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How is that possible that a same song is presented as 3 different scores for piano, by the same author?
Let's consider Snow White - Whistle While You Work:
In this link we have:
In this scan, from book "Disney Princess", words by Larry Morey, music by Frank Churchill, we have :
In this scan, from book "Classic Disney Songs", words by Larry Morey, music by Frank Churchill, we have (see the last two notes of the scan) :
So:
These are all "arrangements" of the same piece. The original movie release was scored for orchestra (also likely by someone other than the original writers), so in that sense, none of them is correct. Each one, however, is arranged for different levels of pianist. The first is intended for an intermediate level player, while the other two are intended for late and early beginning pianists.
This is the norm for popular songs like these. They often exist in many different versions to appeal to different levels of play — as the above — or different styles of play, such as jazz or a duet with a singer.
In these situations, however, it is always necessary to credit the original composer(s)/lyricist(s) — sometimes by law, sometimes by contractual agreement, and sometimes by professional ethics.
Adding to Aaron's answer - there are often multiple different arrangements, often even in different keys. That means the song is available to everyone, not just seasoned players. The keys may be changed to make them easier to play, or for different voices, or indeed for different instruments, which may be transposing instruments, making their parts playable against other instruments' parts.
Have a look at the Beatles' Complete Piano book. Most are not in the recorded keys, miss out tricky bits, etc. Made so to make them 'easier' to play!
