Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol - Songs

Songs

The cartoon's framing device consists almost entirely of Jim Backus as Quincy Magoo singing "It's Great To Be Back On Broadway", thus explaining in song that the character Magoo is portraying a character in a Broadway theatre production.

"Ringle, Ringle", Scrooge's theme song about "coins when they mingle", is half-sung by Jim Backus as Magoo, and serves to delineate the character's change of heart. Initially he appreciates the coins aesthetically and for the wealth they represent, while Jack Cassidy as Bob Cratchit sings in counterpoint that "it's cold, it's frightfully cold", and musically begs Scrooge to spare the expense of "just one piece of coal" to warm him. Later, in a musical reprise, Scrooge sings that the coins are "meant for passing around" as he spends the coins to help the Cratchit family.

Joan Gardner as Tiny Tim ("played" by the animated character Gerald McBoing-Boing) sings of "razzleberry dressing" and "woofle jelly cake." in "The Lord's Bright Blessing". The Cratchit children's requests for better food, a tree and presents are countered by Jack Cassidy as Bob Cratchit singing of what the family has, in his view: "the Lord's bright blessing, and knowing we're together" - a togetherness that Scrooge lacks.

In the Christmas Past sequence, Backus/Magoo as Scrooge sings in poignant duet with Scrooge's younger self (sung by Marie Matthews), left behind in boarding school after all the other children have gone home for Christmas. "In perhaps the most touching moment... Magoo is transported back to his childhood, where he stands side-by-side with his youthful self. He watches his 'child' sing Alone in the World, tracing his hand on the blackboard, hoping to find a hand of his own to hold... the quavering elderly voice blending with the clear, sweet youthful one, the invisible Magoo putting a transparent arm around his 'child'."

A hand for each hand was planned for the world

Why don't my fingers reach?

Millions of grains of sand in the world

Why such a lonely beach?

Jane Kean as Belle, once beloved of young Scrooge, sings of the cooling and hardening of his feelings toward her in "Winter Was Warm", a song of lost and yearning love. She is saddened that he has chosen gold over her, and he protests that that is the "way of the world", as he forlornly tries to cling to her. Broadcast television airings starting from the late 1980s cut the scene in which Belle sings "Winter Was Warm", despite the fact that the theme permeates the score as bridging music. Additionally, a chorus rendition of "Winter Was Warm" during the end credits was replaced by a reprise of "The Lord's Bright Blessing".

Veteran voice actor Paul Frees sings two roles in "We're Despicable (Plunderer's March)". The laundress, charwoman, and the undertaker go to Old Joe's rag & bone shop to sell the items that they have taken from the newly-deceased miser "with him lyin' there", and gleefully cackle their way through such lyrics as, "We're rep-re-hensible. We'll steal your pen-and-pencible".

For a finale, Scrooge and the Cratchitts sing a reprise (with happier lyrics) of "The Lord's Bright Blessing".

A longstanding story suggests that "People" was originally written for Mr. Magoo, but Theodore Taylor's biography of Styne disputes this.