The Bare Necessities facts for kids

"The Bare Necessities" is a song, written by Terry Gilkyson, from the animated 1967 Disney film The Jungle Book, sung by Phil Harris as Baloo and Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli.

Background

Originally, it was written for an earlier draft of the movie that was never produced. The Sherman Brothers, who wrote the other songs of the film, kept this as the only song used from the previous version. A reprise of the song was sung by Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera and Phil Harris as Baloo at the end of the film. Van Dyke Parks worked on the arrangement. The song was also sung by Louis Armstrong. In 1967, "The Bare Necessities" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song but lost to "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Dolittle. A hip-hop version of the song performed by Lou Rawls was used as the theme song for Jungle Cubs.

In other media

• In 1969, Alvin and the Chipmunks recorded this song for their album The Chipmunks Go to the Movies.
• In 1988, the song was hummed by Siobhan E. McCafferty's character in the Freddy's Nightmares episode "Judy Miller, Come on Down".
• In 1991, the song was covered by Harry Connick Jr. for the Simply Mad About The Mouse an album and a TV Special.
• In 1991 The Bare Necessities Megamix, produced by Nigel Wright under the name of The UK Mixmasters reached number 14 in the UK Singles Chart.
• In 1994, this song was sung by Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, Big Al and Liver Lips of The Country Bears, and the Fun Songs Kids in Mickey's Fun Songs: Campout at Walt Disney World.
• In The Jungle Book 2, Baloo (John Goodman) is first seen singing "The Bare Necessities" while creating a "dummy" of Mowgli, using a coconut and a banana peel, to sing with him, only to sadly realize that Mowgli is no longer around. Mowgli (Haley Joel Osment) and Baloo sing the song together after Baloo takes him out the village. At the end of the movie, Mowgli, Shanti (Mae Whitman), and Baloo sing a reprise of the song.
• In 2005, Julie Andrews chose the song for her album "Julie Andrews Selects Her Favorite Disney Songs".
• Tituss Burgess performed the song for the BBC radio special "BBC Radio 2 Celebrates The Music of Disney".
• Bowling for Soup recorded it for Disney's DisneyMania 3 Album.
• In the 1994 live-action Disney film The Jungle Book, Dr. Julius Plumford exclaims "All the bare necessities of life!" in the ballroom scene.
• In 1998, Tony Bennett covered it in his album The Playground which was released on September 25, 1998.
• On the 5th episode of the 10th season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars, American footballer Chad Ochocinco and professional partner Cheryl Burke danced a quickstep to the song.
• Just for Laughs: Gags sometimes uses an instrumental cover of this song during a prank.
• Eliza Gilkyson, the daughter of the song's composer, Terry Gilkyson, performed the song on her live 2007 album, Your Town Tonight.
• Brian Wilson covered it on his album In the Key of Disney, which was released on October 25, 2011.
• From September 2011, the song has been used in adverts for British supermarket chain Sainsbury's, promoting new slogan 'Live Well For Less'.
• Los Lobos covered it on their album Los Lobos Goes Disney, released in 2009.
• The song is featured in the Disney 2013 stage musical directed by Mary Zimmerman and performed by Kevin Carolan as Baloo.
• On June 13, 2012, Hong Kong Disneyland opened Grizzly Gulch themed land, the gift stall in the land is called The Bear Necessities.
• In November 2013, The Overtones recorded this song as a mix with I Wanna Be Like You for their album Saturday Night at the Movies
• In 2015, British children's sitcom Horrible Histories introduced a parody of this song related to Oliver Cromwell. It was performed by comedian Lawry Lewin, and was featured in the sixth series.
• Bill Murray and Neel Sethi perform the song as Baloo and Mowgli, respectively, in the 2016 live-action adaptation. A cover version by Dr. John is featured during the film's end credits.
• In 2018, Maddie Poppe, winner of Season 16 of American Idol, performed the song during Disney Night.
• In that same year, The Zac Brown Band performed the song on the ABC special Mickey's 90th Spectacular.

In other Languages

In French : "Il en faut peu pour être heureux"'

In Czech the song reads "Moudrost medvědí"

In Dutch: "Als je van beren leren kan"

In German the song reads "Probier's mal mit Gemütlichkeit"

In Norwegian the song reads "Ta Livet Som Det Faller Seg"

In Spanish: "Busca Lo Más Vital"

In Russian: "Простые радости"

In Italian: "Lo stretto indispensabile"

In Hebrew: "מה שטוב לדב"

See also

In Spanish: The Bare Necessities para niños