He envisioned “Be Prepared” as the lion pride version of a Nazi rally, Scar playing the bellowing orator to the hyenas’ chanting soldiers. “That’ll intrigue the audience.” The recognized joke at Disney was that The Lion King was “ Hamlet with fur,” but Rice never found himself digging through Shakespeare for inspiration. “A song like that is meant to be funny and sinister,” says Rice. It’s a lighthearted thing for kids to sing.” We knew the song was sung by a lion cub, so it had to be innocent, boppy, and poppy. “Basically, I was just thinking of children playing games,” Rice says of the lyrics. Performed by Jonathan Taylor Thomas stand-in Jason Weaver (who’d previously played Michael Jackson in the 1992 ABC miniseries The Jacksons: An American Dream), “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” was written with ease and sounded the same from pre-production to release. For Rice, Simba’s rousing number became a pillar of the film.
When the composer returns with music, it’s often the lyricist’s job to whittle down words to fit the grooves. From there, it’s about matching subsequent verses to the meter and scansion. When it comes to songwriting, Rice says that he starts with character, molds the plot and action into words, coaxes out a made-up tune in his head, and then writes a verse. “Elton came out with a perfectly good, but lightweight, tune, which suited the lightweight lyrics but not the beginning of the movie.” “I know we did a completely different take on ‘Circle of Life,’ which had a substantially different lyric,” he recalls. Rice wrote the song for a gospel singer, although they toyed with the idea of laying over John’s performance (released with the original soundtrack) or scrapping the completed track altogether. The final number includes South African singer Lebo M performing the opening Zulu lyrics and Carmen Twillie providing female vocals. All of these things are part of the ‘Circle of Life,’” Rice says. “Generations passing on the flame, one generation dying out and a new one taking over, and animals eating each other.
#Circle of life lyrics elton john movie
To help us celebrate the 20th anniversary of the movie this month, Rice walked Vulture through the writing process of five iconic songs from the soundtrack (and one that didn’t make the cut).įrom the beginning, Rice’s intention was to kick off The Lion King with a standalone, non-character song that could encompass the film’s values. The whirlwind process resulted in earworms that continue to burrow into the minds of young people and pop up on karaoke rotations for adults clinging to their Disney-drenched childhoods. Because it was the ’90s, Rice faxed John lyric ideas, which the pianist would record as demos to be mailed back to L.A. When John agreed to join him, the two worked on The Lion King soundtrack from their respective locations: Rice with Disney screenwriters in Los Angeles, and John experimenting with sounds in England. With composer Alan Menken tied up on Aladdin, Rice searched for a second collaborator who could give The Lion King a “rock presence.” Elton John made perfect sense: Rice had penned “Legal Boys” for the musician’s 1982 album Jump Up!, he admired John’s composing talents, and they were both British (“I was biased,” Rice jokes). “I had two shots at it,” he says with a relieved laugh “Both worked, I’m glad to say.” Rice had never written for an animated movie before.
When the songwriter hunkered down to pen tunes for 1994’s The Lion King, he also found himself recruited for Aladdin, taking over after the sudden passing of lyricist Howard Ashman. Music video by Elton John performing Circle of Life.Broadway lyricist Tim Rice, whose credits include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Chess, and Aida, is more than just a wordsmith - he’s also an adept juggler. It was also nominated for Best Song at the 1994 Academy Awards. The song features in the iconic opening sequence of Walt Disney’s The Lion King and this music video features alternative lyrics from the soundtrack version. “Circle of Life” is performed and composed by Elton John, with lyrics by Tim Rice.
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