Back to the world of the Pachyderm for another great collection of songs. This time our focus is on those who are children at heart.
Nellie the Elephant” is a children’s song written in 1956 by Ralph Butler and Peter Hart about a fictional anthropomorphic elephant of that name. The original version, released in October 1956, was recorded by English child actress Mandy Miller with an orchestra conducted by Phil Cardew. It was arranged by Ron Goodwin and produced by George Martin Although never a hit single, it was played countless times on BBC national radio in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly on Children’s Favourites. The chorus of the song is as follows: Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk And said goodbye to the circus Off she went with a trumpety-trump trump, trump, trump.
“When I See an Elephant Fly” is a song from the 1941 Disney movie ‘Dumbo’. It was voiced in the movie by Cliff Edwards as Dandy Crow, the leader of a group of crows. Though he initially jokes and ridicules Timothy’s idea that Dumbo can fly, he hears Dumbo’s tragic history and becomes determined to help Dumbo fly for real. He is never mentioned by name in the film.
“Pink Elephants on Parade” is a song and scene from the 1941 Disney movie ‘Dumbo’ in which Dumbo and Timothy Q. Mouse, having accidentally become intoxicated (through drinking waterr spiked with champagne), see pink elephants sing, dance, and play musical instruments during an hallucination sequence. After the sequence, Dumbo and Timothy wake up, hungover, in a tree. It is at this point that they realize that Dumbo can fly. The song was written by Oliver Wallace (music) and Ned Washington (lyrics) and sung by The Sportsmen. The segment was directed by Norman Ferguson, laid out by Ken O’Connor and animated by Hicks Lokey, Karl Van Leuven, and Howard Swift.
“Colonel Hathi’s March (The Elephant Song)” is a song in the 1967 Walt Disney film, The Jungle Book. The song was sung by J. Pat O’Malley, playing the part of “Colonel Hathi”. The song was also sung by Thurl Ravenscroft and The Mellomen, originally Terry Thomas and Disney Chorus. The song was written by Disney staff songwriters, Robert and Richard Sherman. It is written in the spirit of a light commentary on the pointlessness of constant military drilling. A reprise version has the first appearance of Shere Khan. Hathi is head of the elephant troop. He is one of the oldest animals of the jungle and represents order, dignity and obedience to the Lwa of the Jungle. Kipling named him after the Hindi word for Elephant.
Babar the Elephant is an elephant character who first appeared in 1931 in the French children’s book Histoire de Babar by Jean de Brunhoff. The book is based on a tale that Brunhoff’s wife, Cecile, had invented for their children. It tells of a young elephant, named Babar, whose mother is killed by a hunter. Babar escapes, and in the process leaves the jungle in exile, visits a big city, and returns to bring the benefits of civilization to his fellow elephants. All 78 episodes of the TV series are broadcast in 30 languages in over 150 countries, making Babar one of the largest distributed animation shows in history.
