Commonly identified as the film's theme song, its lyrics describe the relationship between the film's two main characters, Belle and the Beast, and specifically addresses how it has managed to transform them, allowing their friendship (and later, love) to grow. In during which, Lumière, Cogsworth, and Chip watch on.
Lyrics
Tale as old as time
True as it can be
Barely even friends
Then somebody bends
Unexpectedly
Just a little change
Small to say the least
Both a little scared
Neither one prepared
Beauty and the Beast
Ever just the same
Ever a surprise
Ever as before
Ever just as sure
As the sun will rise
Tale as old as time
Tune as old as song
Bittersweet and strange
Finding you can change
Learning you were wrong
Certain as the sun
Rising in the east
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast
The reprise of the song used in the finale begins from the fifth verse.
The reprise used in the 2017 remake contains an additional verse, sung between verses four and five, with new lyrics:
Winter turns to spring
Famine turns to feast
Nature points the way
Nothing left to say
Beauty and the Beast
These additional lyrics were written by Ashman for the original 1991 film but removed from the final version. They were added back for the 2017 film as a nod to Ashman.[1]
Every single verse of the song has five syllables.
Angela Lansbury told The Huffington Post that Ashman and Menken had originally written the song in the style of a rock ballad. Although she enjoyed it, she felt incapable of recording it because of the unfamiliar style in which it was written. She questioned the songwriters' choice in her, asking them, "Are you sure you want me to do this?" She also felt as though her voice she was not in suitable condition to record "Beauty and the Beast", feeling insecure about having to sustain its several "long, extended notes". Ashman and Menken simply advised her "to sing it the way [she] envisioned it". Ultimately, she successfully recorded it in only one take.
Both Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson have included the song on some of their respective greatest hit and compilation albums.
Both American pop group Jump5 and American Idol winner Jordin Sparks have recorded pop renditions of the song for the film's platinum and diamond edition re-releases respectively.
Lansbury, Dion, and Bryson all performed the song live on stage during the 64th Academy Awards. Dion and Bryson performed it also at the Grammy Awards in 1993.
In 2002, the song was covered by the group Jump5 and placed on the CD, Disneymania.
In 2005, Julie Andrews selected the song for her album Julie Andrews Selects Her Favorite Disney Songs.
In 2009, the CD Disney's Dream Pop: Tribute to Tokyo, the song is covered by the group Bright.
In 2010, Jordin Sparks recorded her cover version of the song and filmed an accompanying music video with director Philip Andelman.
In Kingdom Hearts II, an arrangement of the song created by Yoko Shimomura plays during the finale of the episode at the Beast's Castle when the Beast and Belle are dancing on the courtyard of the castle.
The song has been referenced in various Disney works:
A brief minor version can be heard in the score of Enchanted, which, not coincidentally, was also composed by Alan Menken.
In Once Upon a Time, Mr. Gold plays the song when he dances with Belle. It reappears, and in a much fuller orchestrated form, in the Season 6 premiere, as Rumple uses the song in an attempt to awaken Belle from her nightmarish dreamscape.
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