1. History

2. Reception

3. Early production

4. Other languages

5. Festival of the Lion King

6. Cover versions
     We Love Disney  

7. Personnel

8. Charts
    Weekly charts  Year-end charts  Certifications 

9. See also

10. References

11. External links

"Can You Feel the Love Tonight" is a song from Disney's 1994 animated film The Lion King^[1] composed by Elton John with lyrics by Tim Rice.^[2] 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 number 14 on the UK Singles Chart,^[2] and achieved even more success in the US, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was a number-one hit in Canada and France, and it sold 11 million copies worldwide. At the 67th Academy Awards in March 1995 it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The same year the song also won Elton John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

History

The song was performed in the film by Kristle Edwards, Joseph Williams, Sally Dworsky, Nathan Lane, and Ernie Sabella, while another version used in the film's closing credits was performed by Elton John. It won the 1994 Academy Award for Best Original Song,^[2] and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. It also earned Elton John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Within around one and a half months before the film was released in June 1994, John's recording was released throughout radio stations and as a commercial single and entered the Billboard Hot 100.^[4] It became the bestselling single.^[5] The music video of John's recording contains montages of John performing the song and scenes from the film.^[4]

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 "Peter Gunn Theme" playing while they try.

Reception

The single release of John's recording (the closing credits version) peaked at number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart for eight weeks.^[6] It also sold 500,000+ units in France.^[7] In 2016, David Ehrlich of the Rolling Stone magazine ranked John's performance of the song at the 67th Academy Awards (1995) number 12.^[8]

Early production

The song was planned to be sung only by Simba and Nala but in the end the idea was scrapped because the directors decided it was an "unearned" moment between Simba and Nala.{{Citation needed|date=August 2016}}

The song was then planned to be sung this time 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". 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 Zulu vocals that, while mostly muted in the on-screen version, were much more prominently featured in the audio-only releases.^[9]

Other languages

With the usual number of dubs normally released by Disney, for The Lion King a special Zulu dub was made in South Africa. This is not just the only Zulu dub ever made by Disney, but also the only dub made in any African language, other than Arabic.^[10]

Beside the official dubs, several local TV stations made their own dub of the movie, or re-dubbed an existing version, in local languages. Namely: Arabic, Armenian, Austrian German, Crimean Tatar, Kabardian and Nogai.^[11]

Festival of the Lion King

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.

Cover versions

English pop group S Club, Sara Paxton and Elliott Yamin all covered the song for Disneymania, Disneymania 4 and Disneymania 6, respectively. Filipino soprano Vell Baria covered the song in a classical version as a dedication song for the APEC Philippines 2015 was released in her YouTube channel.^[12] Jackie Evancho covered the song for her album Songs from the Silver Screen. Harajuku, a Eurodance band covered a dance version of the song in a 1995 release with singer Stephanie O'Hara, also known as Stefanie Obst, performing vocals.^[13][14][15] Italian trio Il Volo covered the song releasing it in the special edition of their album We Are Love.^[16] In 2017 D-Metal Stars created a Heavy Metal cover of the song on the album "Metal Disney" featuring Mike Vescera and Rudy Sarzo. Beyoncé, Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, and Billy Eichner will perform the song as Nala, Simba, Pumbaa, and Timon, respectively, in the 2019 remake of The Lion King, directed by Jon Favreau.^[17]

We Love Disney

The song was covered in different languages for the series We Love Disney by:

• Christophe Willem for We Love Disney, France in 2013^[18]
• Jason Derulo for We Love Disney, United States in 2015^[19]
• Cakra Khan for {{Interlanguage link multi|We Love Disney, Indonesia|id|3=We Love Disney (edisi Indonesia)}} in 2015^[20]
• Luis Fonsi for We Love Disney, Latin America in 2016^[21]

Personnel

• Elton John: Piano, lead vocals
• Davey Johnstone: Guitar, backing vocals
• Chuck Sabo: Strings, 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

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

See also

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

References

• {{cite interview |subject=Elton John |subject2=Bernie Taupin |interviewer=Timothy White |interviewer2=Craig Rosen |date=4 October 1997 |title=Elton John: 30 Years of Music with Bernie Taupin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1wkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA9&q=%22can%20you%20feel%20the%20love%20tonight%22%20lyrics%20%22elton%20john%22 |magazine=Billboard |accessdate=27 November 2017 }}

External links

• {{YouTube|25QyCxVkXwQ|The Lion King - Can You Feel The Love Tonight}} (official upload by DisneyMusicVEVO)

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