Were The Beatles in Disney's classic movie The Jungle Book?

14 May 2025, 11:56 | Updated: 14 May 2025, 12:05

"There's no way the Beatles are going to sing for Mickey F**king Mouse!"

As well as starring in their own live action movies, The Beatles lent their images to a couple of serious animated projects in the 1960s.

The Beatles animated series ran on ABC in the US from 1965 to 1969, and there was of course classic 1968 film Yellow Submarine.

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The band didn't voice themselves in either The Beatles or Yellow Submarine, apart from providing the songs and a live action outro on the latter.

But did they voice another quartet of animated characters?

Anyone who's ever watched 1967 Disney movie The Jungle Book will immediately spot the resemblance of The Vultures to The Beatles.

Yellow Submarine – Beatles movie trailer

It makes sense. In 1967, The Beatles were unarguably the biggest band in the world.

They had broken America and become global superstars. An obvious reference point for audiences.

They sound like The Beatles. They've all got moptops. Squint a little, and their faces aren't even a million miles away.

Indeed, Disney very much wanted the Fab Four to play The Vultures and sing their song 'That's What Friends Are For', which was written by Disney staff songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman.

Yet that isn't John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison or Ringo Starr voicing those Beatlesy Birds.

Nor is it The Beatles performing the Shermans' song.

That's What Friends are For (The Vulture Song) (From "The Jungle Book"/Sing-Along)

It's been suggested that Brian Epstein passed on the project due to "scheduling conflicts".

It's true that The Beatles were incredibly busy in the mid-1960s, and that The Jungle Book had a pretty troubled production, too.

But rumour also has it that when Brian passed on the request, John Lennon – ever the iconoclast – replied: "There's no way The Beatles are going to sing for Mickey f**king Mouse!"

The Jungle Book – classic animated Disney trailer

The quote is widely reported, and while there's no strong evidence that John actually phrased it like that, in 2013 Richard Sherman confirmed that it was indeed Lennon who stopped the potential appearance.

"We thought it would be great to have The Beatles do it," he told The Telegraph. "And we wrote a quartet for them to do it. We attempted even to [write the song] in a rock style.

"And with The Beatles, John was running the show at the time, and he said, 'I don't wanna do an animated film'. Three years later they did Yellow Submarine, so you can see how things change."

Chad & Jeremy - Yesterday's Gone (1964)

Instead, The Vultures were played by J. Pat O'Malley (Buzzie), Chad Stuart (Flaps), Lord Tim Hudson (Dizzy) and Digby Wolfe (Ziggy).

That quartet performed the song, too.

Like The Beatles who inspired them, all four Vultures actors were British – and Chad Stuart was primarily a musician, being half of the duo Chad & Jeremy, who had 11 Top 100 hits in the US, including 'Yesterday's Gone' and 'A Summer Song'.