Disney Channel Produces Intimate Look At Springsteen

“Bruce Springsteen: Blood Brothers” Sunday at 9 p.m. on the Disney Channel.

Multiple-choice question:

If Bruce Springsteen were going to premiere two unreleased songs on television, what channel would he choose?

A) MTV B) VH1 C) PBS D) The Disney Channel

The Disney Channel? Say what?

Say D, ‘cause Disney’s the place where Springsteen offers up “High Hopes” and “Back in Your Arms Again” Sunday as part of a special two-hour salute.

First, the film “Bruce Springsteen: Blood Brothers” makes you a fly on the wall in the New York studio where The Boss reunited his band last year to record new songs for his “Greatest Hits” collection. Then it’s followed by the half-hour E Street Band club concert “New York City ‘95.”

This is a biggy for Disney, but it’s nothing new. The premium cable outlet has quietly turned itself into TV’s musical place-to-be over the past few years, with a series of Sunday-night specials spanning the sound spectrum.

And they haven’t just plopped cameras in front of a concert stage and let ‘em roll. The varied Disney specials feature lots of intimate interview material, spend time on the performer’s home turf (in the channel’s “Going Home” series), or delve into what makes music happen (Disney premiered the “Making of ‘Sgt. Pepper’ ” film).

“One of the things we like a lot,” says Doug Zwick, the channel’s senior vice president of original specials and acquired programming, “is to give a sense of what the performer is like. We like to give the viewer a perspective and vantage point that’s not available to the concertgoer. What we particularly like to do is get at the creative process of the artist.”

“Blood Brothers,” for instance, “is really about the creation of music,” says Zwick. “It’s in the studio, and no one has ever seen this side of Bruce before. It’s rare enough to have any kind of television or film access with him, and it’s all the more remarkable to be in there watching him record these songs and work them through.”

Indeed, his performance of “Secret Garden” - with tight, shadow-light close-ups on Springsteen and sax man Clarence Clemons - is so sinuously intimate, you almost feel you’re trespassing. It’s a one-on-one experience that later evolves into a lush narrative when string arrangements are laid over the original track.