Jean-Jacques Perrey, co-composer of the “Baroque Hoedown,” which was made famous when it was used for Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade, died Friday, a music website reported.
The French native died in Switzerland from complications related to lung cancer. He was 87.
Perrey was an early pioneer of electronic music as one of the first musicians to use the Moog Synthesiser. He and Gershon Kingsley co-wrote the music and recorded it for a 1967 album called “Kaleidoscopic Vibrations: Electronic Pop Music From Way Out.” It had a sound like an electronic harpsichord.
In 1972, it was picked as the kind of music needed for the famous Disneyland parade.
When the parade returned in 1977, after a two-year hiatus for America on Parade, the parade returned and then-musical director Don Dorsey made sure to bring it back.
“His music was visionary,” Dorsey said. “‘Baroque Hoedown’ is only one tune from his catalog, but brought happiness to millions and millions of people all around the world through Disney’s parade.”
The music has been used for versions of the parade at Disney parks around the world, and it can be heard in parts of the music for Disneyland’s “Paint the Night” parade as well. At Walt Disney World, the music was initially used for the Electrical Boat Pageant, but when the parade moved to Florida, it resurfaced on Main Street U.S.A. at that resort’s Magic Kingdom as well.
It is expected that “Baroque Hoedown” will once again be heard when the “Main Street Electrical Parade” returns to Disneyland in 2017.
Originally posted by Mark Eades in the Orange County Register
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