Howard Ashman recorded a version of the song with himself in the role of Ursula, to send to Carroll to convince her to take the role, which it did. This version was released in the four-CD set The Music Behind the Magic. Carroll admits that she borrowed some of the inflections she used in the song from Ashman's performance, and that he had been delighted she had done so.
Carroll's original rendition of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" was included on a 1996 compilation CD of songs performed by or about various Disney villains called Rascal Songs. The CD was released as part of a three-disc Disney song series as a McDonald's promotional item.
Reprise(s)
Four versions of a reprise have been written and produced for Ursula to sing in various incarnations of the Disney story.
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 was included in The Legacy Collection: The Little Mermaid, released as a two-disc album on November 24, 2014, to coincide with the film's twenty-fifth anniversary.[1]
A new reprise was featured in the Little Mermaid Live! show produced in November 2019 by Queen Latifah.
The Jonas Brothers covered "Poor Unfortunate Souls" for the Little Mermaid two-disc special edition of the soundtrack, released on October 3, 2006, to correspond with the two-disc 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.
The song is featured in the 2023 live-action adaptation of the film, performed by Melissa McCarthy as Ursula.[4] For this new adaptation some of the song's lyrics were updated, with Menken explaining that it was because of "…lines that might make young girls somehow feel that they shouldn't speak out of turn, even though Ursula is clearly manipulating Ariel to give up her voice."[5]
