11 Original Songs That Were Cut From Their Movies

Maybe they didn't fit the tone of the film they were supposed to appear in. Maybe the director just couldn't find a place for them. Whatever the reason, these 11 songs never made it into the movies they were intended for.

1. "Wise Man" from Django Unchained

Audiences were excited when Frank Ocean told GQ that he had written an original song for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, but were perplexed when it didn't appear on the film's final soundtrack. Tarantino told Fuse magazine that while the song was "fantastic," he couldn't figure out where to put it. "I could have thrown it in quickly just to have it, but that's not why he wrote it and not his intention. So I didn't want to cheapen his effort," Tarantino said. Ocean eventually released "Wise Man" on his own Tumblr with the comment "django was ill without it."

2. "Come What May" from Romeo + Juliet

Baz Lurhmann had originally planned to put the original love ballad "Come What May" in his 1996 Romeo + Juliet (the title even comes from the Macbeth line "Come what come may), but it didn't make the final version. So he repurposed it for use in his 2001 musical Moulin Rouge!, where it became the film's only original song. However, that also left composers David Baerwald and Kevin Gilbert out of the Oscar race despite the song's popularity—the award can only be given out to songs written specifically for the movie in which they appear.

3. "The Jitterbug" from The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz originally included a scene where, in the Haunted Forest, Dorothy and her three companions encounter a Jitterbug sent by the Wicked Witch. The bug forces them to dance the jitterbug until they are completely tired out, at which point the flying monkeys capture them. There are a number of stories about why the song (which was later included in some stage productions and on later releases) was recorded but then cut. Some say it was part of an early draft that featured more music; others say that producers were worried that using the jitterbug would date the film too much. The scene is still referenced in the final film—the Wicked Witch tells one of the flying monkeys that she has sent "a little insect to take the fight out of them."

4. "I'll Cry Instead" from A Hard Day's Night

"I'll Cry Instead" was originally written for the famous "breakout" scene in A Hard Day's Night, where the Beatles escape from their hordes of fans. But director Richard Lester replaced it with "Can't Buy Me Love," thinking the latter was more upbeat and in keeping with the scene. "I'll Cry Instead" still appeared on the soundtrack album, and a later re-release of the film included a prologue with a photo montage set to it.

5. "Hey Bulldog" from Yellow Submarine

Another Beatles song cut from its film, "Hey Bulldog" was removed because producers thought the animated movie was already too long. The deleted sequence shows the Beatles using a player piano to defeat a four-headed Blue Meanie dog and his owner. It was included in the European release of the movie, as well as a later re-issue.

6. "Be Careful What You Pack" from Coraline

Indie pop duo They Might Be Giants wrote a whole soundtrack for the stop-motion animation adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "Coraline," but ultimately only one song—"Other Father Song"—made it into the final version. Band member John Flansburgh said in an interview that their soundtrack was cut because producers "basically wanted the music to be more creepy" and "we never really found a rhythm to work with them." One of the cut songs, called "Be Careful What You Pack," has already been released on one of the band's albums and they say there are plans to put out more of the missing songs.

7. "Human Again" from Beauty and the Beast

"Human Again" featured the supporting characters cleaning the castle before the climactic ballroom scene, while dreaming about what they would do when the curse was lifted and they became humans (Lumiere the candelabra will have "a mademoiselle on each arm," for example). It also featured one of the only solos for the Wardrobe character. But the song was cut over concerns about the film's timeline and was replaced with "Something There." Composers Howard Ashman and Alan Menken saved the song and used it in the Broadway musical based on the movie and it was eventually animated and released in a special edition DVD.

8. "Proud of your Boy" from Aladdin

Aladdin didn't just lose a song when "Proud of your Boy" was dropped—it lost an entire character. Originally, the movie was supposed to feature a scene where Aladdin, having escaped the police, returns home to his mother and realizes how ashamed she is of him. After she goes to sleep, Aladdin sings about wanting to redeem himself to make his mother proud. According to the documentary above (which includes a demo of the song), the song was a favorite of Ashman's, who died during production of the movie due to complications of AIDS.

For more deleted Disney songs, check out this list from TheFW.com.

9. "Ain't It The Truth" from Cabin in the Sky

Lena Horne recorded a performance of the song "Ain't It The Truth" for the 1943 film adaptation of the Broadway musical Cabin in the Sky, but she said it was censored from the final version because the scene took place with her in a bubble bath. There had been plenty of white actresses filmed in similar situations, leading to charges of racism. The cut scene, bubble bath and all, was eventually released a few years later in Studio Visit, a revue centered around a film lot tour, as well as the compilation That's Entertainment III. A second version of the song by Louis Armstrong was also cut from the film, which left the trumpet player without a featured song.

10. "Scandalous!" (and others) from Batman

Prince- Scandalous (Batman Soundtrack 1989) from Vladlen Puzach on Vimeo.

Batman is notable for being one of the few movies to have two separate soundtracks, one with the original score by Danny Elfman and the other with music by Prince. According to director Tim Burton's memoir, Burton on Burton, he had been using existing Prince songs as placeholders for two scenes in the movie (the Joker's museum raid and the parade) and asked the studio to contact Prince to get original music. Prince ended up loving the movie and wrote an entire album's worth of material, prompting Warner Brothers to push for those songs to be used (according to Burton, they also pitched bringing on Michael Jackson to do a love theme). Burton ended up only using two Prince tracks, although Elfman says he integrated elements of the others into the score, so Prince released the full collection on his own. The Prince soundtrack went to number one on the Billboard charts and it spawned a number of hits, including "Batdance" and "Scandalous!," although it's now regarded as one of his lesser outings.

11. "Let's Go West Again" from Annie Get Your Gun

"Let's Go West Again" was originally supposed to appear in the stage version of Annie Get Your Gun, but was cut because it didn't work with the script. Producers tried to insert it into the 1950 film version and even had star Betty Hutton record it, but they too decided to cut it. There's even a version of Judy Garland performing the cut song on her own version of the soundtrack—Garland was originally hired to play Annie and had recorded all of the songs, but was fired because of a feud with the producers.