Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Heigh-Ho

Snapshot pictures

Notes

The song is included in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Movie Songs.

The musical elements that make up the film would eventually become the dominant tradition at Walt Disney Animation Studios for every film of theirs from 1937 to 1998, with only 6 exceptions being Bambi (1942), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Rescuers (1977), The Black Cauldron (1985), The Great Mouse Detective (1986), and The Rescuers Down Under (1990).

When comedian Billy Gilbert found out that one of the dwarfs' names was Sneezy he called up Walt Disney and gave him his famous sneezing gag and got the part.

The expression "heigh-ho" was first recorded in 1553 and is defined as an expression of "yawning, sighing, languor, weariness, disappointment". Eventually, it blended meanings with the similarly spelled "hey-ho". The phrase "hey-ho" first appeared in print in 1471, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, which says it has nautical origins, meant to mark the rhythm of movement in heaving or hauling.

The original names of the Dwarfs, before Disney renamed them, were Snick, Glick, Blick, Flick, Plick, Whick and Quee. Some animators were opposed to the name Dopey, claiming that it was too modern a word to use in a timeless fairy tale. Walt Disney made the argument that William Shakespeare used the word in one of his plays.

It is very possible Dopey is actually 'adopted' in the film. The other dwarfs are noticeably much older than Dopey and he is also implied to be much younger than Snow White.

Watch songs from movie original soundtrack