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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

"Heigh Ho" Deleted Segment from Original 'Snow White' Soundtrack

We continue with our look into the Snow White songs released on the 1938 soundtrack record as they compare with those found in the movie. In addition to The Silly Song (previous post), the other track worth noting is Heigh Ho.

Record image courtesy of the Rick Payne Collection via dadric's attic.

Heigh Ho follows Dig-a-Dig-Dig on Side B of the first disc of the three-record set. Of course, we know they also run back-to-back in the film; the dividing point between the two occurs when we see the clock strike five and Doc calls out "heigh-ho!"



Both record and theatrical-release of Heigh Ho are identical up until 44 seconds into the song. In the movie, Dopey has just put the vault key on the nail, and he runs to catch up with the others on their homeward journey.



The record version then continues on with about 18 to 20 seconds of a whistling melody which is not included in the movie sequence. Animation for this segment was planned, but due to time considerations, it was cut.

The remainder of the "Heigh-Ho" song is the same as what we hear in the film when the Dwarfs march home to the cottage for the first time.



This whistling melody, however, was not left out completely. It was brought to my attention by Snow White enthusiast, Nunziante Valoroso from Italy, that it did indeed make it into the final movie. It was simply moved to the last reel of the film and occurs in the scene right before the animals arrive at the mine to warn the Dwarfs about the Witch. They whistle the tune while they're pulling a mine cart.



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After comparing the other songs from the 1938 record set with what is in the movie, I happened to notice another minor anomaly. At the conclusion to One Song, when the Prince is singing to Snow White from below her balcony, she sends a dove down to him to deliver a kiss.



The dove blushes while sitting on his hand. In the picture, a dove "cooing" sound effect was inserted at this point. On the record album, it was not. All of the other dove intonations, though, do seem to be in place on the soundtrack disc.

Screen captures and audio excerpt copyright Disney. Included here for historical documentation purposes.

8 comments:

  1. I had not noticed the dove sound missing! Great articles!

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  2. Nice catch on the extra whistling chorus. I can only cross my fingers and hope that the archives finds more missing stuff, though I'm sure it has been thoroughly scoured.

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    1. You never know. Sometimes things that were once known are forgotten, then rediscovered anew at a later time.

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  3. Hi from Italy! In effect, if you listen well, the missing whistling melody APPEARS in the film, in the last reel, in the scene when the animal go warn the dwarfs about the witch. You can listen it just before Doc yells : "Watch!" and all the dwarfs bump into each other. Obviously in the record is recorded in its entirety, in the film they interrupt whistling as they bump!

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    1. Thank you Nunziante for pointing this out! I've updated the post to reflect your input. I appreciate your assistance. :)

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  4. I have a 3 record RCA Victor album with a magenta label . The label is the same as the one on this page except for the numbers on the label. They are "Y17" on the left side of the label and "45-5097-A" through 45-5099-B". A & B indicate sides A and B. The ablum cover is turquoise with a picture of the 7 dwarfs walking over a log in the forest from the movie. Can anyone tell me the year of this album? Thanks... :-)

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    1. Hi Gloria, The record album you are referring to is from 1949. You can see it here:
      http://filmic-light.blogspot.com/2013/04/snow-white-soundtrack-19441949-victor.html

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