A Bulgarian radio choir, a Swiss studio in a village called Nunningen, and a song about heading somewhere new with new friends. Those pieces came together on October 21, 2003, when Walt Disney Records released the soundtrack to the animated film Brother Bear.
The Tarzan precedent for multilingual songs
Why did a Disney score need all that travel? Because Phil Collins, who wrote the songs with composer Mark Mancina, had already done something similar on Tarzan: he recorded his own tunes in French, German, Italian and Spanish. For Brother Bear he went further, handing one choral moment to voices recorded at Bulgarian National Radio.
The album was not a quick job. Sessions ran from 2002 into March 2003, moving through Los Angeles studios for the orchestra and band, then to Switzerland for extra recording. Twelve tracks made the final cut, with Collins singing most of the songs himself. The orchestra was recorded on the Todd-AO Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, with Ralph Morrison serving as concertmaster and Don Harper conducting. David Metzger prepared the orchestrations and vocal arrangements. The album was mastered by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood.
Guest vocalists and session players
He was not alone at the microphone. Tina Turner, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Oren Waters and the Bulgarian Women's Choir all appear on the record. The song 'Transformation' got its choral arrangement from Eddie Jobson, and Lorena Williams translated part of it into Inuktitut. The musicians on the album included a long list of session players. Tim Heintz played acoustic piano and Hammond B3 organ, while Frank Marocco handled accordion. Among the guitarists were George Doering, Tim May, Dean Parks and Tim Pierce. Bass parts came from Nathan East, Trey Henry, Jimmy Johnson and Kenny Wild.
The first single, 'Look Through My Eyes', arrived on October 13, 2003, a week before the album. Collins performed it on the British TV show Top of the Pops while it sat at number 20. It later climbed to number 5 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
The song behind the Kenai and Koda montage
Another song, 'On My Way', carried the film's advertising and played over the montage where the young man Kenai becomes friends with the bear cub Koda. Collins sings it as a tune about leaving for new places with new friends, which is exactly what the scene shows. Percussion was recorded by Luis Conte, Michael Fisher and Louis Mollino III. Tommy Morgan played bass harmonica, and Pedro Eustache was responsible for world wind instruments. The song is sometimes listed under the title 'Send Me on My Way'.
The soundtrack never became a blockbuster. It reached number 52 on the Billboard 200, though it did better on the Billboard Soundtracks chart, where it landed at number 2. The song 'Welcome' found a second life as the theme for Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams at Disneyland. The album received a rating on AllMusic and a review from Common Sense Media. A third single, 'No Way Out', appeared on March 22, 2004. The project was produced by Phil Collins, Mark Mancina, Rob Cavallo and Chris Montan.
What lingers is the odd scale of the effort. An animated bear story backed by a Bulgarian choir, a Swiss village studio, an Inuktitut translation, and one singer willing to do the whole job five times over in five languages.