Since Mickey Mouse first sang and whistled in Steamboat Willie in 1928, music has been part of almost every Disney experience. But in the early days, finances forced Walt and Roy O. Disney to allow outside companies to publish and license their film music.

This practice ended in 1949 with the creation of the Walt Disney Music Company. Cinderella was the first animated feature to benefit from its music publishing services.

Disney recordings continued to be released on non-Disney labels. RCA Victor, in fact, produced the first Mickey Mouse picture discs in 1934 and released the world's first motion picture soundtrack album, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937.

Finally, after seeing "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" from the Disneyland TV series become a top ten record, and songs from the Mickey Mouse Club sell millions for other labels, Roy established Disneyland Records in Spring, 1956, headed by Jimmy Johnson.

The first album produced entirely by the new record company—a 12-inch, 33 1/3 RPM long-playing vinyl disc—was Walt Disney Takes You To Disneyland, the only record ever narrated by Walt himself. (A year earlier, a 10-inch album based on Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses had been released with a Disneyland logo.)

Artists and repertoire director Tutti Camarata's eclectic musical skills enabled him to produce everything from soundtracks and children's tunes to jazz and classical music. He helped bring such stars as Mary Martin, Louis Armstrong and Louis Prima to the label and chart the musical careers of Fess Parker, Darlene Gillespie and Hayley Mills.

By 1959, Mickey Mouse Club alumnus Annette Funicello became Disney's first multi-media teen star. Her hit records for Disney's second label, Buena Vista, assured her success and brought songwriters Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman to Walt's attention. Within a few years they created the Oscar®-winning score for the best-selling, Grammy®- and Gold Record Award-winning soundtrack album of 1964'sMary Poppins solidifying Disneyland and Buena Vista Records as a major industry player.

Decades of milestones followed, including the first double-platinum children's record, Mickey Mouse Disco, and lucrative co-productions with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. As the vinyl age ended, the acclaimed Alan Menken/Howard Ashman score of 1989'sThe Little Mermaid became the first Disney animated feature soundtrack released solely on compact discs and cassettes—and went platinum six times over.

A year later, the division was renamed Walt Disney Records. With the second "golden age" of Disney animation underway, WDR reaped huge benefits. The Lion King soundtrack was such a smash that the Record Industry Association of America created a new category—the Diamond Record Award, honoring ten million albums sold.

WDR became part of the Buena Vista Music Group in 1998, headed by industry veteran Bob Cavallo. In addition to the Walt Disney, Disney Sound and Buena Vista labels, the Buena Vista Music Group grew to include Hollywood Records, Lyric Street Records and Disney Music Publishing.

True to its heritage, WDR embraces new markets and technologies. In addition to children's titles, read-alongs and soundtracks, Walt Disney Records leads the young pop music industry, launching stars like Hilary Duff, Raven-Symone and The Cheetah Girls. All the while, Disney's rich musical history is sustained by the re-mastering of classic releases, making new and classic Disney records accessible to generations through digital outlets such as iTunes.

The 50th anniversary year of Walt Disney Records is also its all-time biggest, including the phenomenal success of High School Musical, DisneyMania and other pop hits, and hit soundtracks like Cars and Hannah Montana.

After half a century of creating many of the top-selling albums, singles and sound- tracks of all time, winning more than two dozen Grammy awards, and earning over 275 gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards from the R.I.A.A., Walt Disney Records continues to set the standard as the leader in family audio entertainment.