Disneyland rock-and-roll playlist: Best Disney covers

It's the 60th anniversary of Disneyland. If you're planning a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth in the course of its Diamond Celebration, here's a playlist for the road — 15 rock artists covering Disney songs, from "The Mickey Mouse March" to two versions of "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah." And there are a handful of worthy contenders that fell just short of earning a spot on our list, from "Whistle While You Work" by a very spirited Diana Ross and the Supremes to Hem's "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes."

15. The Vandals, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"

The loopiness of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," as sung by Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews in the Disney classic "Mary Poppins," was practically begging for a breathless punk-rock reinvention. And these California punks (from Huntington Beach, just down the road from Disneyland) were happy to oblige with a version that channels the Dickies with reckless abandon until they've left you wondering why the word "precocious" doesn't turn up in more punk songs.

14. Siouxsie and the Banshees, "Trust in Me"

This was subtitled "The Python's Song" on the soundtrack to "The Jungle Book," where Kaa the python sings it as he's hypnotizing Mowgli. But this is more entrancing, reinvented as a gothic torch song with Siouxsie Sioux purring the lyrics in her most seductive voice until you're pretty certain you could shut your eyes and trust in her. Belly also recorded a version well worth tracking down, but this is better.

13. Tom Waits, "Heigh Ho"

I never quite realized how bad those dwarfs had it until I heard their happy work song recast as a slow-burning mine ride through the drudgery of mindless manual labor by the great Tom Waits, whose entire arrangement appears to have been based on one line in the song: "We dig up diamonds by the score / A thousand rubies, sometimes more / But we don't know what we dig 'em for." Waits recorded the song for the 1988 collection "Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films."

12. Marilyn Manson, "This Is Halloween"

There's no real topping Danny Elfman's "This is Halloween" as performed by the citizens of Halloween Town in Tim Burton's yuletide classic "The Nightmare Before Christmas," but it's creepier when Marilyn Manson does it. And his vocal treatment is, surprisingly, the more cartoonish of the two.

11. The Polyphonic Spree, "Town Meeting Song"

Also taken from Tim Burton's great "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and composed by Elfman, this recording was featured on "Nightmare Revisited," where it sounds more like some great lost David Bowie classic as filtered through "Paranoid Android." It's an epic performance, at eight minutes, 55 seconds. And Tim DeLaughter's theatrical delivery is brilliant.

10. Brian Wilson, "The Bare Necessities"

No lesser an authority than Brian Wilson was moved to remark: "The Beach Boys sound and the Disney people make a fantastic collaboration." Yes, they do. The once and future Beach Boy devoted an entire album, aptly titled "In the Key of Disney," to making the most of that natural chemistry. And if you buy into the wistful, playful, childlike wonder with which he approaches the vocal track on this marimba-driven treatment of another classic from "The Jungle Book," you should probably stop reading now and go pick up the album.

9. Skeeter Davis with NRBQ, "Someday My Prince Will Come"

The voice behind one of the '60s' most heartbreaking ballads, "The End of the World," she puts a bittersweet spin on the intro to this Disney ballad, wistfully dreaming of "someone who'll love me for evermore" while accompanied only by Terry Adams on piano. Then the song kicks into rockabilly mode right where a lot of artists would have slathered on the orchestration. Al Anderson's solo is genius and Davis' spoken delivery of "Though he's far away, I'll find my love someday / Someday my prince will come" going into the fadeout is a nice touch.

8. Brian Setzer, "Everybody Wants to be a Cat"

Could there have been a better fit in Disney's vaults than "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" for Brian Setzer? The only acceptable answer is "No." But you probably knew that. From the rockabilly swagger of that opening guitar lick to Setzer's truly animated vocal on "I've heard some corny birds who tried to sing / But still a cat's the only cat who knows how to swing," it sounds like it was written more for him than "The Aristocats." He even purrs going into the solo.

7. Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah"

The Blue Jeans never had a bigger hit than this classic Phil Spector arrangement of "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," which peaked at No. 8 in 1962. The sound here is so unmistakably Spector, from the lavish Wall of Sound production to the way he works the backing vocals (by the legendary Darlene Love and Fanita James of the Blossoms) into the wistful arrangement. And Bobby Sheen's soulful lead vocal does the rest.

6. Andrew W.K., "The Mickey Mouse March"

The man who gave the world "Party Hard" approaches the theme to "The Mickey Mouse Club" with the reckless abandon it deserves, a banging piano giving way to "Telstar"-flavored keys before the vocals join the fray for a punk-rock singalong of "Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?" Don't make him have to spell it out.

5. Los Lobos, "I Wan'na Be Like You (the Monkey Song)"

Among the many highlights of that previously mentioned "Stay Awake" collection, this "Jungle Book" song proved a natural fit for Los Lobos, who really hit their stride on the accordion-fueled chorus hook, by which point they've already made this song their own. And if you like what they've done with this one, you should definitely check out "Los Lobos Goes Disney," a full-album tribute to Disney released in 2009.

4. Ringo Starr, "When You Wish Upon Star"

It was left to Ringo to bring "Stay Awake" to a close with a richly orchestrated lullaby, the way he brought "The White Album" to an eerily similar close with John Lennon's "Goodnight." Coincidence? I'm thinking no. And Herb Albert contributes a really nice trumpet solo. Kudos to Hal Willner, the album's producer, for doing everything George Martin would have done if he'd been called in for the task at hand.

3. Lana Del Rey, "Once Upon a Dream"

Del Rey recast this "Sleeping Beauty" theme in a much darker light for the soundtrack to "Maleficent," which definitely suit the darkness of the movie's tone. In other words, she takes it to her comfort zone, the melancholy shadows, where her sultry voice has always done its best work, which includes the near whisper with which sets the tone with "I know you / I walked with you once upon a dream."

2. The Replacements, "Cruella De Vil"

What's cocktail jazz without the cocktails? The boozy swagger with which they effectively make this "One Hundred and One Dalmations" song their own is quintessentially Replacements, chaotic enough to be sloppy without really losing the musical plot. The key may be the swing Chris Mars contributes to the mix, but Paul Westerberg really commits to the vocal here, especially the animated delivery of "She oughtta be locked up and thrown away the key" before he rushes through the phrasing of "The world was such a wholesome place until... Cruella de Vil."

1. The Mummies, "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"

Speaking of sloppy, the Mummies take "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" out to the trashiest side of the garage and work it over until it comes back sounding like the Sonics could have written it. The Young Fresh Fellows also do a great garage-rock reinvention of this song that's well worth tracking down. But the Mummies don't even sound like they're doing a cover, shouting the chorus hook like it's the first words they could think of in the heat of that trash-rocking moment. This is everything a rock-and-roll recording was supposed to be but electrifying.