Released May 31, 1994 Length 46:21 The Lion King
(1994) Pocahontas
(1995) Genres Pop music, World music | Recorded Fall 1993 – May 1994 Label Walt Disney Release date 31 May 1994 | |
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Studio Media Ventures, Los Angeles
Ocean Way Studios, Los Angeles
Snake Ranch, London
Angel Studios, London
BOP studios, Mmabatho Artists Rowan Atkinson, Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane Awards Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children Producers Hans Zimmer, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Chris Thomas Similar Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, Elton John's Greatest, Sleeping with the Past, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Rhythm of the Pride Lands | ||
The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the original motion picture soundtrack for the 1994 Disney animated film, The Lion King. It contains songs from the film written by Elton John and Tim Rice, and a score composed by Hans Zimmer. Elton John has a dual role of performer for several tracks. Additional performers include Carmen Twillie, Jason Weaver, Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeremy Irons, Cheech Marin, Jim Cummings, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, and Sally Dworsky. The album was released on May 30, 1994 on CD and audio cassette. The soundtrack was recorded in three different countries: the U.S., the U.K. and South Africa. It is the best-selling soundtrack album to an animated film in the United States with over 7 million copies sold, with 4,934,000 copies sold in 1994.
Contents
An expanded version of The Lion King soundtrack, featuring 30 minutes of previously-unreleased material, was released as part of the Walt Disney Records: The Legacy Collection series on June 24, 2014. In 2014, Hot Topic released a vinyl picture disc of the soundtrack.
Track listing
All music composed by Elton John and Tim Rice (Tracks 1–5, 10-14), and Hans Zimmer (Tracks 6-9).
The Legacy Collection release
Walt Disney Records released an expanded edition of The Lion King soundtrack containing an additional thirty minutes of previously-unheard material from the film, as well as a collection of demo versions of cues. This revision contains a new remastered mix by Alan Meyerson.
Chart and commercial success
The soundtrack shipped over 10 million copies in the U.S. and eventually went 10x platinum in 1995, thus becoming the biggest-selling soundtrack ever from an animated film. Its certification was promoted to Diamond when the award was instituted in 1999. According to Nielsen Soundscan the soundtrack, as of April 2014, has sold a total of 7.873 million copies in the US. It is also the best-selling vinyl album in the Nielsen SoundScan era (starting 1991), with 1,043,000 copies sold as of June 2014.
In 2010, Rhapsody called it one of the all-time great Disney & Pixar Soundtracks.
Songs
1Circle of Life / Nants’ ingonyama3:59
2I Just Can't Wait to Be KingLaura Williams2:51
3Be PreparedWhoopi Goldberg - Cheech Marin - Jim Cummings3:40