The Jungle Book

At the height of Beatlemania, the Disney folks were teaching kids how to really swing with this soundtrack to their adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Of course, it's Phil Harris (the voice of everyone's favorite hipster bear Baloo) who steals the show with the original slacker anthem, "The Bare Necessities," but his scat match with an inspired Louis Prima on "I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" is also not to be missed. Songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman--who clearly enjoyed playing the irony card on songs like "Trust in Me (The Python's Song)" and "That's What Friends Are For" (The Vulture Song)"--offer entertaining reminiscences about the project in a 12-minute bonus track. George Bruns's wonderful underscore, a couple early song demos, and two post-soundtrack Baloo numbers round out a collection that suggests, in the most charming way imaginable, that it really is a jungle out there. --Bill Forman