Well, the unimaginable has come true with the compilation album Metal Disney. Now you can rock out to The Lion King’s “Can You Feel The Love Tonight,” Aladdin’s “A Whole New World,” Little Mermaid‘s “Under The Sea,” Hercules’ “Go The Distance,” and even “It’s A Small World.”
Disney released Metal Disney on March 31st in the US after it’s success in Japan last year, where it reached #3 in the Amazon rock/metal charts and #2 on the Kids charts. The album was recorded in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Connecticut, but was selected to first be distributed in Japan because Disney Music Group company already established a history of re-releasing classic Disney songs in diverse genres, from jazz to French pop, there. The metal album has been the most popular yet. Thus, Japan was the ideal place to debut Metal Disney because they’re open to every musical genre.
Executive director/producer Archie Meguro tells Rolling Stone:
Old-school metal has always been very prevalent in our marketplace and so I thought just kind of a mixing of the cultures, of taking Disney and making it into metal versions, seemed like a cool idea.
The Metal Disney musicians are comprised of Obsession vocalist Mike Vescera, guitarist John Bruno, and drummer BJ Zampa, who previously played with Yngwie Malmsteen, former Ozzy Osbourne bassist Rudy Sarzo, and Dokken. Vescera comments:
It’s all the stuff that I grew up on. You would think the opposite, being hard rock guys or in that kind of field of music. But everybody loves it. It’s crazy. You think, ‘Aw, it’s a kid’s song.’ But when you get into how they wrote these things, they’re quite incredible and really well written and so it’s just figuring out what exactly is going on and then taking it piece by piece.
Songwriter Sir Tim Rice, who penned “A Whole New World” and “Can You Feel The Love Tonight,” shared his thoughts on his Oscar-winning songs being covered:
I think a good song, especially one with a decent tune, can always be done in almost any way. For most people, Disney was part of their childhood and however you wind up you usually tend to have good memories of your childhood musical loves.
Now metalheads…and their kids…can head-bang to Pinocchio’s “When You Wish Upon A Star” and “Beauty and the Beast”…words we’d never thought we’d say.