Song:Aurora's Return/Maleficent's Evil Spell
Album:Sleeping Beauty: Original Soundtrack: The Legacy Collection
George Bruns composed scores for Walt Disney films in the 60s. He was nominated for an Oscar for the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty. He was born July 3, 1914 in Sandy, OR. which is at the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. After graduating from Oregon State University, Bruns played trombone in Portland bands. Then he moved to Los Angeles and played in Dixieland bands like Castle Jazz Band, Turk Murphy's Jazz Band and Firehouse Five Plus Two. Then he got into studio work. Disney hired him as an arranger in 1953. Bruns wrote The Ballad of Davy Crockett with Thomas W. Blackburn for the Davy Crockett TV series starring Fess Parker. Bill Hayes' recording of The Ballad of Davy Crockett topped the charts in 1955. Bruns composed the scores for two Davy Crockett films, Westward Ho The Wagons! and Johnny Tremain. So he was doing a lot of westerns. The original plan for Sleeping Beauty was for Jack Lawrence and Sammy Fain to write songs and compose the score. But Disney decided not to make a musical and instead base the score on Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty ballet. The Lawrence/Fain song Once Upon A Dream played in the opening credits. Walter Schumann (Dragnet theme) was hired to score Sleeping Beauty. But he butted heads with Disney and left the project. Disney animator Ward Kimball suggested Bruns. He was nominated for an Oscar. From there, Bruns composed scores for most Disney films of the 60s. He was also nominated for Oscars for the 1961 film Babes In Toyland and the 1963 film The Sword in the Stone. The Sleeping Beauty soundtrack is available on 2CDs as part of Disney's Legacy Collection. Bruns continued to perform Dixieland with his own Wonderland Jazz Band and Firehouse Five Plus Two. You can hear the Dixieland influences in his scores. Bruns retired from Disney in 1976. He moved back to his home town in Oregon and taught at Lewis & Clark College. He performed in local Dixieland bands until his death on May 23, 1983 at age 68. Here's a video for Aurora's Return/Maleficent's Evil Spell from the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty.
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