MovieChat Forums > The Rescuers (1977) Discussion > Music by the Carpenters?

Music by the Carpenters?

posted 14 years ago by BachOmega
2 replies | jump to latest

According to the Carpenters Fan Club Newsletter, the Carpenters were originally asked to do the music for "The Rescuers," but reluctantly turned it down due to a busy schedule. Now, I'm happy with the music as it is- it's beautiful, and Shelby Flint's voice is lovely, but imagine Karen Carpenter singing something along the lines of "Someone's Waiting for You"- GOD, that would've been gorgeously tear-inducing.

Interesting Disney connections: Karen was a huge Disney fan and had a large Mickey Mouse collection. Their "Please Mr. Postman" video was shot in Disneyland. Richard Carpenter was fired from Coke Corner at Disneyland (for combing his hair in the park, along with playing modern hits when he was supposed to stick to ragtime), and wrote "Mr. Guder" about his boss there. Their touring drummer was Mousketeer Cubby O'Brien. They were two of the many celebrities for "Mickey's 50":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN5o_zOZCZY

[–] Taran_Wanderer_2 14 years ago

It's possible, though I'm not too familiar with much of The Carpenters' music. However, if someone else had been in charge of music composing and writing, the current collection of songs in the film would not have existed.

Louis Prima also wrote a few songs for the film that were never used; to be honest, I can imagine his songs had a much, much different mood than the current ones and I highly doubt they would have been able to co-exist harmoniously with the mood of the film.

This bit of information regarding The Carpenters should be addressed in the trivia section. Mind sharing a link with us?

http://www.petitiononline.com/drescuer/petition.html Sign petition, save The Rescuers!

[–] BachOmega 14 years ago

I know the music wouldn't have been the same- that's why I said "something *along the lines of* 'Someone's Waiting for You.'" But there probably would've been a song that expressed that same sentiment. They did perform the title song for "Bless the Beasts and Children":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhR36gV6vW4

Here's the link to the info:

http://www.karencarpenter.com/newsletters77b.html#56

"If you read in a recent movie magazine that Karen and Richard were considering doing a Disney movie, sorry to say, the information is incorrect. They have no plans to do a movie in the near future. Richard was asked to write the music for the recently released Disney film The Rescuers, but other commitments at that time resulted in a reluctant negative answer."