Best Underappreciated Disney Songs
I’m not talking about the ones we all know and love – let’s be honest, we all know all the words to Hakuna Matata, Let It Go, and I’ll Make a Man out of You. And they are ALL my jam. But Disney has so many animated musicals and so much excellent music. This list is made of songs I still listen to over and over again and aren’t total hits/universally loved by the populace. And by lack of love, I mean the majority of my fellow millennials have no idea about the song I’m referencing. It’s a relative term. Also, I am including Coco as it is post-merger Pixar so it is basically Disney. Blame a lack of anti-trust legislation and enforcement, not me.
I Won’t Say I’m in Love from Hercules
My favorite Disney love song and maybe my most listened-to Disney song. Truth time - we’ve all been there, male or female, when we’ve been in love or at least crushed on someone and refused to admit it to anyone, even ourselves. You know who it is for you, I know who it is for me, and we can all love and related to this Motown-influence song. Especially with the added awesomeness of the Muses – the best part of Hercules.
Strangers Like Me from Tarzan
One of my best friends is a big Phil Collins fan and I'm sure he's happy I’m listing this one. But it’s the best song from this movie, and the one I listen to the most often. It touches something at us all, the desire to learn and explore, with excellent lyrics and music. The chorus always hits me in the best possible way, which is all one can ask for from a song.
La Llorona from Coco
I speak tourist Spanish – aka enough that people understand and/or take pity on me when I visit South America. So I haven’t personally translated this song. But I know the general story of La Llorona, the sorrowful one, an undead spirit in Mexico who weeps for her dead children. And if there was ever a song appropriate for the movie Coco - besides Remember Me - it’s this one. Also the scene when it’s being sung – a performance, distraction, and escape simultaneously is awesome. And without doing the Pixar thing of tearing out my heart and crushing it.
I 2 I from A Goofy Movie
Ok, heresy time (come on, it was bound to happen) I actually hate A Goofy Movie. A lot. I have never managed to watch it start to finish and cringe comedy just makes me, well, cringe. But this song is fun. It’s the kind of song I’d listen to and sing along on the radio without any context. It’s just fun.
We Know the Way from Moana
I first heard a scrap of this song in the very early trailers for Moana. And I loved it instantly. Then when I then found out that the song for Moana was How Far I’ll Go, I was kind of sad. I assumed it would be this song. It’s inspirational and anthemic and for the movie, very thematic. Yet it’s the third or fourth Moana song in terms of popularity (after How Far I Go, You’re Welcome, and maybe Shiny). I still don’t get that.
Why Should I Worry from Oliver and Company
I have definitely never watched this movie all the way through. And honestly, I’ve probably never watched it all. It came out a year before I was born and I think I just absorbed it via the Disney zeitgeist. Also I’m a Californian, and never set foot in NYC till the new millennium, it's not like I have an emotional connection to New York. And yet I can’t remember not knowing or enjoying this song. I listen to it over and over again. It’s as much of an earworm as anything Taylor Swift. Underrated might not be the right term, but I do love this song anyways.
Bonus Song: Savages from Pocahontas
I don't listen to this one nearly as often as these other songs, but I do love it just as much. It breaks down how we dehumanize the “other” and use that to justify killing people. I especially love the fact it switches between the Jamestown settlers and the native Algonquin populations’ sentiments to show how this othering is true for all of us. Yes, yes Jamestown colonialism is historically far more problematic than the movie suggests, and historical inaccuracies, very misleading equivalencies between the two cultures etc. I'm well aware. Regardless, encapsulates man's inhumanity to man, and the dangers of dehumanizing people we don’t understand. And that’s as true today as it was in 1607.
