- Looking back and my write ups, I haven’t ever extolled the virtues of Let It Go. I’ve only let its magnamity go in unstated contrast to some lesser song. It’s a fantastic song, no matter how overplayed. This is mostly due to the pipes of Idina Menzel, but the songwriting gets the details right as well. We get a callback to The First Time in Forever to establish Elsa’s learned repression in the opening. We get three different versions of the chorus, the first understated, as she begins to open up both vocally and with her powers in the animation and accompanied only by piano, the second full throated and fully backed by orchestra, and the third swapping the original tune for higher notes and playing with the melody and words. It’s not the only time Disney has done this, but it’s nailed here. And of course, its message resonates so strongly with exactly the right demographic: “That perfect girl is gone!” So many of the best Disney songs are about getting out from under the thumb of your parents, even if this one is technically about getting out from under their memory.
I could easily write off Can You Feel the Love Tonight with another one liner about the awkwardness of Simba and Nala, but that wouldn’t be fair. I went back and listened to the Elton John version to see if it was just the lion thing, and, well, perhaps listen for yourself:
This version, one, is carried by the outstanding singing of Elton John, two, has almost no lyrics in common with the movie version outside of “Can you feel the love tonight?”, and, three, has lyrics that make almost no sense at all:
There’s a calm surrender
To the rush of day
When the heat of a rolling wind
Can be turned away
The heat of a rolling wind, which, yes, sounds like it may come from the rush of day, if you turn it away, isn’t that the opposite of a calm surrender to it? Also, I found something more awkward that Simba and Nala trying to be sexy like humans, and that is Elton John swaying even more awkwardly to his own song superposed onto animated scenes.
I put in the work, I tried to find something for me to latch onto in this song, and I just can’t. I have never once voted for Can You Feel the Love Tonight?, and I’m not about to start now.
- I’m surprised this one is so close, but the songs do have some commonalities. Both are supposed to fill you with awe and wonder and delight. Both are full of color and surprises. Still, as much as I’m a jazz lover, the island sound of Under the Sea is music fitting movie so much more than American jazz in a mythical middle eastern sultanate. As a nominator of Friend Like Me, this is as far as I think it should go.
- I had remembered the bit of trivia I’d previously posted in this thread, that Beauty and the Beast was the first movie ever with three songs nominated for the oscar for best original song, but I didn’t remember exactly which those songs were. I figured it was likely these two plus the winner, the titular Beauty and the Beast, but I wanted to look it up to confirm. That sent me down a modest Wikipedia rabbit hole that I’d like to take you down as well. Why did the title track win an oscar when these two fared much better head to head against other Disney songs?
Much to Disney’s surprise, Beauty and the Beast received three separate Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song.[11] To avoid dividing Academy voters and prevent a draw, Disney decided to promote the film’s title song ahead of its fellow nominees “Belle” and “Be Our Guest” by releasing “Beauty and the Beast” as a single,[11] similar to the way in which Universal Pictures released “Somewhere Out There” from the animated film An American Tail as a single in 1986.[157]
Do you not recall hearing Angela Lansbury on pop radio? No? Well, there’s a reason for that:
Coincidentally, Ashman and Menken had written the song so that it could potentially experience success outside of the Beauty and the Beast film itself.[9] Although Lansbury’s rendition was very much appreciated, it was considered to be unsuitable for a commercial release or radio airplay.[157] Thus, the studio decided to make “Beauty and the Beast” the first Disney song to be arranged into a pop version of itself for the film’s end credits.[158] Menken referred to this experience as a “turning point” in his career because it was also the first time one of his own compositions had ever undergone such a transformation.[159] The song was produced by Walter Afanasieff and arranged by musician Robbie Buchanan.[160] Menken commended Afanasieff for successfully making the song his own.[159]
So, what was that single? Oh, I’ve got you:
They didn’t change the lyrics this time! But oh, who’s that woman singing?
Actress and singer Paige O’Hara, who voices Belle, was among the first artists to express interest in recording the pop version of “Beauty and the Beast”, but Disney dismissed her for being “too Broadway”.[161] Unable to afford to hire a “big singer” at the time, Disney selected rising Canadian recording artist Celine Dion.[17] Because she was relatively unknown to American audiences at the time, the studio doubted that Dion would have much of an impact in the United States on her own and subsequently hired the more well-known American singer Peabo Bryson to perform the song alongside her as a duet.[17] Disney contacted Dion’s manager René Angélil about having the singer record “Beauty and the Beast” while she was on tour in England.[162] A fan of Dion’s music, Menken personally wrote the singer a letter of approval.[163]
Just a strapping up and comer, natch. But was there drama? Of course there was drama:
Hailing from the French-Canadian province of Quebec, Dion had just begun to learn English.[118] At first Dion was reluctant to commit to the project due to having just recently been replaced from recording “Dreams to Dream”, the theme song of the animated film An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), in favor of American singer Linda Ronstadt, who had previously experienced great success with her rendition of “Somewhere Out There”.[164][165] Ronstadt, who was producer Steven Spielberg’s first choice,[164] only agreed to record “Dreams to Dream” after hearing Dion’s demo.[162] Devastated by her termination, Dion eventually agreed to record “Beauty and the Beast” after listening to and being moved by Lansbury’s performance.[162]
So, how did this version of the song do? On the one hand,
Unlike Lansbury’s version, the Dion-Bryson single has earned generally mixed reviews; critics generally voice their preferences for Lansbury’s version than Dion and Bryson’s.[178]
On the other, Disney’s chosen song won the Oscar.
I can get why corporate types would want the title track to win, but I think artistically, the two here in our bracket are the two best. And of these to, I just love the spectacle of Be Our Guest.
- Speaking of movies where the Academy got the best original song wrong, in this case, Disney actually pushed the Elton John version of Can You Feel the Love Tonight out onto the radio a couple months before movie even premiered. They planted their flag earlier, but they were wrong again. Circle of Life is the best song from The Lion King, and it’s not close. Someone figured it out earlier than we did:
John began to perform “Circle of Life”, replacing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, in some of his concerts, shows and performances from 1999 to 2018.[16]
