James Baskett played Uncle Remus in "Song of the South" for which he won an honorary Academy Award. Disney won't release the entire film on the home video market because of the controversial nature of the film, which was denounced as racist by the NAACP when it premiered in 1946. He did not attend the premiere of "Song of the South" in Atlanta because it's a racially segregated city. Zip a Dee Doo Dah (Wrubel-Gilbert) won the Academy Award that year as Best Original Song.

Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, a Phil Spector-produced "wall of sound" trio recorded it in 1962, hitting #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963.