"Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" is a song composed by Allie Wrubel with lyrics by Ray Gilbert for the Disney1946live action and animated movieSong of the South, sung by James Baskett. For "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", the film won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and was the second in a long line of Disney songs to win this award, after "When You Wish upon a Star" from Pinocchio. In 2004 it finished at number 47 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs, a survey of top tunes in American cinema. Disney historian Jim Korkis said the word "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" was reportedly invented by Walt Disney himself, who had a fondness for these types of nonsense words from "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" to "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." The song is likely influenced by the chorus of the pre-Civil War folk song "Zip Coon", a "Turkey in the Straw" variation: "Zip a duden duden duden zip a duden day".
Notable versions
Johnny Mercer & The Pied Pipers had a no. 8 hit with their rendition of the song in 1947. As a result, Mercer had to correct listeners who mistakenly assumed that he wrote it.
The Modernaires with Paula Kelly - this reached the No. 11 spot in the Billboard charts in 1946.
Sammy Kaye & His Orchestra - this also reached the No. 11 spot in the Billboard charts in 1946.
, a Phil Spector-produced American rhythm and blues trio from Los Angeles, recorded "Zip-a-Dee Doo-Dah" using the Wrecking Crew in late 1962. According to the Beatles' George Harrison: "When Phil Spector was making 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah', the engineer who's set up the track overloaded the microphone on the guitar player and it became very distorted. Phil Spector said, 'Leave it like that, it's great.' Some years later everyone started to try to copy that sound and so they invented the fuzz box." The song also marked the first time his Wall of Sound production formula was fully executed. In 1963, Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans took their version of the song to number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 7 on the Hot R&B Singles chart. Their song also peaked at number 45 in the UK Singles Chart the same year. The song was included on the only album the group ever recorded, Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, issued on the Philles Records label.
For many years the song was part of an opening theme medley for the Wonderful World of Disneytelevision program and it has often been used in other TV and video productions by the studio, including being sung as an audition piece by a series of children in the Disney film Life with Mikey. It is one of many popular songs that features a bluebird, epitomized by the "bluebird of happiness", as a symbol of cheer. The song is also the Departure melody of platform 1 of Maihama Station in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. This song is used as the main song in Splash Mountain, a log flume ride based on Song of the South at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
