The songs were written, funny enough, by the Sherman brothers who also wrote the music for The Jungle Book – real old-school professional songwriters whose father was also a songwriter, on Tin Pan Alley, and whose grandfather had been a composer in the court of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. They won Best Song and Best Musical Score Oscars for this, and the music is so different from The Jungle Book you’d hardly believe the same people wrote it. Instead of jazz it’s English music hall, which means there’s sentimental ballads like “Feed the birds”, comic songs like “I love to laugh” and dance numbers with oom-pahs and frantic singalong choruses like “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”. Every single song is a knockout and, though the performances are far less “perfect” then you’d find in more recent Disney films – Julie Andrews is probably the only actor in this who’d be allowed sing in a modern movie – they’re bursting with character and all the better for it. I really can’t recommend this highly enough, it’s a true cast-iron classic – I even love Dick Van Dyke’s (as Bert) famously terrible cockney accent.

Speaking of Dick Van Dyke as Bert, I was casting around for his name when we were listening to the CD in the kitchen last week and Isabelle says “I know his name, it’s Youbert”. Youbert? It was only when “Jolly Holiday” came on and Mary sang “It’s a jolly holiday with you, Bert” did I realise where she got it from. So she’s listening to the words now, hmmm. I think it’s time to discreetly hide about half my CDs.

A spoonful of sugar Chim-chim-cher-ee Supercalifragilistic-expialidocious Feed the birds Let’s go fly a kite

This album, hooray for Disney, is different – there’s a list of twenty-two musicians on the inlay card. The instruments (piano, strings, guitar, flute, oboe, etc.) are real, the arrangements are lovely and the playing is beautiful. Quiet, soothing, instrumental music, suited perfectly to a quiet evening in front of the fire for adults as well as to easing a baby’s journey to The Land of Nod. The tunes are mostly familiar – nursery rhymes, some Disney favourites like “When you wish upon a star”, a Lennon/McCartney number and of course Brahms’ lullaby – which adds to the overall comforting vibe.

But, says you, does it work?

Well, the first time I tried it Heather fell asleep before the end of track 2. Subsequent experiments haven’t always been so successful, because her big sister likes it too and is inclined to “do quiet dancing” around the kitchen when it’s on. This, as you can imagine, is a bit of a distraction, but when I shoo Isabelle away a handful of tracks almost always does it, and even one or two often calms Heather enough for me to put her down in the cot without her objecting and let her drift off on her own in silence.

Brahms lullaby / London bridge is falling down All I have to do is dream When you wish upon a star What a wonderful world I will

The first “Jungle Book” CD we had came free with some newspaper, and Isabelle listened to it and mauled it until it wouldn’t play anymore. When we moved into our current house just before she turned two she was at the peak of her obsession, and treated my visiting brother and his girlfriend to her rendition of “The Bear Necessities” while they looked on in astonishment:

“Look for the bear necessities the simpa bear necessities forget about you wowwies and you stwife if you look unda the wocks and plants an take a glance at the fancy ants you eat ants you betta believe it and you gonna love the way they tickle lookforthebearnecessitiesTHESIMPABEARNECESSITIES …”

etc., getting faster and faster, and  accompanied by a kind of twirling/jumping dance that got more and more frenzied. Eventually we had to stop her before she blew up.

She still loves it, and asks to listen to it lots, and me and her amuse Heather by singing the elephants’ marching song and while we march round and round the kitchen.

On this CD it’s not just the songs, there’s also the underscore (the instrumental music that plays in the background during the film) and some bonus material including songs recorded for a “Jungle Book 2″ record back in the day, songs recorded for the first draft of the film – much darker, apparently, and truer to the original book, until Walt Disney heard “The Bear Necessities” and pushed the film in a new direction – and an interview with the songwriters that isn’t of much interest to the kids but that I found kinda fascinating (it’s amazing how much influence the song had on the film’s plot and visuals). It’s all very good, but after the first week or so Isabelle started asking me to skip to the “hits” – not really a criticism, it’d be hard for an instrumental underscore in particular to match the excitement of such high-quality songs.

Isabelle spent a while one evening examining the inlay card, and said “That’s not a real bear, it’s just a man pretending to be a bear.” “Very good”, says I, “that’s right”.

“Wearing a bear suit”, says she.

“Em … no … y’see that’s just a drawing of a bear.”

“He’s wearing a bear suit.”

“No … it’s a cartoon, y’see, the whole film is a bunch of drawings of people and animals shown really quickly one after the other …”

“So it’s a real bear? No it’s not, it’s a man dressed up!”

“Well, it’s a man’s voice …”

… and so on and on and on. Eventually I gave up. I think I might have to wait until she’s 4

Colonel Hathi’s March The Bear Necessities King of the Swingers Trust In Me That’s What Friends Are For