How Does a Moment Last Forever marks the first collaboration between Menken and Rice in over two decades; the last time they worked together had been in the "Beauty and the Beast" musical. Menken believes that the songs he and Rice had written for the musical would not have translated well to the screen due to the structural differences between the two formats. One of at least nine significant changes made to the film specifically for the remake, "How Does a Moment Last Forever" was conceived to explain Belle's backstory. Her quest to find out her mother's fate serves, in the plot, as a foundation for
How Does a Moment Last Forever songs from the Broadway musical adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast" in the remake. However, Disney decided to recruit composer Alan Menken and lyricist Tim Rice to write entirely new songs for the film instead. Original "Beauty and the Beast" composer Menken reunited with Rice, with whom he had previously collaborated on the 1994 musical to write three new songs for the remake, including "How Does a Moment Last Forever", whose original title was "Our Song Lives On". Rice once again replaced Howard Ashman, the animated film's lyricist, which had died from HIV-related complications in 1991. The live action film