"That's What Friends Are For (The Vulture Song)" is a song in the

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

film ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' is an 1894 collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who ...

'' from 1967. It was sung by a quartet of "

mop top The English rock band the Beatles, comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, are commonly regarded as the foremost and most influential band in popular music history. They sparked the "Beatlemania" phenomenon in 1 ...

vultures A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

who are making friends with

Mowgli Mowgli () is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Mowgli stories featured among Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book'' stories. He is a feral boy from the Pench area in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India, who originally appeared in Kiplin ...

, the main character of the film. The song was written by Disney staff songwriters,

Robert and Richard Sherman The Sherman Brothers were an American songwriting duo that specialized in musical films, made up of brothers Robert Sherman (December 19, 1925 – March 6, 2012) and Richard Sherman (June 12, 1928 – May 25, 2024). Together they received ...

, and sung primarily by J. Pat O'Malley,

Lord Tim Hudson George Timothy Hudson 'The Story of Lord Tim Hudson", ''LordTim.com''
Retrieved January 13 ...

Digby Wolfe James Digby Wolfe (4 June 19292 May 2012) was a British actor. After a successful career in the UK and Australia, his later career was based in the US. Early life James Digby Wolfe was born to a father who was an international banker and a m ...

, and

Chad Stuart David Stuart Chadwick (10 December 1941 – 20 December 2020), better known by his stage name Chad Stuart, was an English musician. He was one half of the duo Chad & Jeremy. Stuart has writing credits on four of the 11 Chad & Jeremy songs which ...

Bruce Reitherman Bruce Reitherman (born September 15, 1955) is an American filmmaker and former child actor. He voiced Christopher Robin in ''Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree'' and Mowgli in ''The Jungle Book''. Early life and work Born on September 15, ...

and

George Sanders George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous charac ...

both made cameo appearances in the song singing as

and

Shere Khan Shere Khan () is a fictional Bengal tiger featured in the Mowgli stories of Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book, Jungle Book''. He is often portrayed as the main antagonist in the book's media adaptations, itself an exaggeration of his role in ...

the tiger, respectively, in different parts. Sherman, Robert B., '' Walt's Time: from before to beyond'', Camphor Tree Publishers,

Santa Clarita, California Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-most populous city in Los Angeles County, the 17th-most popul ...

, 1998, p 84., In the

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

The Mellomen The Mellomen were a popular singing quartet active from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s. The group was founded by Thurl Ravenscroft and Max Smith in 1948. They recorded under a variety of names, including Big John and the Buzzards, the Crack ...

member Bill Lee replaced the unavailable Sanders, a trained bass singer. ''The Jungle Book'', Platinum Edition, Disc 1

Composing

The Shermans were brought onto the film by

, who felt that the film in keeping with

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

's book was too dark for family viewing. In a deliberate effort to keep the score light, this song as well as the Sherman Brothers' other contributions to the score generally concern darker subject matter than the accompanying music would suggest. In the case of "That's What Friends Are For", the vultures sing in the style of a

barbershop quartet A barbershop quartet is a group of four singers who sing music in the barbershop style, characterized by four-part harmony without instrumental accompaniment (a cappella). The four voices are: the lead, the vocal part which typically carries t ...

, making their song endearing to Mowgli - and that much more dangerous. The lyrics feature many

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, one of which is typically obvious, and the other often conveys a message that would be too socially unacc ...

s regarding how the vultures eat other animals. The song was originally conceived as a rock and roll song, sung by the quartet of vultures. The vultures were even designed based on

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

, with

moptop The English rock band the Beatles, comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, are commonly regarded as the foremost and most influential band in popular music history. They sparked the "Beatlemania" phenomenon in 1 ...

haircuts and mock- Liverpool accents, and would be voiced by the band, which did not come into fruition due to problems with their schedule. During production Disney decided the 1960s style rock would cause the song to be considered dated later, leading "We're Your Friends" to be changed to the barbershop quartet that appears in the film."Lost Character: Rocky the Rhino", ''The Jungle Book'' Platinum Edition Disc 1

References

{{Authority control Songs about friendship 1967 songs Songs from The Jungle Book (1967 film) Songs written by the Sherman Brothers