… You’d better pay attention now, cuz I’m the boogie man!
Oh, hey YouTube.
Listen, it’s no secret that Disney puts out some truly memorable songs, but I find
people always gush over those belted out by their favorite animated heroes.
What about those sinister souls, without whom there’d be no story?
We want to give them the praise they deserve, and so we’ve filtered out the top ten songs
sung by Disney’s most vile villains!
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10.
World’s Greatest Criminal – The Great Mouse Detective
Devilish Ratigan shows off his massive ego when he launches into this catchy number,
headlined by none other than…
Vincent Price?!
Yes, continuing his string of voice over work, which started in 1971’s Here Comes Peter
Cottontail, Price takes center stage for this villainous ditty.
“World’s Greatest Criminal” was written by debut composer Henry Mancini and was originally
far darker than the version we heard.
Mancini originally elaborated on the “London Bridge Job,” which had Price singing about
throwing mice into the Thames and shooting all that tried to escape.
9.
A Pirate’s Life – Peter Pan Oh everyone knows this classic!
Come on, sing it with me..
Ah, I bet you were about to sing the wrong version.
You see, Peter Pan’s “A Pirate’s Life” and the version you likely heard on the Pirates
of the Caribbean ride are two different songs, though they’re both incredibly catchy and
feature a signature “Yo Ho!”
Ed Penner’s lyrics and Oliver Wallace’s score is everything you’d expect from a
good sea shanty and Captain Hook’s band of miscreants give it that pirate charm.
8.
Oogie Boogie’s Song – The Nightmare Before Christmas
The highlight of Tim Burton’s Disney classic was arguably the big sack of bugs known as
Oogie Boogie.
The Boogie-man’s jazzy number is a fun list of all the terrible things he’s going to
do to roly-poly Sandy Claws – and we love it.
Ken Page lends his voice to the gambling sadist who, as you’ll learn in extended lore, once
ruled as king of “Bug Day.”
“Oogie Boogie’s Song” was such a hit with the Nightmare Before Christmas crowd
that it reemerged with new lyrics in the PS2 video game, The Nightmare Before Christmas:
Oogie’s Revenge. 7.
Mother Knows Best – Tangled We already knew it, but Disney thought to
drill it further into our heads with this Tangled tune.
As the Alan Menken and Glenn Slater-created song further reinforces, mothers, or specifically
in this case Mother Gothel, do know best.
Pay close attention to the musical style of Rapunzel’s songs and it’s easy to see
that “Mother Knows Best,” performed by Donna Murphy, is a completely different genre.
Inspired by old-fashioned Broadway musicals, Menken and Slater landed on the very unique
sound at the request of the movie’s directors, Byron Howard and Nathan Greno, who believed
it better showcased Mother Gothel’s love of the spotlight.
6.
Cruella De Vil – 101 Dalmatians This may not technically be a “villain”
song seeing as how it’s not sung by the 101 Dalmatians villainess and its whole purpose
is to mock her, but it’s a fine introduction to the big bad “devil woman.”
First performed by Bill Lee and later re-recorded by a mess of voices including Selena Gomez,
Hayden Panettiere, and Dr. John, the Mel Leven composition is a playful introduction to Cruella
– though her love for skinning puppies deserves a far less fun melody.
Fun fact – Cruella De Vil is only one of two songs about the main villain made to mock
them.
The other being The Phony King of England from Robin Hood.
5.
Poor Unfortunate Souls – The Little Mermaid Ursula isn’t so bad, right?
I mean, just listen to the lyrics written by Howard Ashman, the song is all about the
good things she’s done to the less fortunate of the deep sea.
Of course, Pat Carroll’s striking performance imbues the song with a hint of that evil charm.
Alan Menken composed the score to mix the best of Broadway theater and burlesque, but
to convince Carroll, Ashman had to play a recording of himself singing it.
Ashman’s version can be found on The Music Behind the Magic CD set, but you can also
hear the Jonas Brothers tackling it on The Little Mermaid two-disc special edition.
4.
Prince Ali (Revised) by Jafar – Aladdin Originally performed by Robin Williams as
Genie introduces the fraudulent “Prince Ali” to Agrabah, the song got a playful,
villainous reprise, sung by Jonathan Freeman as Jafar.
The unmasking of Aladdin actually went a little differently during production as “Humiliate
the Boy” was intended to be Jafar’s number to oust the street rat, but as story elements
were dropped and changed, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman shifted the meat of the song
into a reprise of “Prince Ali.”
“Humiliate the Boy” wound up being the last song the pair worked on together before
Menken’s death.
3.
Gaston – Beauty and the Beast The sleaziest of Disney’s villains was bound
to also have a slimy anthem and there’s really nothing grosser than having an entire
town sing a song named after you that lists all of the reasons why you’re awesome.
Composed by the dynamic duo of Ashman and Menken, the lyrics we hear in the movie were
actually intended to be rewritten, but the original edit was so popular among the production
team that they were kept.
Originally performed by Richard White and Jesse Cort, “Gaston” returned in the live
action film largely unchanged and was tackled by Luke Evans and Josh Gad.
2.
Shiny - Moana What do you get when you mix the expert composition
and lyric writing of Lin-Manuel Miranda with David Bowie?
You get the catchy track for Moana's crustacean villain, Tamatoa.
Performed by Jemaine Clement, "Shiny" is the coconut crab Tamatoa's chance to tell the
world just how great he is, and boy does he as Marinda's lyrics focus on his prized possessions
like his shiny shell.
During production, Miranda referred to the song as "Sebastian's Revenge," referencing
The Little Mermaid's "Les Poissons" and a bit that showed a person trying to eat a crab
and "Shiny's" depiction of a crab trying to eat a person.
1.
Be Prepared – Lion King Elton John and Tim Rice came together to give
Jeremy Irons the diabolical sound that only a villain as malicious as Scar deserves.
Chronicling Scar’s plans to murder Mufasa and Simba, “Be Prepared” may be the evilest
of Disney’s tunes and to drive that point home, there is a rather unsettling homage
to video footage of Nazis goose-stepping as Hitler looked on.
The song was actually meant to have a reprise, but producers deemed it too frightening for
the younger demographic… which leaves us wondering.. what could be scarier than Nazi
hyenas?
What do you think of our choices?
Have your own favorite Disney song?
Let us know in the comments and be sure to give a little like to this video and don’t
forget to subscribe.
Want more Disney from the Top 10 Archive team?
Then you should check out these two videos!