Something quite common in the Disney soundtracks of yesteryear was the use of choruses to set the mood in a number of ways, whether it was the sadness of Snow White’s funeral or the excitement of Casey Junior comin’ down the track, and even in that department Walt Disney played favorites. With voice acting it was people like Sterling Holloway and with songwriting it was Richard and Robert Sherman, but whenever a singing group was needed, Walt Disney could count on the Mellomen.

You will sometimes see their name spelled in different ways, including “Mellowmen,” “Mello Men” and “Mellow Men” and they went by other names throughout their career such as Big John and the Buzzards and The Crackerjacks, but no matter what they were called, Hollywood loved to hire them. The singing quartet was founded in 1948 by Thurl Ravenscroft and Max Smith, with Ravenscroft as bass, Bill Lee as baritone, Bob Hamlin as lead tenor and Smith as 2nd tenor. Although future members would include Bob Stevens (lead tenor), Bill Cole (lead tenor) and Gene Merlino (2nd tenor). The group was active from the 1940s to the 1970s and they would sing backup to popular artists like Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Frankie Laine and Elvis Presley, as well as bandleaders like Spike Jones and his City Slickers (the group that popularized the satirical 1942 song “Der Fuehrer’s Face” based on Oliver Wallace’s yet-to-be-released soundtrack for Disney’s Oscar-winning 1943 Donald Duck cartoon of the same name).

But the Mellomen were most famous for their contributions to Disney and animation.

They voiced the card painters who sang “Painting the Roses Red” in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951).

They provided the singing voices for the Indians and the pirates in Disney’s Peter Pan (1953).

They provided the singing (howling?) voices for the pound dogs in Lady and the Tramp (1955), providing back up to Peggy Lee in her performance of “He’s a Tramp.”

They voiced the Shadow Cats in UPA’s Gay Purr-ee (1962).

They voiced the Dawn Patrol in Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967).

They haunted Winnie the Pooh’s dreams in the “Heffalumps and Woozles” number from Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968).

They voiced the singing busts from the theme park attraction the Haunted Mansion, which first opened at Disneyland in 1969.

And they voiced the troublesome Wickersham Brothers in Chuck Jones’ Horton Hears a Who! (1970).

You may also recognize them for the singing work they did for the Donald Duck cartoon Trick or Treat (1952) and Disney shorts like Pigs Is Pigs (1954), Paul Bunyan (1958) and Noah’s Ark (1959) as well as the theme song for Disney’s 1957 television series Zorro and the theme song “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)” for the 1967 Disney theme park attraction Pirates of the Caribbean.