Everyone has a favorite Disney movie. Disney was there for most of us growing up and it filled our imagination, and probably gave us unrealistic expectations of life and love. It also gave us some of the most adored and memorable songs in history! This is a list of the Ten Best Disney Songs. The list includes only one song from each movie.
Written by Phil Collins, This won an Academy Award (like most on this list) for Best Original Song. This song relaunched Phil Collins’ career after being virtually unknown to younger generations.
Written by Allie Wrubel and Ray Gilbert, this is a song most people know because it has become such a part of our culture. It also was the opening theme music for most Disney movies and TV shows for years.
Written by the Sherman Brothers, this song will probobly be the most argued on the list. This scene has a begger women giving bread crumbs to the locals for a tuppence and to the birds of course. The song is a very different and serious in contrast to the rest of the movie. Therefore I gave it the nod, and because I find the scene to be one of the best in any film.
Written by Alan Menkin and Stephen Schwartz, it won the 1995 Academy Award for best song. It was the highest ranked song when it comes to the American pop charts – reaching number four. It is the most cherished song in the movie by far and it very fairly shows you how the Native Americans view the world around them.
Written by Larry Morey and Frank Churchill, this song appears 17th on AFI’s best songs in film history! This song is known for being an influence not only on Disney movies, but Jazz, and an entire generation of women looking for a prince.
Also written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, this song was also nominated but it lost to the other “Little Mermaid” song “Under the Sea”. This song is on the list however because I find it rather gorgeous and beautifully sung.
Written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, it is sung by one of my favorites: Angela Lansbury. It brought more people to tears then almost any other song in disney history. It won best song at the Academy Awards, the Grammy’s, and the Canadian Film awards (a Juno award).
An Alan Menkin and Tim Rice work, it is arguably the most cherished duet in Disney history. It went on to win Numerous awards at the Oscars and Grammy awards where it took home the Song of the Year award.
Written by Ned Washington and Leigh Harline, it won the Academy Award for best original song in 1940. It is seventh, and the highest ranking disney song on AFI’s 100 greatest songs in film history.
Written by Elton John and Tim Rice this song is no doubt one of the best written songs in any movie. I could have really picked one of about 4 songs from this amazing movie and not gotten much opposition. Though it did not win the award for best song (‘Can you Feel the Love Tonight?’ did) It has become more of an overall fan favorite especially after the Broadway musical really made this song the Best Disney song of all time.
Notable Omissions: Bells of Notre Damn, Once Upon a Dream, A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes, Bare Necessities.
Contributor: Schiesl
What about Battie’s rap song he sung in Ferngully? That song kicked ass!
Oh! I love every song mentioned in the list…
Correction – The Juno’s are MUSIC awards – not movie awards.
Two suggestions: “Friend Like Me” – Aladdin; “How Do You Do?” – Song of the South
Was Fern Gully Disney? I didn’t think it was, but it’s been so long…I could be mistaken.
Fern Gully was 20th Century Fox
“Feed the Birds” was Walt Disney’s favorite song. Whenever he was working with the Sherman brothers on something, he would ask them to play it for him.
Ferngully was GREAT. That’s what it was!
Not a single song from Hunchback of Notre Dame?
My personal favourite Disney film and the best Menken/Schwartz collaboration! Every song in that film is a classic, and the instrumental “Sanctuary!” could compete with some of the best film music in my opinion.
I think you have to split this list by years. Say anything pre-1980s and then forward. What about the oldies like Bella Notte (Lady & the Tramp), Spoon full of Sugar (Mary Poppins), Everybody wans to be a Cat (The Aristocats), Cruella de Vil (101 Dalamations), Yo ho ho, a Pirates Life for Me, Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly…I’m Late (Alice in Wonderland)…oh so many!!!
I don’t think you can have only 10 of the best Disney songs ever, even 20 is pushing it uphill.
The Bare Neccassities, Someday My Prince Will Come, most of Beauty & The Beast songs, the list just goes on and on.
I really don’t have a problem with this list, except 1 and 2 should be switched. “When You Wish Upon a Star” is by far the greatest and most iconic achievement on this list.
It stinks that there are like no more native americans their culture was so deep … rich.
Charlie, you do realize we’re talking about cartoons here, right?
This list sucks, because now I got all these friggin songs stuck in my head.
Mongo-That’s the reason I LOVED this list!
PS
That and the fact that I got engaged in Disneyland a week ago, so the timing of the list is very exciting to me!
My worst nightmare is getting stuck inside the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland, and hearing that song over and over and over and over ad nauseum
“My worst nightmare is getting stuck inside the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland, and hearing that song over and over and over and over ad nauseum”
That happened to me. I was at Disneyland with my parents when I was in 4th grade. We got stuck on that stinking ride for an HOUR! I hate that song to this day. So does my mom.
My worst nightmare is waking up without my penis.
/obscure National Lampoon reference.
(Bonus points if anyone can tell me what movie that’s from!)
Somehow you managed to include all of my least favorite Disney songs.
To each his own and all that.
134. segue: I know it just reminded me of it; sorry if i got off topic.
Some long-lingering childhood memories stirred here,
Good to see the list so broadly and fondly appreciated, and everyone with their own favourites.
Mine? Original here I think: “An Actor’s Life for Me” – Pinocchio. So wonderfully knowing, jaunty, cynical and sophisticated in contrast to the puppet-boy’s wide-eyed, innate naívety. Like most of the best cartoons of all time, as well as some of the lyrics, the film has the ability to appeal to kids and adults alike on different le3vels.
gr8 list…each song competing with the other…there is something abt disney…
142. Charlie: No, don’t apologize. Disney *was* a racist. That is well-known. My point, badly stated because I’m dealing with a creep on another list and so somewhat disconcerted, is that we ought not personalize something as “other” as a cartoon.
One of my favorite, actually probably my favorite, Disney song, is “When I see an Elephant Fly” from Dumbo.
If you *****yze the whole thing, the way the crows talk and act, it’s a pure vaudeville black-face routine, yet the entire thing, act + song = the best piece of film Disney may ever have produced. It’s full of crazy puns and plays on words and gives pleasure on several different levels at once…plus it’s first time Dumbo actually flies. BONUS!
OMG the “Its a small world” ride scared the crap outta my bro when we were little. ok i say little, he was actually 13, i think. To this day, some 15 years later, he still won’t tell me why it scared him.
Anyway, to the list, love this list. However, my daughter(4) would disagree with the fact that there aren’t any Cinderella songs on it. “Bippity Bobbity Boo” is her favorite song.
Melissa: I completely agree. Oliver and Company was my favorite movie growing up, and Why Should I Worry? was one of my favorite songs. Of course, I’m more of a rocker, so I prefer that kind of sound. But I remember how disappointed I was when Oliver and Company was never released after it was in theaters. I dragged my poor parents to see that movie 8 times, and then had to wait about 19 years before it was released on VHS/DVD. Very much an underrated film.
“Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase!” The song from Aladdin was one of my favorites so I was glad to see it there. I’d have added “The Bare Necessities,” gotta love the Baloo scratch against a tree!
Maybe I’d throw in “Cinderelly, Cinderelly” sung by the mice in Cinderella, I loved that part of the movie!
I have always liked the song “I Won’t Say I’m In Love” from Hercules.
I agree with the inclusion of the Tarzan song simply because I love Phil Collins and he is one of my heroes. XD
oooh, i love Disney songs! i agree with ChaoticPython, the songs from Mulan are great, too. they should have been included here. i heart I’ll Make a Man Out of You. and that Michael Bolton song, too. Go the Distance is the title, i think. i suggested that song to my brother for their high school graduation song. ^_^
and oh yeah. i never liked that big-mouthed hannah montana kid.
I would’ve picked Supercalafragalisticexpialidocious over the Tuppins Song.
I *love* Kiss the Girl from The Little Mermaid. Wow – there are sooo many to choose from. I say some encore lists should be created!
Aside from Zip-a-Dee-do-Dah, all the songs are soft and lovey-dovey. How about the fun songs? “Friend Like Me” from Aladdin always gets me going or “Be Like You” from Jungle Book or “Hakuna Matata” from Lion King.
These songs are beautiful, but it was the toe-tapping songs from the Disney movies that I loved.
“Can You Feel the Love Tonight” should be #1
I didn’t like any of the slow songs.
Prince Ali, Be Prepared, Bells of Notre Dame and Hellfire, Gaston, Poor Unfortunate Souls — even as a child these were always my favourites. Loved the bad guys
Poor Unfortunate Souls was the best song in The Little Mermaid! Possibly the best part of the whole movie…
I am a huge Disney fan. I am about to have my first child and I am so glad that the Disney movies will be ther for her to enjoy as much as I do. I just bought the Sleeping Beauty 50th anniversary DVD. What a classic.
I love this list but i have to say Baby Mine from Dumbo puts me into tears every time. As does the song sung to Todd in Fox and The Hound. There are just so many classic songs from these great movies I am sure you had a hard time making this list.
Kudos!!
thank god ‘Hakuna Matata’ didn’t make the list. that song makes me want to wretch. ‘Circle of Life’ was good, but ‘can you feel the love tonight’ drives me crazy. i have to hear the elton john version everyday at work on that damn muzak station. i thought the lion king was overrated. the best songs came from aladdin, beauty and the beast, and the little mermaid imo.
A top ten list is just too hard to manage considering how many memorable and beautiful songs that are out there. Especially from the unpopular movies such as Hercules and Hunchback of Notre Dame. I’m glad Beauty and the Beast made it. I’m kinda biased because it is my favorite movie since I was four. Now I’m 21 and I still love it.
“#4. jajdude – October 18th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Clockwise guns on the list, g. Disney will outlive anime FOREVER.”
~I agree.
arabian night-alladin
I agree with some songs in your list. But am afraid to say aladin obv should have bn number 2. also the number 1 choice of the lion king didnt sound anything like the film at ALL. it was pish…..
I think can you feel the love tonight in the actual film should have made numba 1, none eh the elton john pish. fantasia was a brilliant disney classic.
Great list! i grew up with most of these and i really miss these days. Now its all about hannah montana and HSM
I am glad to see that you put “Feed the Birds” on the list. However, I have to say you sold it a bit short. That song is easily one of the best Disney songs of all time (especially when sung by Julie Andrews), and it most definitely outranks both “Colors of the Wind” and “Someday My Prince Will Come.” I would even go so far as to say that it deserves the number 3 spot on this list!
I love Disney, this is a great list! I could probably give you my top 30 or so of favorite Disney songs from back when Disney had truly great music. Some of my favorites not on the list are “Reflections” (Mulan); “Won’t Say I’m in Love” (Hercules); “Once Upon a Dream” (Sleeping Beauty); “Strangers Like Me” (Tarzan); and “Trashin’ the Camp” (Tarzan, the “NSYNC/Phil Collins version).
Basically…I just love Disney movies and music XD
WHAT.
The Bells of Notre Damn?!?!
DAMN?!?!?
It is Notre Dame.
WHICH, by the way, is a great song.
Phil Collins needs to stop it.
I’m sorry, the Tarzan song was just pathetic when there are so many better songs out there, such as “Hellfire”, “Gypsy Prayer”,”Rescue Me”, most of the numbers in Corpse Bride, and on and on and on. Oh well. No accounting for taste.
Circle of Life always gives me chills, i love it!
but glad Hunchback of Notre Dame got a mention with “the bells of Notre Dame”, “God help the outcasts” is another good one.
What about God Help the Outcasts, from Hunchback of Notre Dame, or Part of Your World, from The Little Mermaid?
Oh, thank you for this list! I’ve never seen Walt Disney films the way almost every child seems to (I only watched Bambi recently), but I have known most songs for a long time. You basically included about every Disney song I love – and to be honest, I can’t think of any more, either.
Though… I’ve always liked “Deliver us” from, I believe, Prince of Egypt. It’s a very impressive song.
But thank you for this list!
The one Disney song I always get stuck in my head is I Just Can’t Wait To Be King, from The Lion King
i love hakuna matata!!! that song was in my head for days. thank goodness i sinjg that song in chorus!
Just a quick note: Cedestra, Anastasia IS a Disney film and as for all the conglomarate stuff Disneyland in California was built BEFORE Walt Disney died, so it’s not a new thing. Walt wanted everyone to be able to see and love something he was so passionate about.
Talsin sorry I just got make this clear. Anastasia is not a Disney movie.
wheres “you have a friend in me” from toy story
Anastasia is NOT a Disney animation, it’s a 20th Century Fox animation.
where is supercalifrag…
I agree with all of the list but there are som many great songs from Disney out there that I would be there for days trying to figure out what to put where…Still good list
P.S Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah should be higher than number 9!
How bout now a list of creepiest songs from kids movies? You can start with “In the Dark of the Night” from Anastasia and that one the bad guy from Hunchback of Notre Dame sings.
i love anastasia it’s my favourite non-disney animated movie ever!
i cannot believe my favorite disney song..BEAR NECESSITIES.. is not posted as number one..WHAT THE EFF! FML