It’s February 2021, and if you didn’t know, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1997) is officially on Disney+.
While you might have already played Brandy’s Cinderella multiple times, let’s shift our focus on the film’s soundtrack. An official soundtrack was never released for this groundbreaking film, due to Brandy and Whitney Houston’s record labels. We only have whatever we can find on our streaming platform of choice. (Or, you can keep replaying the movie, that works too!)
While we unfortunately never received an album, we do have the musings of ten tracks that bring us back to each exact scene from the movie. The soundtrack’s talent is undoubtedly phenomenal, encompassing voices ranging from R&B and Broadway to never-before-sung in front of the masses. Looking at you, Whoopi Goldberg!
Each track’s lightheartedness and the memorable pop-inducing melodies are why each song is quickly ingrained into our brains all these years later. Can we also mention the relatability such as “In My Own Little Corner,” “Ten Minutes Ago,” and “The Sweetest Sounds”? Granted, we all don’t live like princes and princesses. Still, the idea of relating our average lifestyles to these lyrics makes it a little bit believable.
Changing the original score to a more contemporary sound is the best decision the movie’s team could have probably made. It’s what makes the soundtrack so memorable to this day. And at the helm of it all? Having Whitney Houston’s powerhouse vocals alongside Brandy’s (who, at the time, was a budding young artist herself) opened the soundtrack to so many more opportunities to expand its reach.
Maybe it had to do with Houston’s optimistic nature making me believe she was my fairy godmother. Or was it the hopeless romantic in Brandy’s character that left me so in awe of this album? Or, was it how Paolo Montalbán’s voice sounded like he was singing straight to me?
With all that said, cheers to Cinderella’s debut on Disney+. It’s about time.
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