Can You Feel The Love Tonight

Album

Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2019)

Label

Hollywood Records

Genre

Stage & Screen

Duration

1:00

Composer(s)

Elton John;Tim Rice

Entered Chart

May 21, 1994

Peak Date

Aug 6, 1994

Released

2 May 1994

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Hollywood 64543

B-Side

"Hakuna Matata"

This was featured in the Disney movie The Lion King when the main character, Simba the Lion, falls in love with his childhood friend Nala, to the dismay of his friends Timon and Pumbaa. This version was performed by the voice actors in the film (including Nathan Lane, who voiced Timon); the Elton John version plays over the end credits of the film. Working on The Lion King was a welcome opportunity for Elton, who had a say in how the songs he wrote for the film were used. He contributed most of the songs on the soundtrack, including "Circle Of Life," which was also hit (Elton says that "Circle" is a better song and more deserving of the Academy Award). Just a few years out of rehab, the soundtrack provided a career resurgence for Elton and led to more work writing for musicals - he would later write for Aida and Billy Elliot. Elton wrote the music, Tim Rice wrote the lyrics. Rice made a name for himself putting lyrics to showtunes by Andrew Lloyd Webber. They wrote songs for Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ, Superstar, and Evita. Like Elton, Tim Rice has been knighted. Elton had the Academy Award for Best Original Song locked up tight in 1995 with this song, along with two of his other Lion King contributions - "Circle of Life" and "Hakuna Matata" - nominated along with "Look What Love Has Done" by Patty Smyth (from the movie Junior) and "Make Up Your Mind" by Randy Newman (from The Paper). "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" was the winner, and Elton performed the song at the ceremony. After the ceremony, Elton hosted his lavish after-party for the third year; the event was a benefit for his AIDS foundation. Elton won the award again in 2020 for the Rocketman song "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again." That one he wrote with Bernie Taupin, earning Taupin his first Oscar. This is performed as part of the Lion King Broadway show - a lavish, wildly successful production based on the movie. It is also featured in the Lion King show at the Animal Kingdom park at Disney World. Report this ad A #1 Adult Contemporary hit, this was the most played song on US radio and TV in 1994. Kiki Dee, Rick Astley, and Gary Barlow sang backup. Kiki Dee sang a duet with Elton on the '70s hit "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," Astley had a series of hits in the early '90s, and Barlow was a member of the group Take That. This won the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal, marking just the third Grammy win for Elton. Elton reworked a handful of the film's classic songs for the 2019 live-action/CG remake, directed by Jon Favreau. Like the original version, Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) introduce the tune and it segues into a romantic duet between Simba (Donald Glover) and Nala (Beyoncé). The song was originally supposed to be a parody by Timon and Pumbaa, but Elton was keen on singing a big romantic number, so it was reworked as a love song about Simba and Nala's budding romance. According to lyricist Tim Rice, the Disney executives weren't sold on Elton's demos. "In retrospect, I can tell now, they weren't very excited about the demos," he told the Los Angeles Times. "We had a lovely demo from Elton singing 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight,' but it's Elton singing at the piano. 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." Rice had to get creative to help the bigwigs see how the songs would function in the movie. "I went into the studio and redid a couple demos on my own with some other singers," he explained. "I turned 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight' into a duet with Lea Salonga and Brad Kane, the two voices from Aladdin. I just hired them as session singers, and I put in some jungle noises. I thought, 'Well, if it doesn't work then I won't tell anyone about it.' And I did another for the song 'I Just Can't Wait To Be King.' But it showed them that you had to see beyond just Elton doing the songs." Brian Wilson recorded this for his 2011 album, In The Key Of Disney. Beyoncé and Donald Glover (who sometimes records under the name of Childish Gambino) performed this for the 2019 live-action remake of The Lion King. The pair laid down their parts separately, as Glover was working in London on Solo: A Star Wars Story at the time. So while Beyoncé recorded her vocals in the States, Glover did his at Abbey Road Studios. Beyoncé and Donald Glover play Nala and Simba, respectively in the movie. They are joined on the new version of "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen, who play Timon and Pumbaa, respectively.

There's a calm surrender to the rush of day
When the heat of a rolling world can be turned away
An enchanted moment, and it sees me through
It's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you

And can you feel the love tonight
It is where we are
It's enough for this wide eyed wanderer
That we got this far
And can you feel the love tonight
How it's laid to rest
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds
Believe the very best

There's a time for everyone if they only learn
That the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn
There's a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star crossed voyager beats in time with yours

And can you feel the love tonight
It is where we are
It's enough for this wide eyed wanderer
That we got this far
And can you feel the love tonight
How it's laid to rest
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds
Believe the very best
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds
Believe the very best