The Best Song Ever Sung by a Cartoon

[Biggirl]

Once a long, long time ago (BCS-- before Cafe Society) in a thread far, far away I remarked that Sugar, Sugar was the best song ever sung by a cartoon. It didn't take two post before someone corrected me: Sugar, Sugar wasn't actually sung by cartoon characters. It was sung by studio musicians who pretended to be cartoon characters. I never did thank that poster for lifting the scales from my eyes.

I still think Sugar, Sugar is one of the best songs ever sung by a cartoon, just beating out Josie and the Pussycats (long tails and ears for hats!) but The Archies have been replaced at the very top of the list by Unaesta. Unaesta is an unseen band in GTA: Vice City and they sing the most ass-wiggling, kick-ass, ass-stomping song ever sung by would-be animations-- La Vida Es Una Lenteja. Too bad this song will never get any airplay.

What do you think is the best song ever sung by a cartoon?




P.S. La Vida Es Una Lenteja translates into, I believe, Life Is a Lentil. Sample lyric: GET UP!! and go to the refrigerator! RockStar North have a strange sense of humor.

[Kantalooppi]

Uncle Fucka.

[Ethilrist]

"Why Don't You Do Right?"
Written by Joe McCoy
Vocal by Amy Irving
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Either that or the Nations of the World song from Animaniacs...

[MovieMogul]

A tie:

When You Wish Upon a Star from Pinocchio
St. James Infirmary Blues from Snow White (Betty Boop short)

[nitroglycerine]

I'm partial to the classics..."Hello My Baby" by the Warner Bros frog and "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" By Tom (of Tom and Jerry of course). But then again, I'd go along with the Nations Of The World song too.

OH! And don't forget the Jetsons classic "Oop Eep Ork", and that one song fred Flintstone sung..."There's a place I know where the four winds blow called Bedrock, twist twist...."
Fred coulda been a rock and roll contender if it wasn't for Wilma holding him back. :)

Jon

[Telemark]

Rabbit of Seville, "Come into my shop, let me cut your mop, daintily, daintily..."

Elmer J Fudd "Kill the Wabbit, kill the Wabbit"

Animaniacs Wakko "Wakko's World" and "State Capitals"

[RealityChuck]

I've been partial to "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid

Other choices:

"What is Your Order?" from Daffy's Duck Hunt (a reworking of Harry Warren's "The Latin Quarter.")

"Gaston" from Beauty and the Beast

Wagner's "Ring Cycle" (excerpts) in What's Opera Doc?

[monster]

"Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't My Baby", as mentioned above.

[Ethilrist]

"Kiss the Girl" also wins major points (from The Little Mermaid).

[Larry Mudd]

Anything in a Betty Boop cartoon, from Cab Calloway's hot jazz, to the toonland jazz of Grampy.


Sharon Apple's signature tune in Macross Plus. Hypnotic.

[rj2003]

"kyle's mom's a bitch!" by cartman

[Zebra]

Oh Brunhilda, you're so lovely

Yes I know it, I can't help it

Elmer Fudd and Buggs Bunny in What's Opera Doc? IIRC


Also Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast as sang by Mrs. Potts.

[vl_mungo]

Originally posted by nitroglycerine
I'm partial to the classics..."Hello My Baby" by the Warner Bros frog and "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" By Tom (of Tom and Jerry of course). But then again, I'd go along with the Nations Of The World song too.

OH! And don't forget the Jetsons classic "Oop Eep Ork", and that one song fred Flintstone sung..."There's a place I know where the four winds blow called Bedrock, twist twist...."
Fred coulda been a rock and roll contender if it wasn't for Wilma holding him back. :)

Jon

Man, I opened this thread just to vote for "Hello, My Baby"... and I'd like to add "Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" also by the Frog.

BTW, The Violent Femmes do a great cover of "Eep-Epp-Ork-Uh-Uh" on an album called "Saturday Morning's Greatest Hits".

[Pábitel]

"Oh, bwunhiwda you'we so wovewy!"


"Yass I know it! I can't help it!"


"Oh Bwunhiwda, be my wife!"


On a more serious note. The song "Beauty and the Beast" sung by Mrs. Potts in the movie won an Oscar for best song.

[Lute Skywatcher]

To hijack here for a moment, Disney Channel occasionally runs clips of their cartoons set to classic rock. The one they did for "Heart of Rock and Roll" was brilliant!

[Trion]

Originally posted by Telemark

Animaniacs Wakko "Wakko's World" and "State Capitals"

Actually, I think Yakko did the State Capitals.

[Pábitel]

Boy take ten minutes to complete a post and half a dozen slip in under the radar. You only beat me to it by 8 minutes Zebra.

[evilhomer]

The first songs I thought of were the "Nations of the World" from Animaniacs, or the Hillbilly song by Bugs Bunny.

Or, from the Simpsons, "Who Needs the Quickie Mart". For sheer stick-in-the-headedness, "You Don't Make Friends With Salad!".

[Biggirl]

Originally posted by evilhomer
For sheer stick-in-the-headedness, "You Don't Make Friends With Salad!".

You really are eeeeviiiiil homer. I swear, if I leave work and I'm still doing the cha-cha in my head while humming about sa--LAD!, I'm going to hunt you down and spill ink remover on you.

[rjung]

"When She Loved Me," from Toy Story. Play the song and break out the hankies...

Runner up to "Blame Canada," from the South Park movie, just for the sheer silliness of the idea. ;)

[GargoyleWB]

The Dickies also did an excellent cover of Eep Op Ork, as well as the Gigantor theme.

[Olentzero]

I don't want to be overly pedantic (well, actually I do) but we're mixing things up a little here. Some of these songs were written expressly for the cartoons, like Sugar Sugar, while others were songs that pre-date the cartoons in which they were included. "Is You Is" was written by Louis Jordan and Bill Austin in 1944. "Why Don't You Do Right" was written by Joe McCoy (as Ethilrist notes) in 1941. "Hello My Baby" was written in 1899, and "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" was written in 1930 by Bee Palmer, Sam Stept, and Sidney Clare. "The Great McCloskey Fight", however, is a WB original. :D

[Biggirl]

I was thinking more about songs written expressely for the cartoon but I wasn't very clear. And everybody was having so much fun. . ..

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Some good ones mentioned so far...but it's no contest: the Snorky episode ("There's No Such Thing as a Sea Serpent") of Beany & Cecil.

[vibrotronica]

All of the songs in "One Froggy Evening" are brilliantly executed. I have had "The Michigan Rag" in my head for approximately 3.47% of my life. (Second only to Del Shannon's "Runaway" at 4.13%)

As for the Simpson's, l'll nominate "See My Vest," "Planet of the Apes--The Musical" and the song about the brothel whose name escapes me.

[Guinastasia]

That would be "We Put the Spring in Springfield".

I would have to say it's a tie between three songs from Anastasia:
"Once Upon a December", "Journey to the Past" and "At the Beginning".

Probably "Once Upon a December".

[Max Carnage]

Yet another vote for Yakko's World ( I have it on 2 cd's)

"United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru.
Republic Dominican, Cuba, Carribean, Greenland, El Salvadore too"

And "Monorail" by the cast of the Simpsons.

[DeVena]

"3 is a magic number,
yes it is, it's a magic number.
Somewhere in the ancient mystic trinity
you get 3 as a magic number."

I loves me some schoolhouse rock :D

[AV8R]

"When She Loved Me," from Toy Story. Play the song and break out the hankies...

Actually, I think that was from Toy Story II.
Regardless, it gets my vote, too.

[amarinth]

For the not written for, but performed by, the cartoon section - "Why Don't You Do Right?"

For the written for a cartoon section - movies- "Kiss The Girl," (ballad), "Gaston" (ensemble number), "Everybody Wants to be a Cat," (great song in the middle of a questionable film) and "The Siamese Cat Song" (they're on screen for what, 2 minutes? And they steal the show with that one).

And for television - "Conjunction Junction"

[evilhomer]

Originally posted by Biggirl
You really are eeeeviiiiil homer. I swear, if I leave work and I'm still doing the cha-cha in my head while humming about sa--LAD!, I'm going to hunt you down and spill ink remover on you.
:D I have to live up to the name once and a while. Besides, if you hum/sing loud enough, everyone will join in. What a way to start the weekend! Of course, I personally prefer (to the same tune) :

I am Evil Homer!
I am Evil Homer!
I am Evil Homer!
I am Evil Homer!

So easy to remember, so hard to forget.

[Khadaji]

Originally posted by Biggirl
Once a long, long time ago (BCS-- before Cafe Society) in a thread far, far away I remarked that Sugar, Sugar was the best song ever sung by a cartoon. It didn't take two post before someone corrected me: Sugar, Sugar wasn't actually sung by cartoon characters. It was sung by studio musicians who pretended to be cartoon characters. I never did thank that poster for lifting the scales from my eyes.<SNIP>P.S. La Vida Es Una Lenteja translates into, I believe, Life Is a Lentil. Sample lyric: GET UP!! and go to the refrigerator! RockStar North have a strange sense of humor. LOL. I have no idea, but I was amused by this portion of your post. :)

[Arden Ranger]

In addition to some already mentioned, I've always been partial to

"I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from The Lion King

"God Help the Outcast" and "Hellfire" from Hunchback of Notre Dame.

[Dr. Rieux]

"Hakuna Matata"

[hampster]

For all its faults Rock and Rule (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1017752/reviews.php?critic=all&sortby=default&page=1&rid=845984) has some excellent songs;

songs by Cheap Trick /
Debbie Harry /
Lou Reed /
with Iggy Pop /
and a special performance by Earth, Wind and Fire

Send Love Through, Pain and Suffering...

[Dissonance]

The best song sung by a cartoon character?

That would be Trogdor - The Burninator (http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html).

[ArrMatey!]

This far, and no one's mentioned the DOOM SONG sung by GIR in the first episode of Invader Zim? Oh the shame!

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Another vote for "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch," from South Park.

[katie1341]

There's a Yosemite Sam song that I sing to my dog (much to my husband's chagrin):

Oh, I can't get along little doggie,
Oh, I can't even get one that's small,
Oh, I can't get along little doggie,
Oh, I can't get a doggie at all.

I love the music in all of the Looney Toons cartoons, especially Bugs.

[Macka]

They fight, and fight,
And fight and fight and fight,
Fight, fight, fight,
Fight, fight, fight,
The Itchy and Scratchy Shoooowwwww!

Best Cartoon Song EVER!

[koeeoaddi]

Think About Your Troubles and Me and My Arrow from The Point.

Oh, and I'm Checking In and Canyonaro. Both from The Simpsons.

[Max Carnage]

Originally posted by Macka
They fight, and fight,
And fight and fight and fight,
Fight, fight, fight,
Fight, fight, fight,
The Itchy and Scratchy Shoooowwwww!

Best Cartoon Song EVER!


They fight and bite,
They fight and fight and bite,
Fight fight fight
Bite bite bite...


as evidenced by "The Day The Violence Died" where they did the last episode of I&S

They fought and bit,
They fought and fought and bit.
Fought fought fought
Bit Bit Bit...

[TeaElle]

For sheer stick-in-your-memory value, I've always loved "I Love to Singa", the song which lent its title to a classic WB/Tex Avery Jazz Singer tribute with little "Owl Jolson" who defied his traditional mama and papa to follow his heart.

I love to sing-a
About the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a,
I love to sing-a,
About a sky of blue-a, or a tea for two-a,
Anything-a with a swing-a to an "I love you-a,"
I love to, I love to sing!

In searching for more info on this, I've learned that this song was actually originally performed by Cab Calloway, and was featured in a 1936 Jolson picture entitled "The Singing Kid". I find myself singing this one to Baby tlw from time to time.

[Trion]

Howzabout "Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz? Can I nominate that?

[Kilt-wearin' man]

Originally posted by Dr. Rieux
"Hakuna Matata"

What a wonderful phrase!



Seriously, Sarah MacLachlan's When She Loved Me from Toy Story II even gets me choked up.

[Telemark]

"I Wanna Be Like You" - King Louis (Louis Prima) Jungle Book

"What's This?" - Skeleton Jack (Danny Elfman) Nightmare Before Christmas

[SolGrundy]

Some good choices in here. For "Schoolhouse Rock," though, I'd say it's a tie between "Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla" (thank you, pronouns!) or "Verb (That's What's Happening)".

The Bedrock "Twitch" song is another good choice.

But my vote goes to "Don't Put Marbles In Your Nose," from "Home Movies," if only for the accompanying Quiet Riot-style video.

"Don't put marbles in your nose
Put them in there
Do not put them in there"

[ivylass]

I love "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas, such beautiful imagery.

And the "Boot Camp" song from Mulan..."Make a Man Out of You?" Is that it?

[Fenris]

What's Opera Doc is good, of course, but The Rabbit of Seville is far better, IMHO:

Hey yeeeew!
Welcome to my shop!
Let me cut your mop
Let me shave your crop!
Dain-tily
Dain-tily
Hey you!!
Don't look so perplexed
Why must you be vexed?
Can't you see you're next
Yes. You're next, you're so next!
How about a nice close shave
Teach your whiskers to behave
Lotsa lather, lotsa soap
Please hold still, don't be a dope!
Now we're ready for the scraping
there's no use to try escaping
Yell and scream and rant and rave
It's no use you need a shave!

There. You're nice and clean.
Although...your face looks like it mighta
gone t'rough a...ma..chine.

OR, how about the one with Bugs vs Giovanni Jones?

Bugs:
She's a fancy stepper when she dances
Go and see her as she kippers and prances
My gal don't do much talking
Dances even when she's walking

Giovanni, unable to contain himself bursts in:
One and two and three and four she dances all day long

Bugs:
Oh my gal is a high part stepper
Ginger with salt and pepper
She's a fancy stepper when she dances
Go and see her as she kippers and prances

Then, of course, Giovanni squishes Bugs's head in the harp.

What's weird is that the lyrics are a HUGE improvement over the original ragtime tune

Fenris

[rjung]

Originally posted by ivylass
And the "Boot Camp" song from Mulan..."Make a Man Out of You?" Is that it?
IIRC, it's "Be A Man". The song's nice, but you really have to see it in context (with the animation) for the full effect.

(And yes, "When She Loved Me" was from Toy Story II)

[mobo85]

Originally posted by Max Carnage
as evidenced by "The Day The Violence Died" where they did the last episode of I&S

This is actually the closing theme to each episode, and it appears in The Front, followed by a Steven J. Cannell send-up.

[vl_mungo]

Originally posted by hampster
For all its faults Rock and Rule (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1017752/reviews.php?critic=all&sortby=default&page=1&rid=845984) has some excellent songs;

songs by Cheap Trick /
Debbie Harry /
Lou Reed /
with Iggy Pop /
and a special performance by Earth, Wind and Fire

Send Love Through, Pain and Suffering...

Hell Yeah!!! Totally forgot. Great movie.
It's better than Heavy Metal, although that had some good songs too...
Blue Oyster Cult - Veteran of the Psychic Wars
Black Sabbath - Mob Rules
Devo - Working in a Coalmine
and so forth

[Biggirl]

Originally posted by vl_mungo
BTW, The Violent Femmes do a great cover of "Eep-Epp-Ork-Uh-Uh" on an album called "Saturday Morning's Greatest Hits".

This is one of my favoritest CDs. I had to buy another one because me and the kids killed the first one. P.S. it's called just plain old Saturday Morning.



About La Vida es una Lenteja-- does anybody know the words to this song. My Spanish is very, very rusty and I can only catch a few phrases here and there (La vida es una lenteja-- o la toma o la deja. . .). Maybe a better question would be does anybody know this song at all besides me?

[penny dreadful]

Originally posted by Arden Ranger
"Hellfire" from Hunchback of Notre Dame. Hunchback is definitely not my favorite of the big Disney musicals. But that song... I still get chills every time I hear it.

"It's not my fault
(Mea culpa)
If in God's plan,
(Mea culpa)
He made the devil so much
Stronger than a man!"

[Rico]

Folks:

You're all missing one of the most beautiful songs that's ever been written:

When You Wish Upon A Star

Sung by Jiminy Cricket in the 1940 Disney Film Pinocchio.

Performed by Cliff Edwards, also known as Ukulele Ike (http://www.geocities.com/~ukulele/ukuleleike.html).

No, not THAT Ukulele Ike...

[lawoot]

Happy Happy Joy Joy

[survivorology.com]

I vote for George George George of the Jungle

The song was better than the cartoon.

[Linus Van Pelt]

Whatever feelings people have about the Disney animated features (and there are a lot of strong feelings both ways), there's a long tradition of good, if not exceptional music that's been written for them. The entire soundtrack of The Little Mermaid was excellent, and let's not forget the memorable songs from the old animated features: from just for fun, such as "The Bear Necessities" from The Jungle Book and "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid to the wistfully sad such as Dumbo's "Baby Mine." (My wife always cries during that song).

I know that people love the Animaniacs' geography songs, but my personal favorite is "I am the Very Model of a Cartoon Individual." I almost fell out of my chair laughing at that one.

And I would like this topic to be expanded to "Best Song Sung by a Cartoon or Non-Human character" so that I can nominate "The Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie. Besides, "The Best Song Sung by a Puppet" would be a pretty limited category.

[capacitor]

Are you sure....

'Rubber Ducky' by Ernie
'The Muppet Show Tonight'
'Not Easy Being Green'