B-side "Trashin' the Camp" Format CD single Length 4:17 | Released June 15, 1999 Recorded 1998 | |
Genre Pop rock, pop, soft rock, adult contemporary | ||
"You'll Be in My Heart" is a song by Phil Collins, from the 1999 Disney animated feature Tarzan. It appeared on Tarzan: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack as well as various other Disney compilations. A version of the single performed by Glenn Close also appears on the soundtrack.
Contents
- Production and context
- Critical reception and awards
- Personnel
- Charts
- Other languages
- In other media
- References
A demo version with Collins playing piano and singing is featured as a bonus on the 2-DVD Special Edition of Tarzan, along with "I Will Follow", "Celebration", "6/8 Demo" and "Rhythm Piece" which became "Strangers Like Me", "Son of Man" and "Trashin' the Camp". "6/8 Demo" was not featured in the movie.
The music video for the song was directed by Kevin Godley.
Production and context
Though he ended up also performing the song "You'll Be In My Heart", Collins was originally hired by Disney as a songwriter. Given his history as a drummer for the rock band Genesis, he appealed to the Disney production crew, who "wanted a strong jungle beat to accompany Tarzan's adventures". This "ballad" is one of five original songs he wrote for the film.
The song, originally called "Lullaby" is used in a scene when Tarzan's adoptive gorilla mother Kala sings that her baby should stop crying because she will protect her baby, and keep him safe and warm. She says everything will be fine and she tells him that "you will be in my heart always". The song is about "how love is a bond that cannot be broken".
In the movie the song ends on the first verse, the full version of the song on the soundtrack album notes that others don't understand why a mother and child who are so different can love each other. When destiny calls, the child is told he must be strong even if the parent is not with him. The song is one of only two songs within Disney's Tarzan to have a part performed by an actual character (the other being "Trashin' the Camp" which the character's role in the song can be classified as scat singing). The rest of the songs were performed by Collins himself and overlaid into the movie. The full song is finally played all together during the end credits.
In the 2006 stage version, the song is performed by Kala with the ensemble, while a reprise is performed by Kala and Tarzan when the latter "decides to join the human world". This was because the omniscience of Collins' songs did not translate too well, so the song along with Two Worlds, "perform similar thematic and character introductions on stage".
Critical reception and awards
Manilla Standard said Collins "waxes poetic" with the song. The Disney Song Encyclopedia deemed it an "uptempo ballad" and "tender song". American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle said that Merle Dandridge, who sang this song as the role of Tarzan's adoptive mother Kala in the Broadway version, had "the best song". American Literature on Stage and Screen: 525 Works and Their Adaptations said this song was "contemporary sounding yet [its] rhythmic momentum blended beautifully with the pulsating sounds of the jungle". Billboard said the song ran "in the same vein" as another Collins song "Can't Stop Loving You". Musical Experience in Our Lives: Things We Learn and Meanings We Make recounted a personal story of how the song has a special meaning to a mother/daughter relationship involving fetus-singing. Similar stories were recounted by two other sources.
Soon after the song was released, it was already "being touted as an Oscar contender". The song went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Collins performed the song live at that year's ceremony. The song also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, but lost to Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger" from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
Personnel
Charts
The song became very popular and received steady airplay". "You'll Be in My Heart", spent nineteen non consecutive weeks at number one on the Adult Contemporary charts ("the longest time ever up to that point") and peaked at #21 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The song was Collins's first appearance on the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100 chart since 1994's "Everyday". The track peaked at #17 in the UK Singles Chart, continuing his success that had not stopped after "Everyday".
Other languages
The entire Tarzan soundtrack, and therefore "You'll Be in My Heart", was also written and performed by Phil Collins in various other languages beside English, namely German, French, Spanish and Italian. In the Hungarian, Norwegian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay, Swedish and Portuguese versions, the whole soundtracks were performed by the Hungarian singer Akos, the Norwegian singer Tor Endresen, the Brazilian singer Ed Motta, Japanese singer Masayuki Sakamoto, Chinese singer Wakin Chau, Malaysian singer Zainal Abidin, Swedish singer Pelle Ankarberg and Portuguese singer Luís Represas, respectively. The Portuguese version, however, includes the original credits' song. Because of the multiple recordings, a Spanish version of the song, "En Mi Corazón Vivirás", marks Collins' only appearance on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks. The song charted at #32.
On German television, he sang a translation of "You'll Be in My Heart" called "Dir Gehört Mein Herz".