their weddings or given them as gifts to friends, or best yet, how they helped their children appreciate classical music. A home run.

What better way to extend the Disney line of classical take-offs than with this recording, this time around featuring people's favorite TV tunes done in the style of the classics.

[I know, it's not Disney music and a bit out of place here - but this disc is still of interest if you really liked the above classical Disney albums.]

Donald Fraser [who did the arrangements on the albums above] and I put this disc together and it was a real joy.  It was also fun doing all the research for the liner notes about the TV shows themselves.

Trust me, you haven't had this much fun listening to The Brady Bunch, Bewitched, The Jetsons, Mr. Ed or Mary Tyler Moorethemes in years. One of my real favorites.

Many people don't know that Delos didn't only specialize in classical music, but they also had a terrific steelband catalog, inspired by a cruise ship trip that the label's founder had taken at one time.

Imagine my surprise when we found out one of the people we dealt with for these recordings turned out to be the booker for the steelbands at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

After a few quick discussions, we worked out a deal where they would do this disc for us, covering of course all the Disney tunes they played in the parks.

If you visit Walt Disney World a lot, you'll find this disc may sound familiar as they play it all the time as background music at the Caribbean Beach Resort.

After the success of the above albums I had the pleasure of getting a phone call from Scott Wolf, the author of the two Where in Disneyland Park? books.  He had put together a recording of ragtime versions of Disney park tunes and was looking for a distributor - would we be interested?  Of course we were!

With his lovely wife Shari, we worked on putting out this disc - and were able to include as a bonus track a radio interview Delos had archived that was done with Walt Disney.  Scott's notes are a wonderful read, and include comments from the Sherman Brothers.

Trust me, you've never heard Miracles from Molecules like this before.  Chris Calabrese [the pianist on this disc] used to play at Coke Corner at the Tokyo Disneyland park.

There's always an album or two that if you work long enough in the business, somehow gets away from you. Either through a glitch in promotion, poor timing in its release, or maybe because of something as ethereal as a change in the wind, a project you pour your soul into doesn't take off sales-wise and your heart just breaks with the lost potential of it all.

This album was my heartbreaker at Delos.

It's a musical re-telling of the classic Peter Pan story - using songs from the various different stage productions over the years, and also including music from the Disney film. A child introduces and ends the album with a few selected words from the book, and the artists involved play the different tunes pretty much telling the story in musical terms. Donald Fraser's arrangements evoke semi-classical moods, but are freer in scope here, since they are not held back by the more rigid format the classical Disney projects required.

The Amazon listing you will see for this disc if you click above is incorrect - it actually features music and songs from the original turn of the century stage production, the Leonard Bernstein / Jean Arthur stage version, the Mary Martin musical production and the Disney animated film.

Song titles include I Won't Grow Up, Tender Shepherd, Following the Leader and Your Mother and Mine. A real gem is the previously unrecorded When I Went Home - a song dropped from the Mary Martin production because it stopped the show cold [Mary Martin said in her bio that it did so because it was so beautiful], and I'm very proud to say that the recording for this disc is probably the definitive version of this unknown treasure. Donald Fraser even contributed a new melody [The Mermaid's Lagoon] to help round out the collection.

The booklet contains what I think is my best work as an annotator, and the last track, Distant Melody [from the Mary Martin stage production] still gives me chills whenever I dust off my copy to listen to it again.

I've learned over the many years I've been in the music business that no album you ever work on will ever be perfect, but this one project came the closest to that both on a technical level and [especially] on the artistic one.

If you love the Peter Pan story, or are still wistful about that special time in your life when you actually did believe if you clapped hard enough Tinkerbell would live, you should pick up this disc. I know in my heart that some day it will finally find its audience and be the success that it should be.

Dave [Take Five] Brubeck does Disney - and this edition on CD even contains two previously unreleased bonus tracks no less!

Trust me, if you like your jazz Brubeck-style - you'll really enjoy this album.  After all, he came up with the idea to do it while visiting Disneyland with his kids!

For some reason this vintage collection of big bands / singers performing Disney tunes is very hard to find.

It features Artie Shaw, Kate Smith, Dinah Shore, Rosemary Clooney and many others with a focus [due to the time period for these acts] on the earlier Disney favorites.

Tom Waits sings Heigh-Ho!, vocal gymnast Yma Sumac performs I Wonder, Bonnie Raitt croons Baby Mine and Ringo Starr caps it all off with a slacker version of When You Wish Upon a Star.

You never do know where the heck this album is going - [even after multiple spins!] - but the trip sure can be fun.  Too off-beat for radio play, people tend to find out about this disc via word of mouth.

A rather sincere effort by the CBS / Sony pop artists of the day, including Billy Joel, the Gipsy Kings, pre-Hercules Michael Bolton and Harry Connick Jr.

[There was also an accompanying video version that mixed Disney animation in with the performers while they sang, but apparently it's now out of print.]

80's Disney pop I guess is the best way to describe it. All done with the blessings of the mouse itself of course.

The albums below are official Disney releases:
[Except for the first title]

Heigh Ho Banjo:
Bluegrass Salutes Favorite
Disney Songs - CD
Click to buy

What can I say? It's well-played, [if a bit short on the total amount of songs] and if your Ford pick-up needs something a bit more butch than classical collections of Disney tunes, heck go for it. :)

[Not an official Disney company album.]

The Best of Country Sings
The Best of Disney - CD
Click to buy

Even if you're not a big fan of country music, you'll probably enjoy this disc. If you are a country fan, you'll love it.  They've done a terrific job here with the songs chosen and the arrangements, the artists too [such as Faith Hill and Diamond Rio] are all well chosen. It's done with style and taste and isn't so twangy, if you know what I mean.

Disney's Instrumental
Impressions - CD
Click to buy

The arrangements on this disc feature acoustical guitar and the album has its fans - but I would suggest you listen to the samples on the Amazon site first before ordering it.  It may be a bit too tame or bland for some listeners - although as background music, it could fit the bill for you perfectly.

Some folks especially like this album for bedtime music.

Mannheim Steamroller
Meets The Mouse - CD
Click to buy

Steamroller enthusiasts really like this disc, less ardent fans may find the arrangements stray a bit too much from the melodies they love so much.  If you have one of the Steamroller Christmas albums and enjoy it, you may also like this.

By the way, the Disney Channel occasionally has a special filmed at Disneyland about this album that you may want to watch out for.

Mouse House:
Disney's Dance Mixes - CD
Click to buy

They play this album at the park New Year's Eve on Main Street - and whenever they need some peppy music at special events.  It's also in continuing rotation on Radio Disney.  It's a fun little project that strays a bit here and there from what it should have accomplished - but it is never boring.

I got an e-mail from one of the production folks when this disc first came out - they lamented that Disney had re-re-mixed their work and sort of diluted the album quite a bit from what they had submitted.

I would have been curious to hear what the original mixes sounded like. Bet they were really interesting!

Disney's Greatest Pop Hits:
A Decade of Radio Singles - CD
Click to buy

This album is slightly mislabeled - yes it offers most of the "Pop" versions of the songs from the movies - the "hit versions" that play over the end credits. [Although oddly enough it's missing one of the biggest hits, the Peabo Bryson / Celine Dion version of Beauty and the Beast.]  But that's only half of the material here, the rest is filler from the various Disney concept albums and collections [such as Mouse House] that never really charted or got radio play of any significance [except for Radio Disney of course].

I would suggest that you take a look at the track listing at the Amazon site first - and if there aren't too many repeats from what you already own, you may want to pick up this disc.