Ariana Grande, Fall Out Boy Go Disney: Inside 2015’s Most Fun Tribute LP
“Working with David is such an honor,” Grande adds. “I grew up worshiping his work so much. As someone who loves Disney musicals as much as I do. I’m so glad I got to cover literally my favorite Disney song of all time with a kick-ass choir and one of my favorite musicians of all time, Foster. It’s all too much for my little heart to handle!”
Jessie J had a similar experience, knowing “Part of Your World” from top to bottom. “She just sat down and just sang it, without even looking at the lyrics because it’s part of the fabric of their DNA,” Foster says. “Somewhere in every artist’s DNA is a Disney song. You could pick any artist you want, from Dylan all the way up to Ed Sheeran. They all have a Disney story and a Disney moment.”
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“I was completely enamored by The Little Mermaid,” Kacey Musgraves says of her own Disney story. “I remember that my mom made this big, giant mermaid tail out of paper, and I was five, I think, and I would always wear the mermaid tail while watching The Little Mermaid, like a ritual. I would sing along to, like, every part.”
“I would always wear the mermaid tail while watching The Little Mermaid, like a ritual. I would sing along to, like, every part.” —Kacey Musgraves
Musgraves turned Mary Poppins‘ “A Spoonful of Sugar” into an old-school Western tune, quite similar to her single “Biscuits,” with not only the help of her frequent collaborators Luke Laird and Shane McAnally but also legendary Nashville-based Western-swing group the Time Jumpers, who offered fiddles and an accordion to the track.
“That’s a case where she wanted to do the song from Robin Hood, and I begged her to do ‘Spoonful of Sugar,'” Foster says of his contribution. “I just said ‘Please, please, I know this is the right song for you.’ People don’t know the Robin Hood song. She did [‘Spoonful’], and she killed it.”
With R&B Ne-Yo, Foster had a track in mind before the R&B hitmaker even stepped into the studio. “I knew I wanted Ne-Yo to sing ‘Friend Like Me’ because he has this kind of Michael Bublé thing that he can do, even though that’s not the kind of records he makes. But he has that top-hat dance thing. I wanted to make a really big-band version and did the track even before I talked to him, hoping that he would agree.”
“I honestly didn’t know what song would’ve made sense for my voice, but when David told me what song he had in mind, I had to re-familiarize myself with it again,” Ne-Yo adds. “If you listen to the Robin Williams version, it’s very playful, and you know, caricaturized. He’s barely singing; he’s more talking and toying with the character. I was a little skeptical about how it was going to work, but when David broke it down, he said, ‘It’s basically just a big-band song with the horns and the whole nine.’ I thought, ‘OK, well, that’s right up my alley with the Rat Pack and whatnot.’ So we got into the studio and, honestly, it was pretty easy.”