"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.
Contents[]
- 2 Early production
- 3 Festival of the Lion King
- 4 Personnel
- 5 Cover versions
- 6 Charts
- 7 See also
- 8 References
History[edit][]
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 followup 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[edit][]
The song was once planned to be sung only by Timon and Pumbaa, but Elton John disliked the comical nature of the concept. 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.
Festival of the Lion King[edit][]
In Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom's Festival of the Lion King, the song is sung by Nakawa and Kibibi. As they sing, two ballet dancers (one male, one female) dressed as birds dance on the stage. After the main chorus is sung, the male bird dancer attaches his partner to a harness that allows her to fly through the air.
Personnel[edit][]
- Elton John: Piano, Vocals
- Davey Johnstone: Guitar, Backing vocals
- Chuck Sabo: Drums
- Phil Spalding: Bass, Backing Vocals
- Guy Babylon: Keyboards
- Rick Astley: Backing Vocals
- Gary Barlow: Backing Vocals
- Kiki Dee: Backing Vocals
- Robert Englund: Backing Vocals
- Gary 'Spike' Murphy: Backing Vocals
Cover versions[edit][]
- In 1994, the CKBE-FM David Tyler.
- In 1995, the song was covered by Patricia Paay for album Time of My Life and by Chris Connor on her 1995 release Blue Moon released by Alfa Jazz.
- In 1995, a punk rock version of the song was played by The Ramones live at the 1995 MTV movie awards
- In 1995, Disney's Sing Along Songs used a girl version that used a new montage with various Disney lovers. Performed by Lillix.
- 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 2000, Dave & Domino sings a Eurobeat version on Eurobeat Disney.
- In 2001, Michael Crawford sang this song as part of a medley on The Disney Album.
- 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 January 25, his birthday.
- On the 2011 album V-Rock Disney, which features visual kei artists covering Disney songs, Aoi from Ayabie covered this song.[8]
- In 2011, the Christian punk band Stellar Kart covered it on their Disney EP A Whole New World.
- 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
- Jackie Evancho covered the song on her 2012 album Songs from the Silver Screen.
- In 2012, Adam Young of Owl City released a shortened version of the song on his Tumblr blog.[9]
- On 2012 album Disney - Koe no Oujisama, which features various Japanese voice actors covering Disney songs, this song was covered by Hikaru Midorikawa
- In 2014, Richard & Adam performed the song alongside Attraction on the semi-final of the eighth series of Britain's Got Talent. The song will also feature on their album Richard & Adam at the Movies.
Charts[edit][]
Weekly charts[edit][]
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Year-end charts[edit][]
Certifications[edit][]
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