Kerry Butler Interview: Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust
Page 2 of 3
LP: There�s another song that�s mentioned in the liner notes which has kind of a deeper meaning, I think. �Small World / God Help The Outcasts.� Can you talk about that?
KB: Well, I adopted my daughter from Ethiopia and of course we started playing her Disney music right away to brainwash her into becoming a Disney fanatic like us. And it was sort of background music but then when she heard, �It�s a Small World� she started dancing and it�s been her favorite song since we�ve had her. Now she�s 2 1/2 years old. She still loves it. Like she heard me � I think I was talking about it in an interview the other day and she heard me and started saying �It�s a Small World, It�s a Small World� in the background.
LP: Awesome.
KB: It�s kind of ironic that that�s her favorite song because she�s from Ethiopia and now she�s in the United States and she�s our daughter and it just really is a small world you know? So I knew that I wanted to put that song on the album. And then we were playing around with it and I knew that that�s ... who wrote that one?
LP: The Sherman Brothers?
KB: Yeah, yeah. The Sherman Brothers. Friends of mine told me that the Sherman Brothers initially intended for that to be a ballad and then Walt Disney told them that they needed to make it into an up tempo. And so there�s this YouTube video of him playing it the way he initially intended. Everybody loves the up tempo, but it has a whole different feeling as a ballad and that�s one of my favorite songs now on the album. �It�s a Small World.�
I just got to sing it last night at a benefit. And I loved singing it. I just feel like it�s so powerful doing �It�s a Small World,� and �God Help The Outcasts.�
LP: That�s one of the ones I haven�t heard yet so I�m definitely looking forward to that now. There are two songs on there that haven�t been recorded before. At least not that I�m aware of. This Only Happens in the Movies and Call Me A Princess. How did those come to be on the album?
KB: Well, I�ve worked with Alan Menken on Beauty and the Beast and also on Little Shop of Horrors and Michael Kosarin who is my musical director always works with Alan Menken. He told him we were doing the album and asked him if he could give us some songs and so he sent over a bunch of different new songs, songs that had been cut from shows and he was just so generous with helping us out with this album.
And so we sifted through the material and found that these two songs would work really well on the album. So This Only Happens In The Movies is the one that was written for the Roger Rabbit prequel. And they never ended up making it. So that�s like this beautiful song. And yeah, that�s never been � I don�t think it�s on any recordings.
And then the other one is, Call Me A Princess, and that�s really fun. We heard this demo with Alan Menken and Howard Ashman singing and it was cut from Aladdin. And when you hear it you�ll say that doesn�t really go with Aladdin but it�s this great song. It�s just really cute and the lyrics are really funny. So I had a lot of fun singing that song.
LP: Prior to this you were known for more pop rock songs with Hair Spray, Little Shop of Horrors and you�re in Xanadu now. Did you want to show your fans kind of a different side of you or did you just really want to do a Disney album?
KB: People have asked me that before and I definitely wasn�t doing this album to show a different side of me. I feel like my Disney albums, they�re just such an inspiration to me. I feel like when I listen to that music they put me in a good mood. And they help me start my day so then I�m maybe a nicer person.
And so I kind of just wanted to do an album that had that effect on other people. Just kind of a little lift. So it�s not like I�m singing, you know, doing American Idol kind of thing or anything like that. Or showing off my voice. It�s more about just, I don�t know, inspiring people.
LP: Of all the songs on the album, which one was the one you most wanted to record?
KB: It�s funny. I think that one of the ones I most wanted to record didn�t end up being my favorites. But I think maybe �Disneyland� was one that I really, really wanted to record and just other songs have surprised me more than that one. And I still love that recording but that was the one I initially wanted to do because that�s like so me - about how I want to live in Disneyland and it just talks about how "I know you�re gonna say that the trees are made of paper mache but I don�t care." And so that�s kind of my basic feeling about Disney to all our skeptics.
Then Bare Necessities - I was kind of �all right. I guess I can do this. I don�t know.� And then I ended up loving that track. Because you know, Bare Necessities has that whole rap kind of thing in the middle. But I ended up singing it and I really like that. I love that track now.
LP: I saw the clip of that on the web site and you definitely have your own take on that one.
KB: Right. Right.