Tag Archives: Music

March 29, 1993 – Aladdin Wins The Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, “A Whole New World.”

“With ‘A Whole New World,’ that’s where my whole style took a move into a new place, working with Tim [Rice]. That was also where I gained some confidence that there can be new chapters in my life.” – Alan Menken

The 65^th Academy Awards were held on March 29, 1993, in Los Angeles, California. The Disney Studios struck gold again in the categories of Best Original Score and Best Original Song, winning for the animated blockbuster, Aladdin. Alan Menken won for his score for the film, competing against Jerry Goldsmith’s Basic Instinct, John Barry’s Chaplin, Richard Robbins’ Howards End, and Mark Isham’s A River Runs Through It. The song “A Whole New World,” with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Sir Tim Rice, won for Best Original Song, competing against “I Have Nothing” and “Run to You” from The Bodyguard, “Beautiful Maria of My Soul” from The Mambo Kings, and “Friend Like Me,” also from Aladdin.

Aladdin was the idea of the lyricist Howard Ashman, and was one of his last projects before he died in 1991. Unfortunately, many of the elements in the movie were not working in the opinion of the higher ups (including Jeffery Katzenberg), so many of the songs written by Ashman and Menken were cut; fortunately, “Friend Like Me” is one of the songs that not only stayed intact, but was nominated for Best Original Song. Menken feared that once Ashman was gone, his career would be over. It was suggested that he work with lyricist Tim Rice, and the two dove right in, working on the marketplace song (“One Jump Ahead”), and a song for the magic carpet ride (“A Whole New World”). “A Whole New World” was performed by Lea Salonga and Brad Kane in the film, with a pop version released as a single, performed by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle. The song was an immense hit, peaking at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

March 27, 1995 – The Lion King is Awarded Two Academy Awards: Best Original Score and Best Song for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”

Image credit: imdb

 “There’s a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors, when the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours…”

The 67^th Academy Awards were held on March 27, 1995, in Los Angeles, California. The Disney Studios continued their good fortune in the categories of Best Original Score and Best Original Song, winning for the animated blockbuster, The Lion King. Hans Zimmer won the award for Best Score, beating out Alan Silvestri’s score for Forrest Gump, Elliot Goldenthal’s Interview with the Vampire, and Thomas Newman’s Little Women and The Shawshank Redemption. Sirs Elton John and Tim Rice won for the song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” competing against “Look What Love Has Done” from Junior and “Make Up Your Mind” from The Paper, as well as “Circle of Life” and “Hakuna Matata” from The Lion King.

The version of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” that exists in the film and the pop version sung by Sir Elton John over the end credits are vastly different lyrically. The song was originally going to be a comic song sung by Timon and Pumbaa (Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella). After that idea was scrapped, the song was going to be cut from the film, but John insisted that it remain, following the new format of Disney songs beginning when the characters run out of words and can only use song to describe how they feel. The pop version became a hit, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, and is one of the most recognizable Disney songs ever written.

March 26, 1990 – Alan Menken and Howard Ashman Win the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for The Little Mermaid.

“We were adapting Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale in the style of Disney. And so, in a sense, we were pastiching Disney. In order to pastiche Disney, we naturally brought in styles from the outside. Calypso and reggae were clearly a new style to bring in.” – Alan Menken

The 62^nd Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles, California on March 26, 1990. Disney scored a great success that night with the musical team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, who won the Academy Award for the score for The Little Mermaid, and the song “Under the Sea.” Their competition was The Fabulous Baker Boys by Dave Grusin, Field of Dreams by James Horner, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade by John Williams, and Born on the Fourth of July, also by John Williams. “Under the Sea” competed against “After All” from Chances Are, “I Love to See You Smile” from Parenthood, “The Girl Who Used To Be Me” from Shirley Valentine, and another Ashman/Menken song, “Kiss the Girl.”

Ashman had been brought to Jeffery Katzenberg’s attention through David Geffen, and after meeting Ashman, everyone was excited to work with him on The Little Mermaid project. Ashman brought along Alan Menken, who had worked with him on the musical Little Shop of Horrors. The collaboration between Ashman and Menken helped usher in a new era of Disney animation, bringing elements of Broadway to the animated form. As Director John Musker remarked on the partnership between Ashman and Menken, “One of the great things with Howard and Alan’s music, I think, is the wittiness of it. It isn’t dumbed down for any audience.” Jodi Benson, the voice actress for Ariel added, “They approached it like a Broadway musical. It is something totally different; the characters actually run out of words, can’t express themselves anymore, and it has to come out in song.”

March 25, 1996 – Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz Win the Academy Award for “Colors of the Wind” and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score for Pocahontas.

Image credit: The Academy Awards website

“The emotion of the lyrics [for “Colors of the Wind”], as well as the emotion of the music, was very powerful, and also defined the movie, and what the movie was going to be about.”  – James Pentecost, Producer of Pocahontas

On March 25, 1996, the 68^th Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles, California. That night, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz took home two Oscars for the Disney animated film Pocahontas: one for the score, and one for the song “Colors of the Wind.” Pocahontas was up against stiff competition: “Colors of the Wind” competed against “Dead Man Walking” from the movie of the same name, “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman” from Don Juan DeMarco, “Moonlight” from Sabrina, and “You’ve Got A Friend in Me” from a little film named Toy Story. The score was against the scores from Sabrina by John Williams, The American President by Marc Shaiman, Toy Story by Randy Newman, and Unstrung Heroes by Thomas Newman. It would be Alan Menken’s seventh and eighth Academy Award wins, and Stephen Schwartz’s first and second.

Menken remarked in a documentary about the process of the music for Pocahontas: “First of all, I went to another collaboration with Stephen Schwartz, and so the very first thing we wrote…[plays the underscore of the song]. We listened to a lot of Indian music from various tribes and came up with certain tonalities.” “Colors of the Wind” was one of the first songs that Menken and Schwartz wrote together, and it helped the rest of the staff understand the direction of the film, as it was written during early development. The song was a rare example of a balance between the lyrics and the music, with Schwartz remarking, “…maybe that’s why it’s so satisfying for both Alan and myself.”

The cover for the single version of "Colors of the Wind," sung by Vanessa Williams. Image credit: amazon.com

“Colors of the Wind” was performed by Judy Kuhn in the film, and was released as a pop version for the end credits, sung by Vanessa Williams. The pop version reached a peak position of #4 on the U.S. Billboard Top 100. Menken has said about the song: “The song is a message song. It’s about respecting the environment and respecting our world, and it says, ‘Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?’ Can you see in the world around us all the rich array of blessings?”