An Interview with Alan Menken | Musicnotes Song Spotlight

during the beat first came our way when Howard and I were both working on Little Mermaid and it was going really well on Little Mermaid Disney was obviously very happy because they said would you like to do a animated musical of Beauty and the Beast and absolutely yeah initially it came it was gonna be a collaboration with I think a a filmmaker who was in England and then it sort of came in house to Disney and when it got going you know for real Howard and I had actually pretty much completed no he had they've completed the entire score of Little Mermaid and unbeknownst to me Howard was was ill and was you know was fighting the HIV symptoms but he was keeping that very quiet and we were a few songs in and then came the Oscars for the Little Mermaid and we we've won that night was a wonderful night at the Governor's Ball Howard said to me I'm so happy but when we get back to New York I we have to have a talk so what what tell me he said no no not not now I'm very happy right now but let me tell you when we get back so I get back and I come to his house and he tells me that basically you know in those days age was a death sentence and we finished the score with that cloud over us and I think it infused a lot about Beauty and the Beast when we actually sat down to write the title song we knew that we had a an assignment that we really never had before but we knew this song had to be not only a song within the movie but also a single and so with that in mind we sat down and it was it's interesting how simplicity can be sometimes the hardest thing and it took us Oh God about an hour and a half to build just to come to that that piece of music that Howard was gonna write the lyric to I think he had some lyric ideas as I was working on it and a few years later actually I remember picking up a cassette tape and remember cassette tapes [Laughter] and I was going to use it to record something I said well let me just listen to what's on here and I listened and it was it was that session where you know we moved closer closer and closer to that piece of music in that lyric and you know the story from there goes we don't we we completed this long the people at Disney loved it the casting of mrs. Potts was still in process and we did two demos one was my demo in my vocal and an arranger that was more pop and one was much more in the voice of mrs. Potts Howard sang that one and was and so we said that they did they sent the tape to Angela Lansbury and she said I don't think it's for me and I said wait a sec wait it's like which tape did you send and you said mine or or Howard's vocal and was Howard's it was my vocal they--it's and I said you have to send Howard's and then she said oh I get it and it was an amazing process and certainly when Angela Lansbury came into the studio was the same day that Jerry Orbach came in to record be our guest it was just amazing day of these you know show business legends singing these songs when Angela came in she was actually very prepared and she came in and there are Mike the conductor at that time was David Friedman had had run through work is the chart with the orchestra and said Angela why don't you just go into the booth and in a sing-along so he can get some balances in the orchestra can get the feel of of performing the song with you and so some just fine she went in and said it to Mike and we said okay let's just you know just for sound let's get it and David put his hands down and you know the intro began and Angela sang and in front to back and it was just incredible any pressure I would have felt from you no I haven't got same assignment on a Latin I'm writing the song that would be the single was incredibly overshadowed by the fact that Howard had Howard Ashman had passed away and I was started on a new collaboration with with Tim Rice and there had been this day which I didn't know about was called Black Friday and Black Friday was the day when Jeffrey Katzenberg met with the the animators and the writers and was decision made that really wanted to move the story in a different direction so some of the songs remain friend like me remained Arabian Nights remained a prince ali was able to stay but it had to be new songs and they were going to be written with me and collaboration with Tim Rice and actually what I did was I knew I was going over to London to work with Tim and I what I wanted to do was send him a track and a dummy lyric on the three songs and the three numbers were good one was going to be a marketplace number when as Aladdin is running the marketplace and it's you know and like stop thief and so that became one jump ahead one was a song for virtue for which did not make it into the movie was it's called why mate and then there was this magic carpet salt I remember thinking of Tim and actually thinking his work on Evita with with Andrew Lloyd Webber and I that's sort of influenced those parallel sixt's da da da da da da da da don't cry for me Argentina it sort of influenced in a way God just in a very subtle way it led me in a kind of that kind of Spanish Latin place and so I sent the three tracks to Tim with dummy lyric I sent him that one with actually the dummy lyric I wrote was the world at my feet and him very wisely thought maybe the word feet doesn't belong in the title of a love song [Laughter] before I write a song I need a lot of information obviously want to establish what is the tone of the entire score what is the moment we're writing who sings that what happens during this moment what are we seeing how are we moving story forward so many different considerations to go through what are people's expectations within the collaboration what's the audience expectations are going to be just you know you just try to answer so many questions you know I do before I allow my hands to come near the piano and then once I've answered those questions and I know the style I know the tone I know what's happening then I leave this brain out of it and I kind of let this brain do the thinking you could tell people this piece of advice it still may take a while to take it in and that is that the most important thing you need to do is to get yourself out of the way it's not about you it's about the characters and the story it's about the assignment for the song always be ready to throw something out nothing is precious except your talent so don't ever just hang on to one song or one project and go I've got to get that to happen you want to have a desire to make something happen but you always have to be ready to just move on because your talent is what is precious being in love with the process is good being in love with your own material not so good don't fall in love with your own material [Music]

Channel: Musicnotes

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Keywords: alan menken, interview, alan menken interview, disney, howard ashman, angela lansbury, beauty and the beast, the little mermaid, musicnotes, sheet music, exclusive, composer, songwriter, music, musician, aladdin, a whole new world, be our guest, interviews, disney interview, animated movies, disney classic, piano, disney piano

Id: wg7zgmBob5o

Length: 8min 42sec (522 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020