alan menken sang ariel songs in the little mermaid.
alan menken sang ariel songs in the little mermaid.
who sang ariel songs in the little mermaid?
alan menken
Na
Na
written in 1986, "part of your world" was the first song lyricist howard ashman and composer alan menken wrote for "the little mermaid", although menken had not yet been enlisted as ashman's composer when the song was first conceived. directly inspired by broadway's most successful musicals, ashman believed that "the little mermaid"'s story would benefit from at least one song that serves as its heroine's "inner diary of thoughts". having always intended for ariel to perform a song in her grotto, directors and screenwriters ron clements and john musker originally asked ashman to write a song in which ariel declares her love for prince eric by singing to a statue of the character, but ashman suggested that a song depicting the character's fascination with the human world would be a stronger alternative. ashman explained to the filmmakers that "part of your world" would be ariel's "i want" song, likening it to moments in stage musicals during which the heroine sings about her dreams so that the audience can begin to care about the character and her journey. menken believes that disney had not yet included explicit "i want" songs in the studio's films prior to "the little mermaid", making "part of your world" the first time one had been written intentionally for a disney film. however, disney princesses had technically been singing "i want" songs since "snow white and the seven dwarfs" (1937) and "cinderella" (1950). observing structural similarities between the song and "somewhere that's green" from their musical "little shop of horrors" (1982), the songwriters nicknamed "part of your world" "somewhere that's dry" because they believe it resembles an "underwater version" of the "little shop of horrors" song. additionally, ashman had written a song entitled "disneyland" with composer marvin hamlisch for their broadway musical "smile" (1986) in which a young girl, much like ariel, sings about regularly watching disney anthology series as a means of escaping her troubled childhood. menken identified the musical motif he composed for the beginning of the ballad as his favorite part of the song. ashman debuted "part of your world" for clements and musker at his apartment in greenwich village, manhattan. only the directors' second time meeting ashman and first time meeting menken, menken provided the piano accompaniment while ashman sang ariel's melody himself, instead of their traditional method of menken singing lead vocals. moved by ashman's demonstration, musker recalled that the lyricist gazed up towards the ceiling as though it were the human world itself as he "became ariel before our eyes" and "poured out his heart in song", helping them visualize "this far-off place of wonder that so entranced this little mermaid.”
part of your world