Beauty and the Beast: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
| Beauty and the Beast: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||||||||||||||||
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| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | ||||||||||||||||
| Released | October 29, 1991 (1991 Original release) December 18, 2001 (2001 Special Edition reissue) September 14, 2010 (2010 re-release) |
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| Recorded | 1990-1991 | |||||||||||||||
| Genre | Soundtrack, film score | |||||||||||||||
| Length | 50:12 (1991 Original Release) 1:04:43 (2001 Special Edition Reissue) 53:26 (2010 Re-release) |
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| Label | Walt Disney | |||||||||||||||
| Producer |
Howard Ashman Alan Menken Walter Afanasieff Robert Buchanan |
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| Singles from Beauty and the Beast: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||||||||||||||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Filmtracks | |
| Sputnikmusic | 4.5/5 |
Beauty and the Beast: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the official soundtrack album to the 1991 Disney animated feature film, Beauty and the Beast. Originally released on October 29, 1991, by Walt Disney Records, the album's first half – tracks 2 to 9 – generally contains the film's musical numbers, all of which were written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman, while its latter half – tracks 10 to 14 – features its musical score, composed solely by Menken. While the majority of the album's content remains within the musical theatre genre, its songs have also been influenced by French, classical, pop and Broadway music. Credited to Various Artists, Beauty and the Beast: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack features performances by the film's main cast – Paige O'Hara, Richard White, Jesse Corti, Jerry Orbach, Angela Lansbury and Robby Benson – in order of appearance. Additionally, the album features recording artists Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson, who perform a pop rendition of the film's title and theme song, "Beauty and the Beast", which simultaneously serves as the soundtrack's only single.
Following a difficult period during where Walt Disney Feature Animation struggled to release successful animated feature films, the studio, inspired by their most recent animated success The Little Mermaid (1989), decided to adapt the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" into an animated musical film after a non-musical adaptation had been attempted that failed to impress Disney CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg ordered that production on the film be started over from scratch, hiring songwriting team Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who had just recently completed scoring The Little Mermaid, to write the film's songs. Dion and Bryson were hired to record a pop version of – and draw media attention to – the film's title song. Ashman, who was initially hesitant to join the project, died of AIDS before the film's completion and the album's release.
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