Poor Unfortunate Souls

"Poor Unfortunate Souls" is a song from the Walt Disney Pictures animated film The Little Mermaid. Written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken and performed by Pat Carroll, "Poor Unfortunate Souls" is sung to Princess Ariel by Ursula the Sea Witch. Ursula uses the song to seduce Ariel into trading her voice for the chance to temporarily become human.

A short reprise of this song is featured later in the original Disney movie being sung by Vanessa (Jodi Benson). This reprise is sometimes referred to as "Vanessa's Song". It has never been included on a soundrecording from Disney, nor has it ever received any sort of official acknowledgment from the company. It is unknown if this reprise is included in the Broadway version of the story, however a new reprise of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" has been written.

Carroll's original rendition of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" was included on a 1995 compilation CD of songs performed by or about various Disney villains called Rascal Songs. The CD was released as part of a four-disc Disney song series as a McDonald's promotional item.

The Jonas Brothers covered "Poor Unfortunate Souls" for the Little Mermaid two-disk special special edition of the soundtrack, released on October 3, 2006 to correspond with the two-disk The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition DVD. The Special Edition Soundtrack includes a music video for the song, where the boys are singing around a public swimming pool. This song is also reported to be on their 2nd studio album(lst with Hollywood Records)

The song is also featured on Disney's On the Record along with Part of Your World, Under the Sea and Kiss the Girl of songs from The Little Mermaid.

"Poor Unfortunate Souls" is one of the featured numbers in the planned Broadway adaptation of The Little Mermaid. The song was a track on the demo recording.

A portion of the song is performed twice in the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom Halloween-themed fireworks show HalloWishes during Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.

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