Can You Feel the Love Tonight

"Can You Feel the Love Tonight" is a song from Disney's 1994 animated film, The Lion King,^[2] composed by Elton John with lyrics by Tim Rice.^[1] It was described by Don Hahn (the film's producer), Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff (the film's directors) as having "the most diverse history" in the film.^[3] It was a chart hit in the UK, peaking at #14 on the UK Singles Chart,^[1] and achieved even more success in the U.S., reaching a peak of #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was a number-one hit in France.

History

The song was performed in the film by Kristle Edwards, Joseph Williams, Sally Dworsky, Nathan Lane, and Ernie Sabella, while the end title version was performed by Elton John. It won the 1994 Academy Award for Best Original Song,^[1] and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. It also earned Elton John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

In 2003, a remixed version of the song was included in the Special Edition soundtrack of The Lion King, again sung by Elton John.

In the midquel The Lion King 1½, the romantic scene where the song was originally featured also had the song playing, but with a difference: interspersed with the romantic scenes were short comedic shots of Timon and Pumbaa trying to disrupt Simba and Nala's night out with the Theme from Peter Gunn playing when they try.

Early production

The song was once planned to be sung only by Timon and Pumbaa, but Elton John disliked the comical nature of the concept. Disney did not plan on using the song in the movie originally. It was only at the insistence of John that the company included it in the movie.John declared that "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" was meant to follow "Disney's tradition of great love songs", and that it could "express the lions' feelings for each other far better than dialogue could".^[4]

Later, the song was planned to be sung this time only by Simba and Nala but in the end the idea was scrapped again, and the final result was the song mainly sung by an off-screen voice (Kristle Edwards) with short lines from Simba (Joseph Williams) and Nala (Sally Dworsky), and the beginning and end parts by Timon (Nathan Lane) and Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella).^[3] It also included African vocals that, while mostly muted in the on-screen version, were much more prominently featured in the audio-only releases.

Personnel

• Elton John: Piano, Vocals
• Davey Johnstone: Guitar, Backing vocals
• Chuck Sabo: Drums
• Phil Spalding: Bass, Backing Vocals
• Guy Babylon: Keyboards
• Kiki Dee: Backing Vocals
• Rick Astley: Backing Vocals
• Gary Barlow: Backing Vocals

Cover versions

• In 1995, the song was covered by Patricia Paay for album Time of My Life.
• Australian pop star Dannii Minogue performed the song on a UK Disney TV special.
• In 1997, Hank Marvin did an instrumental version of the song on his album Hank Plays the music of Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber.
• In 2000, the song was covered by John Barrowman.
• In 2002, the song was covered by the British pop group S Club for the first Disneymania.
• In 2004, the song was covered by American Idol contestant William Hung on his debut album.^[5]
• In 2006, the song was covered by Sara Paxton for Disneymania 4 and Czech singer Zbyněk Drda.
• In 2006 Helena Blackman sang a cover of the song on week 4 of the British reality television programme How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?. She was in the bottom two after this performance for the third time but was saved by Andrew Lloyd Webber in a sing off.
• In 2007, Joe McElderry sang the song on his very first audition of X Factor, it wasn't shown on the show but it showed him saying "thank you" when he got through. He walked out the competition at bootcamp but in 2009, he won the competition.
• In 2008, the song was covered by Elliott Yamin for Disneymania 6,^[6] Choo Choo Soul from the Playhouse Disney for the album, Disney Music Block Party, Billy Jon Coogan,^[7] Phil Stacey for Country Sings Disney, and Jadakiss in Hangover.
• In 2009, the song was covered by the Nina for album Renditions of the Soul.
• In 2010, the song was covered by the Loading Ready Run crew as part of a challenge for the fourth Desert Bus for Hope event.
• In 2010, Helene Fischer, a German singer, performed the song on her "So wie ich bin"-Tour.
• The late Macedonian pop star Toše Proeski covered this song. The track was released on 25 January, his birthday.
• On the 2011 album V-Rock Disney, which features visual kei artists covering Disney songs, Aoi from Ayabie covered this song.^[8]
• Brian Wilson covered it on his album In the Key of Disney, which was released on October 25, 2011.
• John Miles covered the song during the 2011 Night of the Proms tour

Charts

See also

• List of number-one hits of 1994 (France)
• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1994 (U.S.)

References