Music Review: Steamboat Willie - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

As a postscript to the all the splashy, star-studded Mickey Mouse Birthday hooop-plaah, here’s a new release that is steeped in the roots of “what it’s really all about” that you may not have heard about. Walt Disney Records quietly released a mini-album that, for the first time, offers the complete soundtrack for 1928’s Steamboat Willie, undoubtedly remastered and restored by Producer Randy Thornton (downloads usually have no credits, sadly).

Steamboat Willie has never been released commercially as an audio recording, so that’s a milestone in the history of the in-house record company, which heretofore had only presented clips.

In addition, this EP or mini-album includes what I would guess comes from the Walt Disney inteviews with Pete Martin and Diane Disney for her book. It’s a wonderfully candid and humorous recollection of the making of Steamboat Willie, chronicling how he tried to get a company to record it, how it was recorded and the wacky hijinks that ensued. You can hear a lot of laughter in the background of this informal recollection. Some may recall hearing this before, I sure don’t.

You can find this for download on amazon or on iTunes.