Heigh-Ho

Six of the seven dwarfs walking across a log, while singing "Heigh-Ho."

"Heigh-Ho" is a song from Walt Disney's 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, written by Frank Churchill (music) and Larry Morey (lyrics). It is sung by the group of seven dwarfs as they work at a mine with diamonds and rubies, and is one of the best-known songs in the film.

The melodic theme for "Heigh-Ho" might have been inspired by Robert Schumann's composition for piano "The Happy Farmer, Returning From Work" from his 1848 work Album for the Young, Opus 68. ^{[citation needed]}

The other Dwarf Chorus songs are "Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum" (the washing-up song) and "The Silly Song".

Donald Duck sings this song in "The Riveter".

The song appears, with altered lyrics, at the finale of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland and Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

The group Mannheim Steamroller covered the song on their 1999 album, Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse.

In the 1988 Disney animated film Oliver & Company Tito sings "Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, it's off to work we go" when he is rescuing Jenny.

The song was also featured in the 1979 stage adaption of the 1937 animated musical film.

On the 2011 album V-Rock Disney, which features visual kei artists covering Disney songs, Cascade covered this song.^[1]

On 2012 album Disney - Koe no Oujisama Vol.2, which features various Japanese voice actors covering Disney songs, this song was covered by Hiroshi Kamiya.

In other media

The TV series The Electric Company parodied the song twice, both in Snow White related skits; in one, "Snow Ball and the Six Dwarfs", the dwarfs (five of whom have ly adverbial names and the sixth is called "Doc") enter singing "Ho-Hi, Ho-Hi". Another, a "Director" skit in which the Director is trying to direct a movie called "Snow White and the Three Dwarfs", the dwarfs sing "Heigh-Ho" as an introduction song used to start the show and introduce the dwarfs (Happy always got his name wrong, calling himself "Henry", "Harry" or "Harvey").

In the book, "Fudge-a-Mania", the character Sheila was singing the song after getting a baby-sitting job.

In World of Warcraft, when playing as a male Dwarf, characters can tell a joke in which the character will sing the song. "Heigh-ho, heigh-ho... ugh, second verse, same as the first."

The Snow White sequence of the Simpsons episode, "Four Great Women and a Manicure" features the seven dwarfs (based on Simpsons characters) singing another parody of the Heigh-Ho song, "Ho-Hi, Ho-Hi".

One of the most famous scenes in the 1984 movie Gremlins has the Gremlins watching the "Heigh-Ho" scene in a theater in Kingston Falls, and singing along.

Tom Waits recorded a version of "Heigh-Ho" for the 1988 A&M record Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films. The song was included on the "Bastards" Disc from his 2006 album Orphans. Bruce and Bongo also created a remix based on this song in 1986 "Hi Ho (Heigh Ho - Whistle While You Work)", reaching No1 in the Austrian charts. The song was also used in a 2010 Hershey's Kisses commercials, Biobest vitality commercials in Canada, and the Levi Strauss & Co "Go Forth" ad campaign centered on Braddock, Pennsylvania.

In the Discworld novel series, the song — and several bawdy variations — is only obliquely referred to as the Heigh-Ho Song. A much enjoyed (although self-admitted very stereotypical) song, it's also one of the few popular dwarf songs not about gold.

The scene was also featured as a background during the closing credits in the 1996 fantasy-horror TV show "Liham ng Gabi".

A version of the song by Bunny Berigan and his Orchestra is featured in a recent Levi's commercial entitled "We Are All Workers".^[2]

In the last scene of Scared Shrekless the song can be heard as the dwarves silhouettes are seen on on a rock as the dwarves walk along shortly before they are egged by Shrek and the gang

Brian Wilson covered it in a medley on his album In the Key of Disney, which was released on October 25, 2011.

Polskie Radio Program III (Trójka) uses Heigh-Ho as the jingle of its Economical Informator.^[3]

The song is also briefly referenced in Snow White and the Huntsman when the dwarf Beith (Ian McShane) speaks the song's lyric "Hi-ho lads, it's off to work!" Another dwarf threatens to "smash his face in" if he starts whistling.

References