The Bare Necessities

This article is about the song. For the collegiate a cappella group by a similar name, see The Bear Necessities. For other uses, see Bare Necessities.

"The Bare Necessities" is a jazz song, written by Terry Gilkyson,^[1] from Disney's 1967 animated feature film The Jungle Book, sung by Phil Harris as Baloo and Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli.^[2] Bill Murray and Neel Sethi, in the same roles, performed the song in the 2016 remake.^[3]

"The Bare Necessities"
Song by Phil Harris and Bruce Reitherman
from the album The Jungle Book
B-side	"Trust in Me" (Sterling Holloway)
Released	1967 (1967)
Recorded	1966
Genre	Jazz
Length	4:51
Label	Disneyland
Songwriter	Terry Gilkyson

Background

Originally, it was written for an earlier draft of the film that was never produced.^[4] The Sherman Brothers, who wrote the other songs of the film, kept this as the only song used from the previous version. A reprise of the song was sung by Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera and Phil Harris as Baloo at the end of the film. Van Dyke Parks worked on the arrangement.^[5] In 1967, "The Bare Necessities" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song but lost to "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Dolittle.^[6] A hip-hop version of the song performed by Lou Rawls was used as the theme song for Jungle Cubs.^[7]

Other versions

• Louis Armstrong covered the song on his 1968 album Disney Songs the Satchmo Way.
• Steve Tyrell covered the song on his February 28, 2006 album The Disney Standards.
• Brian Wilson covered it on his album In the Key of Disney, released on October 25, 2011.
• The Overtones covered the song on their album Saturday Night at the Movies, released on November 1, 2013.

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[8]	Gold	400,000‡
United States (RIAA)[9]	Gold	500,000‡
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.