Can You Feel the Love Tonight

"Can You Feel the Love Tonight" is a song from Disney's 1994 animated feature film The Lion King composed by English musician Elton John with lyrics by Tim Rice. Released as a single in May 1994, the song was a hit in the UK, peaking at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart, and achieved success in the United States, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was a number-one hit in Canada and France. At the 67th Academy Awards in March 1995, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The same year, the song also won John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Completing a trifecta, the song also won a Golden Globe at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards held in 1995 for Best Song - Motion Picture. Background and release The song, written by Tim Rice and Elton John, was performed in the film by Kristle Edwards (also known as Kristle Murden), Joseph Williams, Sally Dworsky, Nathan Lane, and Ernie Sabella, while another version used in the film's closing credits was performed by Elton John. It won the 1994 Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. It also earned Elton John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. The single version contains background vocals by Rick Astley, Gary Barlow and Kiki Dee. It was planned to be sung only by Timon and Pumbaa, but John disliked the comical nature of the concept as he declared that the song was meant to follow "Disney's tradition of great love songs", and that it could "express the lions' feelings for each other far better than dialogue could". The final result was the song mainly sung by an off-screen voice (Edwards) with short lines from Simba (Williams) and Nala (Dworsky), and the beginning and end parts by Timon (Lane) and Pumbaa (Sabella). It also included Zulu vocals that, while mostly muted in the on-screen version, were much more prominently featured in the audio-only releases. Within around one and a half months before the film was released in June 1994, John's recording was released throughout radio stations as a commercial single and entered the US Billboard Hot 100. The music video of John's recording, directed by Matthew Amos, contains montages of John performing the song and scenes from the film.