David Ogden Stiers

Long established as a leader in family-oriented and children’s cinema, Disney launched its entry into recorded music by creating the Walt Disney Music Company in 1949. That publishing arm handled the songs tied to the studio’s pictures, starting with Cinderella the following year. During the 1950s the company added two dedicated labels: Disneyland Records, which issued soundtracks along with stories and selections drawn from The Mickey Mouse Club, and Buena Vista, which put out material by contract performers such as Fess Parker, Annette Funicello and Darlene Gillespie as well as individual tracks from its films. All existing imprints were merged in 1989 under the single banner Walt Disney Records, an entity that re-released earlier scores, produced read-along and sing-along sets, assembled anthologies of classic and recent Disney material, and supplied the scores for new theatrical releases. Several of those contemporary albums, including The Lion King, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, achieved multi-platinum status. The pattern of combined screen and recording success persisted into the twenty-first century, propelled by the studio’s purchase of Pixar, The Muppets, Marvel and Star Wars.