Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Thanksgiving Weekend at Disneyland - 1984

Today we have an L.A. Times Disneyland advertisement for Thanksgiving Weekend of 1984. Matthew Wilder was appearing at the park! This was one year after his song "Break My Stride" reached #5 on the Billboard chart. Turns out the song that's listed in the ad, "Bouncing Off The Wall" only hit #52 on the chart. Maybe that's why I don't remember that one. I was wondering what he's been up to since then, so I Googled him. Turns out he has been a record producer for artists such as Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson and No Doubt (he produced their album, "Tragic Kingdom") He was also the singing voice of Ling in the Disney film, "Mulan" and was nominated for an Academy Award for his collaboration on the film's original music score!

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Oh yeah, and the Dazz Band and New Edition were also at the park. I've never heard of that Dazz Band song that's mentioned in the advertisement either. Their biggest hit was the Grammy winning song, "Let It Whip," which hit #5 on the Billboard chart and #1 on the R & B chart. And just FYI.....New Edition's "Cool It Now" reached #4 on the Billboard chart and #1 on the R & B charts.

Making it's debut at the park that year, was the Country Bear Jamboree Christmas show and there was also a new film in the Circle Vision Theater. Check out this post over at Vintage Disneyland Tickets for the park brochure from that same Thanksgiving weekend. It includes ticket prices and additional entertainment information!

4 comments:

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Nice to hear Wilder kept busy in the music industry. Hey TM, did you actually save all these articles from when they were new?

TokyoMagic! said...

Hey VDT, Yep...I saved these ads from back in the day. I have a huge stack of this stuff!

Anonymous said...

I was there! Matthew Wilder played first at the Space Mountain stage followed by the Dazz Band. Let It All Blow was on the Dazz Band's Jukebox album that followed Joy Stick. It didn't do as well but it was their main release from the new album. New Edition played Tomorrowland Terrace and were so good. We went over there after the Dazz Band finished and it wasn't that crowded at all. I guess most people left the park by then. We danced and sang to every song on the half-empty floor in front of the band. I was 17. What a great memory!

TokyoMagic! said...

Anonymous, that is a great story! Thanks for sharing your memories of that weekend, at Disneyland!