Muppets Most Wanted (soundtrack)

Muppets Most Wanted: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack is a soundtrack album released by Walt Disney Records on March 18, 2014, for the musical comedy film Muppets Most Wanted. The soundtrack features six original songs, two re-recordings of popular Muppet songs ("The Muppet Show Theme" and "Together Again"), three cover versions of existing songs (Allen Toussaint's "Working in the Coal Mine", Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger", and Los del Río's "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)"), an orchestral suite by Christophe Beck, five demos by Bret McKenzie, and eight dialogue tracks.

Songs not included in the album, but featured in the film include "Long Train Runnin'" by The Doobie Brothers, "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men and Marvin Hamlisch's "I Hope I Get It" (from A Chorus Line).

Overview
In November 2012, it was announced that Bret McKenzie would be returning to write songs for Muppets Most Wanted following the success of its 2011 predecessor, The Muppets. As opposed to the previous film, McKenzie wrote all of the original songs for Muppets Most Wanted; his songwriting influences for the film include the Sherman Brothers, Irving Berlin, Paul Williams, and Harry Nilsson. With song ideas originating from short descriptions in the film's screenplay, McKenzie developed numerous songs and performed demo versions of each by doing impressions of various Muppets. "I'm usually just on piano, with me singing and doing my now quite extensive catalog of Muppet impressions," said McKenzie. "I play a rough version then we get together and work out the best. James [Bobin] often has an idea that's visual that he needs to change the lyric to suit the visual and then we record it with the Muppets."

A music video of McKenzie performing "I'll Get You What You Want (Cockatoo in Malibu)" was released on March 19, 2014, on Funny or Die.

Personnel
Credits adopted from AllMusic:


 * Muppet performers
 * Steve Whitmire – Kermit the Frog, Beaker, Statler, Rizzo the Rat, Link Hogthrob, Lips, Foo-Foo
 * Eric Jacobson – Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam Eagle, Animal
 * Dave Goelz – The Great Gonzo, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Zoot, Waldorf
 * Bill Barretta – Rowlf the Dog, Pepé the King Prawn, Dr. Teeth, The Swedish Chef, Carlo Flamingo
 * David Rudman – Scooter, Janice, Bobby Benson
 * Matt Vogel – Constantine, Floyd Pepper, Lew Zealand, Camilla the Chicken
 * Peter Linz – Walter, Manolo Flamingo


 * Production
 * Christophe Beck – composer
 * Bret McKenzie – composer, producer, music supervisor
 * Tim Davies – conductor
 * Kaylin Frank – producer
 * Mitchell Leib – producer, executive in charge of music
 * James Bobin – executive producer
 * David Hoberman – executive producer
 * Todd Lieberman – executive producer
 * Peter Rotter – orchestra contractor
 * Jasper Randall – choir contractor


 * Orchestration
 * Tim Davies – score coordinator
 * Dave Metzger – score orchestration
 * Chris Caswell – orchestration
 * Zach Robinson – arranger, orchestration
 * Doug Walter – orchestration
 * Joanne Kane – music preparation
 * Booker White – music preparation


 * Technical
 * David Bianco – engineer, vocal engineer
 * Satoshi Noguchi – engineer, mixing
 * Rick Ruggieri – engineer, mixing
 * Casey Stone – engineer, mixing
 * Nick Wollage – engineer, vocal engineer
 * Francois LaLonde – vocal engineer
 * Rich Spillberg – vocal engineer
 * John VanNest – vocal engineer
 * Mickey Petralia – mixing
 * Patricia Sullivan – mastering
 * Richard Ford – score editor
 * Brett Pierce – music editor
 * Lisa Jaime – supervising music editor


 * Art
 * Steve Gerdes – art direction, design
 * Steve Sterling – art direction, design

Muppets Most Wanted: Original Score
Christophe Beck was officially announced to score the film in August 2013. The score was recorded during the latter half of 2013 at the Sony Scoring Stage in Culver City, California. With the use of an 82-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony, Beck drew his inspiration from various cross-cultural styles. "With characters spread across the world," said Beck, "there was opportunity after opportunity to explore many musical styles and settings."

A separate album entirely containing Beck's score was released by Walt Disney Records and Intrada Records on April 15, 2014. The album features music from both Muppets Most Wanted and The Muppets, also scored by Beck.