Someday My Prince Will Come

"Someday My Prince Will Come" is a song from Walt Disney's 1937 animated movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was written by Larry Morey (lyrics) & Frank Churchill (music), and performed by Adriana Caselotti (Snow White's voice in the movie). It was also featured in the 1979 stage adaptation of the 1937 animated musical movie. In AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs, it was ranked the 19th greatest film song of all time. The song is heard instrumentally in Jeff Morrow's underscore for the 2025 live-action remake of the original film due to the changes made to the plot.

Conception

Adriana Caselotti was cast in the 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs after interrupting a phone conversation her father – a voice coach – was having on the phone with a talent scout. The scout was casting the upcoming film and noted that a previous candidate had sounded like a 30-year-old, so was let go; Caselotti picked up the extension and recommended herself. Only 18 at the time, Disney thought she sounded like a 14-year-old, which is what he wanted, and he offered her the part. She worked on the film for a nominal fee for three years while the film was in production.

Composition

Meanwhile, Frank Churchill was chosen as the film's composer, who was instructed by Walt Disney to write something "quaint" in order to "appeal more than the hot stuff". The song sees Caselotti perform with "piercing top notes" and "mushy vibrato". The chord structure that underpins the melody has an atypical quality, that led it to become popular within jazz circles. The song is typically played in the key of B-flat major.

Aftermath

After the film's release, the song became popular outside the context of the narrative as a jazz standard. One of the first performances was within the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1943, played by a band known as the Ghetto Swingers. After World War II, it was performed by Lois Butler as the theme song in Mickey, a teen-girl film released in 1948. It was performed by jazz musicians such as Dave Brubeck, who included it on his 1957 album Dave Digs Disney. Another popular recording came from Miles Davis in 1961, who named his album after the song.

Critical reception

The Financial Times wrote that the song "spelt out the tantalising promise of love and nurture".

Legacy

The American Film Institute listed this song at No. 19 on their list of the 100 greatest songs in movie history. Following "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio at No. 7, this is the second-highest ranked song from a Disney movie out of five, with the other three being "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins at No. 36, "Beauty and the Beast" from Beauty and the Beast at No. 62 and "Hakuna Matata" from The Lion King at No. 99. The song was then briefly sung on the 1971 sitcom All in the Family by Edith Bunker in the episode "Archie's Weighty Problem". In June 2026, CBS News included the song in its list of the 250 essential American songs of the past 250 years.