The Bare Necessities Explained
"The Bare Necessities" is a jazz song, written by Terry Gilkyson,[1] from Disney's 1967 animated feature film The Jungle Book, sung by Phil Harris as Baloo and Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli.[2] Bill Murray and Neel Sethi, in the same roles, performed the song in the 2016 remake.[3]
Background
Originally, it was written for an earlier draft of the film that was never produced.[4] The Sherman Brothers, who wrote the other songs of the film, kept this as the only song used from the previous version. A reprise of the song was sung by Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera and Phil Harris as Baloo at the end of the film. Van Dyke Parks worked on the arrangement.[5] In 1967, "The Bare Necessities" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song but lost to "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Dolittle.[6] A hip-hop version of the song performed by Lou Rawls was used as the theme song for Jungle Cubs.[7]
Other versions
- Louis Armstrong covered the song on his 1968 album Disney Songs the Satchmo Way.
- Steve Tyrell covered the song on his February 28, 2006 album The Disney Standards.
- Brian Wilson covered it on his album In the Key of Disney, released on October 25, 2011.
- The Overtones covered the song on their album Saturday Night at the Movies, released on November 1, 2013.
Notes and References
- Book: Halliwell
, L.
. Halliwell's Film Guide. Granada. 1981. 978-0-246-11533-1. August 2, 2018. 531.
- Book: Sackett. S.. Rovins. M.. Hollywood Sings!: An Inside Look at Sixty Years of Academy Award-nominated Songs. Billboard Books. 1995. 978-0-8230-7623-9. August 2, 2018. 190.
- News: 'Jungle Book' director Jon Favreau keeps the 19th century Kipling tone but updates the classic for modern times. Keegan. Rebecca. Los Angeles Times. April 15, 2016. June 18, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20170707045627/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-modernizing-jungle-book-20160414-story.html?dlvrit=95867. July 7, 2017.
- Book: Hischak
, T.S.
. 100 Greatest American and British Animated Films. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2018. 978-1-5381-0569-6. August 2, 2018. 165.
- Book: McKeen
, W.
. Everybody Had an Ocean: Music and Mayhem in 1960s Los Angeles. Chicago Review Press. 2017. 978-1-61373-494-0. August 2, 2018. 254.
- Book: Johnson. J.. Ehrbar. G.. Ghez. D.. Johnson. G.. Inside the Whimsy Works: My Life with Walt Disney Productions. University Press of Mississippi. 2014. 978-1-61703-932-4. August 2, 2018. 132.
- Book: Animation Magazine. Animation Magazine. v. 11, no. 1. 1997. August 2, 2018. That's meant doing "interesting casting" for the main titles and series theme songs: Lou Rawls singing Jungle Cubs' "The Bare Necessities"; rocker Eddie Money singing the Quack Pack main title; Jefferson Starship lead singer Mickey Thomas .... mdy-all.
