The 11 Best Disney Theme Park Songs
What are your favorite aspects of a Disney theme park attraction? I’m sure you love the theming and the thrill of the wind in your face. You also adore the attention to detail and the sheer fun of it all. What adds to that fun? One of the answers is music…and Disney theme park songs!
From the start of Disneyland preparations, Uncle Walt planned to incorporate music into the rides to enhance the joyous nature of the Disneyland experience. Today, countless songs are synonymous with their attractions, and that leads to an obvious question. Which Disney theme park ride songs are the best? Here is one person’s opinion on the top 11…
11) “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room” – Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room
A couple of years ago, music fans couldn’t go five minutes without hearing “Shut Up and Dance” on XM Radio or Spotify. A few scientists attempted to quantify the explanation for its omnipresence. They discovered that several of the largest hits of all-time share a commonality. They have easily remembered lyrics with a relentlessly repetitive chorus.
These scientists could have saved themselves a lot of trouble by going to a Disney theme park instead. There, they’d discover that Walt Disney and his favorite music duo, the Sherman Brothers, cracked this formula half a century ago. I could actually populate this entire list simply with Sherman Brothers songs, but what fun is that?
Instead, I’ve only included some of their works, the first of which is The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room. And you’ll notice a pattern starting with this song. Every time you think about a Sherman Brothers song, it instantly gets stuck in your head. Why? Because the lyrics are simple and repetitive.
10) “One Little Spark” – Journey into Imagination with Figment
I guess that by immediately adding a second Sherman Brothers verse similar to the first one, I’m merely following their lead. Still, there’s a difference of roughly 20 years between the two songs. When the Sherman Brothers wrote “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room,” Disney was about to introduce the world’s first audio-animatronics.
“One Little Spark” didn’t arrive until 1983, long after Walt Disney’s death. In his absence, Imagineers tried to build his utopia, Epcot, without him. Once it became painfully obvious to everyone that Disney was building a theme park, not a city, they did what they could to honor their founder’s vision in other ways.
With “One Little Spark,” they commissioned one of Disney’s greatest living music acts to write one more theme park song. Fittingly, it features eternally optimistic lyrics about life and the creative process. This song deserves a place among the greatest theme park music accompaniments for these lyrics alone:
Imagination, imagination.
A dream, can be a dream come true.
With just that spark, in me and you.
These are the perfect words for the idea of Epcot.
9) “It’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” – Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress
Are you noticing a theme? I swear to you that I’m about to select some non-Sherman Brothers songs, but the fact that cannot be ignored is that diehard Mickey Travelers know all of these songs so far by heart. The Shermans were Disney’s answer to Call Me, Maybe.
8) “How Do You Do?” and
7) “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” – Splash Mountain
Splash Mountain has a well-earned reputation as one of the purest forms of entertainment at Disney theme parks. Sure, part of that was salacious from back in the Flash Mountain days, but the attraction has stood the test of time as the best wet ride ever made. One of the critical aspects of imbibing Splash Mountain with life is the music.
Several songs actually play throughout the ride, but two of them are unforgettable. “How Do You Do?” plays during the first real set piece of the attraction, almost as if Splash Mountain is introducing itself and its colorful cast of characters. Its bookend is “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” which is the post-splashdown celebration scene.
The ride has had its fun with you, and now is the time for everyone to have a grand time. The companion pieces set the tone for the spirit of the entire 10-minute ride.
6) “In the Big Blue World” – The Seas with Nemo & Friends
You’ll notice that some of the songs on this list were written especially for Disney rides. Others were previously written but later incorporated. It’s the tricky part of building a theme park empire long after becoming the king of Hollywood animation.
Disney has to pick and choose the best ways to enhance their attractions. Sometimes, that’s with existing songs. On other occasions, entirely new creations are needed.
When Disney rebranded The Living Seas Pavilion with a Nemo theme, they altered one of their most recognizable Epcot attractions into a simpler but nicer ride. To reinforce the theming, The Seas with Nemo & Friends ends its search for a missing (fish) child happily with this carefree rendition of “In the Big Blue World.” It’s the perfect musical accompaniment to have you humming the song as you exit the entire pavilion.
5) “Heigh-Ho” – Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Coming from one of the newer attractions on the list, it’s also the oldest song. When Walt Disney made his first animated feature film in 1937, Heigh-Ho was the celebratory song that the Seven Dwarfs employed to pass the time.
On Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, the introductory moments of “Heigh-Ho” signify that the fun is about to begin. As shadows play on the wall beside you, your mine cart crawls up to the top of the hill, preparing you for a ride down. The lyrics put a smile on your face as the twisting, turning cart soars into motion on one of the most cleverly designed roller coasters ever.
This attraction is one of the true triumphs of Disney theme park design. It somehow marries a 2014 ride with a 1937 song in a way that feels organic and natural, as if Heigh-Ho were specifically written for the mine train.
I’m convinced that if Walt Disney were alive today, he would love Seven Dwarfs Mine Train as the most authentic Disney ride built after he stopped running the parks. And “Heigh-Ho” is instrumental to that.
4) “Let It Go” – Frozen Ever After
The comparisons between The Seas with Nemo & Friends and Frozen Ever After are eerily similar. The former attraction had a single intent: to stir some lost passion for a key part of Future World. The latter attraction did the same for the World Showcase, showing the formerly overlooked Norway Pavilion into a destination location at Epcot.
The song situation is a bit different, though. “In the Big Blue World” didn’t have to appear in the attraction for it to satisfy guests. A Frozen ride without “Let It Go” heavily involved would alienate everyone. Park planners knew this, of course, which explains the entire ride structure.
Frozen Ever After is predicated upon the song. It’s almost literally the centerpiece scene, receiving a grandiose set piece where you can watch Elsa belt out the song to the best of her ability. You even ride in reverse at one point so that you hear more of the music.
It’s the highlight of one of the most popular rides at Walt Disney World, and the song is the heart of it. That’s fitting given that “Let It Go” is the most recognized Disney anthem of the 2000s to date.
3) “Grim Grinning Ghosts” – The Haunted Mansion
There’s this glorious moment in the middle of The Haunted Mansion when the schism occurs. The creepy vibes from The Attic evaporate as Madame Leota summons the supernatural spirits. And the shuffling undead are bored with eternity. They want to throw a dead man’s party, as Oingo Boingo once called it.
“Grim Grinning Ghosts” is the music that many of the mansion’s 999 Ghouls sing as they relish in the moment. For a time, they walk amongst the living once more, and they grimly grin their way through every moment of it. Out of the 11 songs listed here, this one’s actually my favorite. It’s just not as iconic as the two ranked ahead of it.
2) “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)” – Pirates of the Caribbean
Sometimes, a song doesn’t reinforce the theme. Instead, a song IS the theme, and there’s no better example of it than “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me).” It defines the spirit and tone of Pirates of the Caribbean, a celebration of all the villainous ways of pirate living.
When you heard this piece of music, you cannot help but think of giant jugs of rum and a dog tauntingly holding a jail key just out of the range of incarcerated prisoners. Pirates of the Caribbean is as closely associated with Disney theme parks as any attractions, and “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)” is the magical ingredient that makes it so special.
1) “It’s a Small World” – It’s a Small World
Look, you know what number one has to be. Sure, It’s a Small Wrld is the most repetitive song imaginable. That’s part of its charm. And you can’t argue with its importance in the realm of pop culture. As I’ve previously discussed, there’s a belief that it’s the most played song of all-time.
Frankly, that’s all that needs to be said. The Sherman Brothers wrote a song for a Disney attraction, and that song became a part of the zeitgeist. By the way, if you’re keeping score at home (which would be weird), four out of the 11 greatest Disney theme park songs are Sherman Brothers creations.