Music Behind the Ride: Main Street Electrical Parade

With its recent return to Disneyland, this edition of Music Behind the Ride I wanted to take a look at the 50th anniversary edition of the Main Street Electrical Parade!

The parade has gone through several changes in Disneyland in its initial run, before coming back in 2017 and now 2022. It also ran for decades in Florida's Magic Kingdom starting in 1977 (with a few limited returns tossed in). Similar parades were also found in Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris over the decades.

So now, in 2022 the parade is rolling back down the streets to celebrate the parade's first Disneyland appearance in 1972. Since there have been several past changes and additions to the music and floats, I'm going to just focus on the current 50th edition.

First we hear the iconic musical fanfare and updated vocoder introduction. The Casey Jr. train and drum carries Goofy, Minnie and Mickey with the drum spelling out "Disneyland presents - Main Street Electrical Parade - 50 Years".

The next Alice in Wonderland units include the classic designs of snail, turtle, ladybug and butterfly on a mushroom, and bumblebee. We see White Rabbit walking around, Alice atop a mushroom with the Cheshire Cat, centipede, Caterpillar atop a mushroom.

Next is the dressed up mice walking ahead of the Cinderella unit. The pumpkin coach carries Cinderella inside with Fairy Godmother at the rear. The royal dancers bookend the unit with Prince Charming (and glass slipper) with Anastasia and Drizella waving in the back.

Big Ben starts the Peter Pan section, then Peter Pan and Captain Hook on the Jolly Roger, Smee rowing a boat. Fairies with lighted lanterns lead Tinker Bell's flowery float.

The Snow White section begins with Dopey in the bejeweled mine cars followed by the miner Dwarfs and Snow White, with the rest of the Dwarfs in the mine cave float.

Pinocchio and the donkey headed dancers lead the next section which contains the Pleasure Island float. One of the most nostalgic and iconic units, Pete is riding the giant Elliot from Pete's Dragon, blowing smoke out of his nose.

The brand new finale unit is inspired by Mary Blair's It's a Small World designs but featuring more modern Disney and Pixar characters and small tributes to past editions. We see the Blue Fairy, Merida, Miguel, Hercules, Tiana, Moana, Mulan, Pocahontas, Anna & Elsa, Raya, Mowgli, Aladdin & Jasmine flying the magic carpet, Mirabel & Antonio. The last segment is a combination of It's a Small World and Sleeping Beauty castle.

Since the beginning, the music of the parade has been an arrangement of Baroque Hoedown (Perrey and Kingsley). As part of the arrangement, versions of Disney songs were synchronized with the respective parade units and blended with Baroque Hoedown's Moog synth style. With this 50th anniversary edition, most of the music remains the same as past versions until the finale.

Keen listeners can hear these songs in the show: "In the Golden Afternoon", "The Unbirthday Song" (Alice in Wonderland); "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes", "So This Is Love", "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" (Cinderella); "A Pirate's Life", "You Can Fly" (Peter Pan); "Silly Song", "Heigh-Ho" (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs); "Little Wooden Head", "Give a Little Whistle" (Pinocchio); "Razzle Dazzle Day" (Pete's Dragon). 

 For the finale you can hear a random snippets of songs including: "Dig a Little Deeper", "Gonna Take You There", "Just Around the Riverbend", "We Know the Way", "Do You Want to Build a Snowman", "The Bare Necessities", "It's a Small World", "Touch the Sky", "Go the Distance", "How Far I'll Go", "A Whole New World", "The Family Madrigal", "Un Poco Loco", and "I'll Make a Man Out of You".