"Pete's Dragon" soundtrack on CD... specifically, where's Red Buttons?

[RonNYC]

OK... last night I pulled the CD soundtrack of "Pete's Dragon" off the shelf and gave it a spin.

The song "Passamashloddy" is a song sung in the film by Doc Terminus (Jim Dale) with minor assists from Hoagy (Red Buttons). Welp, not on this cd issue. Red Buttons' vocals are completely missing from the track. Granted, he didn't have much to sing on this song, but he is listed in the booklet as being on the track... yet the lyrics of the song in the booklet have his (very few) lines cut.

Hmmmm.... I'm just wondering if anyone else has noticed this and/or knows why the track was released this way. Red Buttons is featured prominently on Doc Terminus' and Hoagy's other big song, but why not here?

[Oswald]

I thought I was the only one that noticed this. Or, I thought I was the only one that got a bad copy of the cd. The only thing I can think of, and I'm probably wrong, is that maybe the artists get paid residuals "by the song." Since Red didn't have a very big part in this song, maybe they just decided to cut him out to avoid paying him?

[Xharryb]

Had you brought this up a couple days ago, I could have asked the film's producer for his insights on this. Alas, too late now.

[RonNYC]

Had you brought this up a couple days ago, I could have asked the film's producer for his insights on this. Alas, too late now.

Darn my bad timing!

Actually, Oswald's suggestion makes sense...about artist's receiving royalities on the tracks, as opposed to the entire album.

I don't imagine that "Pete's Dragon" was ever going to be a big seller on CD, so save costs wherever you can. Probably safe to assume that's why the single version of "Candle on the Water" on the original Capitol Records release of the soundtrack isn't on the Disney Records CD release. It's been replaced on the CD with a reprise of the song instead. Helen Reddy was a Capitol artist and Capitol probably owns that version of the recording. Disney most likely owns the soundtrack recordings and would have had to license the single version from Capitol.