“Elton really let me run riot on it,” Zimmer told The Los Angeles Times. We’ve been listening to Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the South African vocal groups that had been on the Graceland album and a lot of Soweto kind of South African music.” With the feeling that Rice and John’s songs hadn’t captured the essence of the film, composer Hans Zimmer was brought in to arrange the material.
There was a certain leap of faith that we should wait and hear the full arrangement.”Ĭlick to load video Hans Zimmer and Lebo Mĭon Hahn elaborated on the sound the production team were aiming for, “We had been listening to Graceland, the Paul Simon Album. Roy Disney, then vice chairman of the studio, also spoke to The Los Angeles Times, “I think because of the way that Elton does a demo, the songs as we first heard them didn’t sound anything like what’s in the film. I don’t think they could quite relate to it being the voice of the characters… They felt like, ‘Oh, we’re getting Elton John tracks.’ I knew they weren’t, but they didn’t know that.” Speaking to The Los Angeles Times in 1994, Rice remembered the initial misgivings: “We had a lovely demo from Elton singing ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight,’ but it’s Elton singing at the piano. Though John’s songwriting ability was never in question, there were initial concerns that the songs did not evoke the African savanna in the way that they imagined. The plan was that we wouldn’t write the usual Broadway-style Disney score, but try and come up with pop songs that kids would like.”
I was intrigued… The songs had to tell a story. Apparently, Disney were making their first animated film based on an original story rather than an existing work, and Tim wanted me involved. In his 2019 autobiography, Me, Elton John remembered Rice’s original approach, “Ten years after we’d last written a song together, Tim Rice phoned up out of the blue, asking me if I was interested in working with him again. They asked him and to my amazement, Elton said yes.” I said, well, Elton John would be fantastic, but you probably won’t get a hold of him simply because he’s very busy and he hasn’t done a film score like this in 25 years.
“They said choose anybody in the world and choose the best. “The studio asked me if I had any suggestions,” he recalled. Rice set about choosing a writing partner, as he recalled in The Lion King’s original production notes.
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