"Food Rocks" - A Thread

Listen to my interview with the original Creative Team of the show here:  

#EPCOT #WDW #WaltDisneyWorld (1/18)

"Food Rocks" opened inside The Land pavilion on March 26th, 1994 at EPCOT and closed on January 3, 2004 to make room for the new attraction, "Soarin'." (2/18)

"Food Rocks" officially replaced "Kitchen Kabaret" due to the new sponsorship by @Nestle for The Land renewal. Executive producer Rolly Crump and show writer Jim Steinmeyer made the joint decision to add modern songs to the show with updated nutrition information. (3/18)

Musical director George Wilkins had originally worked on Kitchen Kabaret with Buddy Baker. He came back to work on the update to this new attraction, including writing an original song for the show called "Give Us Junk" for The Excess characters. (4/18)

Some of the acts that were asked to be in the show were asked to be a part of the show were @PaulStanleyLive & @GeneSimmons (in place of The Excess), @ElvisPresley (Elvis Parsley) and  @LoveTinaTurner (picture of the concept art of Tina Tuna). (5/18)

According to George Wilkins, @JessHarnell performed as the Sting soundalike and @OfficialSting said it sounded so great, to use Jess' take! This also was the case for @itsPeterGabriel's soundalike, too. (6/18)

Here is a behind-the-scenes photo of @NeilSedaka with some of the creative team after a recording session of "Vegetables Are Good for You" as Neil Moussaka! (7/18)

When Little Richard came in to record as "Lotta Richard" the pineapple, he handed out bibles to the creative team. (8/18)

. @Cher's involvement in the attraction as Cher-acuda singing "Just Keep It Lean" took the longest; she asked for several things, including theme park tickets for the duration of how long the show was at the parks.... (9/18)

...In the end, everything @Cher asked for she had donated to a children's charity! (10/18)

Due to scheduling issues, singer Gloria Bellis performed for @Cher. You may have heard Gloria's lovely voice in the parks, including singing the theme song for Space Mountain, "We've Come So Far (Promising Tomorrows)":

(11/18)

The creative team and @RapperToneLoc had so much fun recording for the project, Tone was cast as the host, Fud Wrapper! (12/18)

Queen ( @QueenWillRock) agreed to have Bohemian Rhapsody used in the show and sent the original tracks to Disney to use for the show! (13/18)

Here are behind-the-scenes photos of the Chubby Cheddar (Chubby Checker) sequence and how it was filmed for the show - even Rolly Crump is smiling! (14/18)

Some of the "Food Rocks" cast - @NeilSedaka, @QueenWillRock, @itspetergabriel & Little Richard - in their early stages at Imagineering. Note how Nine-Eye ( @RheaPerlman) from The Timekeeper is in the background, too! (15/18)

George Wilkins on The Pointer Sisters' ( @PointerOfficial) recording session: "they tore it up!" Their characters were also known as The Sweet Sisters. (16/18)

"Food Rocks" contains some of the last work from Ken Lisi who ran the recording studio at Walt Disney Imagineering. Sadly, he passed away during the production of the show. Other projects he worked on included Body Wars, Phantom Manor and Superstar Television. (17/18)

Thank you for following along to celebrate one of my favorite @WaltDisneyWorld shows. As a parting tasty treat, here's the official soundtrack from the show in stereo!

Photo of the crew that installed the show back in 1994. (18/18) #ChooseBeforeYouChew