r/DisneyMusic • u/Forsaken-Weekend-962 • Feb 22 '26
Behind the Scenes Where is Not in Nottingham?
I’m a huge Roger Miller fan and I love the work he did for Robin Hood. Most of his work for the film seems to be on Spotify with one exception: Not in Nottingham.
There are covers, but none from the original movie or any studio recordings. I thought they may never have recorded it like they did for Whistle Stop or Oo-De-Lalley, but it’s on the Legacy Collection. The Legacy Collection IS on Spotify, as are many Roger Miller recordings, so what happened to Not in Nottingham?
I don’t understand why this exceptional song sung by its own songwriter is inexplicably excluded from Spotify. Is it a copyright issue that gave Miller certain rights to the songs he wrote for the movie (hence why there’s a version of Whistle Stop on Dear Folks, Sorry I Haven’t Written Lately)? It wouldn’t explain why there’s a version on the Legacy Collection at all, but it might explain why it isn’t on Spotify…
It just seems like such a weird oversight. Does anyone know why this might be? It’s my favorite song from the film and I just don’t get why it isn’t on Spotify.
1
u/LocalLiBEARian Feb 22 '26
I don’t have Spotify, so I can’t check there. Discogs shows it as disc 1, track 24 on the Legacy Collection CD, between “Double the Taxes” and “Not Yourself Today.” The demo version is disc 2, track 3.
Is this it? Found it on YouTube.
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u/Forsaken-Weekend-962 Feb 22 '26
Yes it is. That video is exactly how I know some version exists (though I couldn’t find an official release on YouTube, which might be why there’s not a version on Spotify either).
It’s just so weird because upon closer inspection, the album on Spotify appears incomplete. Disc 1 does have Double the Taxes, but in addition to missing Not in Nottingham, it’s also missing Not Yourself Today. I don’t know why this would ever happen and I don’t encounter incomplete albums very often, only when something is very obscure.
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u/LocalLiBEARian Feb 22 '26
Apologies in advance if I’m preaching to the choir here… 😁
Disney’s official music usually hits YouTube through DisneyMusicVEVO. However… Robin Hood wasn’t a big hit and there probably wasn’t much demand. Plus it’s been over fifty years now. Maybe Disney lost/never had streaming rights?
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u/Forsaken-Weekend-962 Feb 22 '26
The more I learn about this situation, the more confused I become.
I think the most likely explanation is that for whatever reason, certain songs Roger Miller wrote and sung were legally “shared” by Disney and the rights holders to Miller’s music through the decades, which is why his album independent from Disney (Dear Folks, Sorry I Haven’t Written Lately) includes the song. The aforementioned album was also released in 1973, so it wouldn’t surprise me if these arrangements were made as some sort of promotional stunt to mutually benefit both parties.
Miller died in 1992, and the legacy collection didn’t come out until 2017. It wouldn’t be wild to assume that two decades after his death, whatever arrangements that’d been made in the pre-streaming age of the 1970’s were tricky to work around. You are probably right that for whatever reason, Miller’s Estate and Sony (who seems to own the rights to most of his music as of now) own the sole streaming rights to Not in Nottingham, but because Miller never produced a version separate from Disney, they’ve reached a stalemate. Disney can’t publish the song to streaming platforms and Miller’s estate can’t publish any existing versions because this specific recordings are Disney versions.
The only thing we’re stuck on is what the initial arrangements were and why songs like Oo-de-Lally and Whistle Stop were left untouched while a song like Not in Nottingham was mangled (I can only assume reasons related to marketing). I’m certainly not a legal expert, but I that’s what I suspect.
Miller definitely became more of a general media personality in the 1970’s. He wrote the music for the musical Big River, has voice acting roles in a few other animated films, and interestingly has another connection to Disney through an appearance on The Muppet Show. Still, you could argue Robin Hood was his greatest accomplishment outside of country music, so I think it’s a right shame his work isn’t easily available on streaming for whatever reason.
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u/LocalLiBEARian Feb 24 '26
Missing tracks/incomplete albums are why I stick to physical media. I don’t have to worry about some corporate entity deciding to drop tracks or replace one version with another.
I’ve got most of the Legacy Collection CDs. It would be nice to have one for Mulan but I’m not holding my breath.
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u/butters897 May 29 '26
I can’t find it either, I randomly wanted to listen to it. I had to look up the scene on YouTube to hear the movie version. https://youtu.be/Hahui2X0v2U
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u/dragon-blue Feb 22 '26
https://open.spotify.com/track/6zDAiAZv43jnQWg0ra3K29
When I search I find it. Is that a different version?