This year marks the 45th anniversary of Disneyland's “It's a Small World.” The ride–which originally had a working title of “Children of the World” (and Walt himself only ever referred to as “the happiest cruise that ever sailed”)–debuted in the park on May 28, 1966.
Ever since then, the ride's theme song has been wedged deep in the brains of every human being on the planet. (You know, a lot like “Mahna Mahna.”)
But ironically, that now-famous jingle that the Sherman Brothers whipped up all those years ago wasn't originally part of the plan. Amazingly, it could have been a whole lot more annoying.
Get a taste of what “It's a Small World” could have sounded like after the jump.
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You know it! You love it! Or maybe not so much. Either way, you're familiar with Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman's song “It's a Small World (After All).”
But Walt's original vision for the ride didn't include one unifying song throughout. Instead, Walt envisioned that the ride's soundtrack would feature the national anthem of each “country” featured in the ride playing simultaneously as riders float through.
The result sounded worse than a Rebecca Black greatest hits album.
Don't believe me? I've gone ahead and posted the national anthems of five different countries below. Scroll down and hit “play” on each of them, one right after the other.
Of course, this isn't exactly what the ride could have sounded like back in 1966, but it sounds pretty damn awful so I'm assuming it's a fairly good representation.
Enjoy! But not really!
(West) Germany's “Das Lied der Deutschen”
France's “La Marseillaise”
India's “Jana Gana Mana”
Australia's “Advance Australia Fair”
The United States of America's “The Star-Spangled Banner”
