Alan Menken Reflects on Writing the Title Song for 'Beauty and the Beast'

Composer Alan Menken shares the story behind one of Disney's most iconic songs, 'Beauty and the Beast.'

Transcript

00:00Tale as old as time, true as it can be.

00:08Beauty and the Beast, title song, 1991.

00:11By that time, Howard Ashman already

00:14had a terminal AIDS diagnosis.

00:16But he worked through illness during its creation.

00:20Well, the essence of the song has a few essences in it.

00:22One is that you have Mrs. Potts singing to Chip.

00:27So it's a mother singing like a comforting lullaby

00:33to her son about the enduring power of love.

00:36Besides that, you have a sense of time passing, like a clock ticking.

00:47To give it kind of a timeless quality.

00:51Howard passed away before he was able to see

00:54the final Beauty and the Beast feature.

00:57Those moments of writing these songs were so infused

01:01with both the beauty of the moment

01:04and the pain of the ephemeral nature of life.