“Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, Beauty and The Beast…” These are lyrics from the original Beauty & The Beast song also from the hit animated film of the same name.
Timelessly, and originally, song by Peabo Bryson and Celine Dion the song has gone on to become legendary, symbolizing how to very opposite people can find true love.
We were ecstatic to learn back in 2015 that Disney was making a live action version of Beauty & The Beast, similar to how it did with Maleficent, The Jungle Book, and Cinderella. Reboots tend mean rebooted everything, including music. We were skeptical at first of who would be redoing the titular song, but we are pleased to learn John Legend and Ariana Grande will be performing the duet!
via Liquid Soul
GRAMMY nominated and multi-platinum selling artist Ariana Grande and 10-time GRAMMY, Oscar®-winning, and multi-platinum selling singer/songwriter/ musician John Legend are set to perform a new rendition of the classic Oscar and GRAMMY-winning duet “Beauty and the Beast” as the title track for Disney’s upcoming soundtrack to the live-action film adaptation “Beauty and the Beast.” The song will also be featured in the film and on the original motion picture soundtrack which will be released on Walt Disney Records on March 10, 2017. The pre-order is available now at http://disneymusic.co/BeautySndtrkP.
The enchanting ballad, originally performed by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson featuring eight-time Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken’s beautiful melody and two-time Oscar-winner Howard Ashman’s unforgettable lyrics, received an Academy Award®, Golden Globe® and GRAMMY Award, among other accolades, upon its release in 1991.
The new rendition of the classic song is produced by GRAMMY-winning veteran Ron Fair, whose music career spans 37 years as a major-label record company leader and accomplished producer, arranger, recording engineer and musical director. Fair was brought in to produce by Disney’s President of Music & Soundtracks, Mitchell Leib, who also brought Grande and Legend to the project. The history of collaboration between Leib and Fair in film music goes back to the highly-successful Pretty Womansoundtrack. “Ron was the first and only choice to make this particular record,” says Leib. “No one is a better vocal producer and he also has a great understanding of the filmmaking dynamic.”
Fair’s recordings have won six GRAMMY Awards and have been nominated 18 times. Fair discovered and shepherded Christina Aguilera, selling over 50 million albums and winning numerous GRAMMY Awards. He A&R’d Aguilera’s first five albums and championed the Black Eyed Peas to 27 million albums, 4 number-ones and multiple GRAMMY wins, as well as co-producing and arranging the strings on their global breakthrough # 1 hit “Where is The Love?” “Stepping into the shoes of an Oscar and GRAMMY Award-winning classic is not small potatoes. But with today’s two greatest plutonium singers – John Legend and Ariana Grande – we are bringing the song back with a new school-old school fresh treatment that shows the soulfulness and power of what a great melody and lyric can inspire,” says Fair.
The music video will be directed by Dave Meyers, the innovative visionary whose long-time collaborations with major artists like P!nk, Janet Jackson, Ice Cube and Britney Spears have resulted in dozens of award nominations and many wins, including a GRAMMY in 2005 for Best Music Video and 11 MTV Video Music Awards, including one for Katy Perry’s smash hit “Firework.” He recently directed the music video for P!nk’s hit single “Just Like Fire” from the Walt Disney Records soundtrack for Alice Through The Looking Glass.
Menken also provides the film score, with new recordings of the original songs written by Menken and Ashman. Also featured are three new songs written by Menken and veteran lyricist and three time Oscar winner Tim Rice. The original motion picture soundtrack will be released by Walt Disney Records on March 10, 2017. A pre-order of the soundtrack is available now at http://disneymusic.co/BeautySndtrkP.
We will definitely be pre-ordering our copy of the soundtrack and hope you will too! Be sure you catch Beauty & The Beast in theaters everywhere on Friday, March 17, 2017! Check out the original song below!
