Once Upon a Dream

Album: Sleeping Beauty (1959)
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Songfacts®:

  • Written by Jack Lawrence for the Disney animated musical fantasy film Sleeping Beauty, this song acted as the theme of Princess Aurora and Prince Philip. It was performed by a chorus as an overture and as a duet by Mary Costa and Bill Shirley, who were cast in the roles of Princess Aurora and Prince Philip.
  • The song was covered by Lana Del Rey for the 2014 dark fantasy film Maleficent, which served as a prequel to Sleeping Beauty. Released as a single, it peaked at #60 in the UK and #105 in the US.
  • Del Rey told Radio.com that she had good memories of the recording session. "I did that song with my best friend for the last ten years, Dan Heath, who became one of my producers," she recalled. "He and I have such a great thing going. We did it at home actually, at his home studio. We recorded on the same mic we've used on a lot of my other songs that we've done together. It was exciting, because we love Disney. We love the history of Disney. So, it was really natural and nice to be involved in a project like that."

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