Soundtrack to ABC WWoD Cinderella?

[Joviedamian]

Posted: 1/3/21 at 8:19pm

Hello,

Did an official  recording of The Wonderful World of Disney (ABC) get released that starred Brandi and Whitney Huston? I am trying to find it!

If anyone can link me to where I may be able to purchase it, I would really appreciate it.

Thank You!

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 1/3/21 at 10:20pm

I have never seen one, and a quick search on Amazon didn't turn up any used/out of print copies. I would guess that one was not released due to complications with both Whitney Houston's and Brandy's recording contracts with whatever labels they were working with at the time.

[Tag]

Posted: 1/3/21 at 10:28pm

An official soundtrack was never released.  It appears that someone has uploaded one to YouTube though.

[Pernigraniline]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 6:25am

It was rumoured never released due to Houston and Brandy being on different labels? 

Back in the Limewire days, there were clean tracks leaked on the P2P systems - whether or not they were real clean tracks, or extracted from the 5.1 tracks on the DVD I'm not sure - but there are effect-free versions floating around in illegal land.

[Pernigraniline]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 6:25am

It was rumoured never released due to Houston and Brandy being on different labels? 

Back in the Limewire days, there were clean tracks leaked on the P2P systems - whether or not they were real clean tracks, or extracted from the 5.1 tracks on the DVD I'm not sure - but there are effect-free versions floating around in illegal land.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 9:56am

Surely whatever issues existed at the time could be worked out now. It’s a shame an official soundtrack remains unreleased. The movie isn’t even available on Disney Plus.

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 1:20pm

It’s outrageously stupid. Everyone in my generation talks about that TV movie and you can’t find it anywhere. Brandy recently did an interview asking people to ask Disney+ to add it to their catalogue.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 1:33pm

You can't find it anywhere? Weird. It seems to be available everywhere that DVDs are sold. 

[greensgreens]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 4:08pm

Brandy had a R&B image at the time and her label was not supportive of the Cinderella project. They feared releasing a soundtrack would hurt her image, so they put the kibosh on it (or at least her involvement).

Whitney was so very involved (as a producer too) from day one of the project and so hot at the time, her label would've released just about anything with her involved. But, I'm sure Clive Davis was insistent that it come out on the Arista label, which Disney (and/or Brandy's label) may have had issue with as well. I have seen at least one interview where she laments the rights issues with this project as well, as this was one of her favorite projects.

Let's hope Disney figures this out, although the soundtrack may not happen, we should at least have the film on Disney+.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 4:20pm

Kinda confused by the amount of folks saying the film isn’t anywhere to be found but a 10 second search on YouTube and here is the damn thing in its entirety. This is of the DVD print.

 

[seaweedjstubbs]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 4:39pm

There’s been talks about finally getting the album released in recent years, so hopefully it’ll happen! At this point, they might as well release it in 2022 for the 25th anniversary.

[seaweedjstubbs]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 4:39pm

There’s been talks about finally getting the album released in recent years, so hopefully it’ll happen! At this point, they might as well release it in 2022 for the 25th anniversary.

[degrassifan]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 4:44pm

A soundtrack was recorded but never released. It is the hope of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization to release the soundtrack one day. There's a soundtrack floating around the Internet, but as Pernigraniline mentioned, not sure if the album floating around is real or a rip from the DVD. The movie is available online though if you know where to look... 

[seaweedjstubbs]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 4:51pm

There are definitely studio tracks that have leaked over the years that aren’t DVD rips. You can tell by the lack of dialogue/sound effects. But those tracks would need to be remastered before getting an official release.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 5:14pm

The movie is available online though if you know where to look...

Dude, I just posted a link to watch the damn thing!  Cojone, meng!  

[Joviedamian]

Posted: 1/4/21 at 8:52pm

It’s outrageously stupid. Everyone in my generation talks about that TV movie and you can’t find it anywhere. Brandy recently did an interview asking people to ask Disney+ to add it to their catalogue.

 I have a weird feeling there is a lot of other folks who hold the rights to this film. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron who were also producers along with Whitney, I believe holds % of the rights. So there is a possibility why Disney + has not put it on the platform as of yet.

[degrassifan]

Posted: 1/5/21 at 2:16am

BrodyFosse123 said: "The movie is available online though if you know where to look...

Dude, I just posted a link to watch the damn thing! Cojone, meng! "

LOL! Sorry! It’s been a very long day! 

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 1/5/21 at 2:43pm

Sure, it’s available to order in DVD or a rip to YouTube that could be pulled any day now (as has already happened a few times with this movie over the years) - but not everyone uses DVDs anymore, or thinks to lookup bootleg uploads on YouTube. It is not easily available for streaming to the general public is what I meant, but you knew that already.

I can confirm that the studio tracks floating around are from the unreleased soundtrack, not just stripped versions from the DVD. Not only are there no effects, but there are portions of the score and songs that are not in the actual film (the intro & ending of The Sweetest Sounds, and Bernadette’s different take in The Prince Is Giving A Ball come to mind). Also, the levels and mastering are slightly different.

Updated On: 1/5/21 at 02:43 PM

[ditsylife09]

Posted: 1/5/21 at 8:02pm

There is indeed a unreleased studio soundtrack. I've got the entire thing on my YouTube page, ripped from limewire back in the day. Some songs have entirely different arrangements to the finished film. Much more 90s pop feel to it. On my YouTube channel I have mediafire links for each song in the description box. Although an official release someday would be great.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/5/21 at 9:59pm

ditsylife09 said: "There is indeed a unreleased studio soundtrack. I've got the entire thing on my YouTube page, ripped from limewire back in the day. Some songs have entirely different arrangements to the finished film. Much more 90s pop feel to it. On my YouTube channel I have mediafire links for each song in the description box. Although an official release someday would be great."

I would hope an official release would have more than your ten tracks.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 1/6/21 at 12:19am

If you didn't see it, Shonda Rhimes' Shondaland website did an oral history of the making of it for the 20th anniversary in 2017, with interviews with most of the people involved. It does cover the unreleased soundtrack.

https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/a13138172/brandy-whitney-houston-oral-history-cinderella/

A Never-Released Soundtrack

Norwood and Houston were both at the height of their careers, and releasing an album featuring the two of them just seemed to make sense. But the "Cinderella" soundtrack was never released, and 20 years later, it’s still never seen the light of day.

Neil Meron: We all wanted to release an album. There is an album just about done and ready.

Paolo Montalban: Ah, the elusive soundtrack. The thing is gorgeous. I’ve heard it.

Craig Zadan: About a year before Whitney passed, I visited her in Atlanta. She confided in me that her favorite project in her career was "Cinderella," and that the heartbreak of her career was "Cinderella." It didn’t make sense to her that there was no album, she just couldn’t understand.

Neil Meron: There was a pissing match between Brandy’s label, Atlantic, and Whitney’s label, Arista.

Debra Martin Chase: It was Atlantic that didn’t want to do it. Clive Davis at Arista was like, "We should do it just because it’s so great. It just deserves to be released." He really tried to convince Atlantic, but Atlantic thought that it would hurt Brandy’s recording career. Because it was so poppy and mainstream, and they were really focused on selling her as an Urban artist.

Craig Zadan: We were so naive in the beginning, we thought it would work itself out. We couldn’t believe they dug their heels in like that.

Neil Meron: The two labels were never able to come to terms.

Craig Zadan: Whitney knew how important it was to everyone, and to her, especially. She was so proud of it. But no one would compromise, they were willing to stop an album from coming out just because they were playing this game of chicken with one another. It was tragic.

Neil Meron: Ted Chapin from Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization called me last week and he’s been talking to people about trying to get the album out, finally. It would have to be looked at to be remixed and mastered for 2017, but it’s basically done.