Elton’s Movie Music
It’s been thirty years since The Lion King movie came out. Elton and Tim Rice‘s Can You Feel The Love Tonight nabbed the Oscar for Best Original Song. But did you know Elton helped choose one of the cast members? That was Jason Weaver.
Elton decided Jason should portray Simba after seeing him play Michael Jackson in a miniseries about the Jackson family. So Jason wound up singing I Just Can’t Wait to be King in the film.
Inner sleeve artwork for song “I’ve Seen That Movie Too” from 1973 gatefold edition of Elton’s most commercially-successful album, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”
Here are other projects with Elton’s music:
• Friends, 1971. Elton and Bernie Taupin wrote the soundtrack, and their album got a Grammy nomination for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture.
We don’t know about Elton, but Bernie didn’t hold onto his Friends Grammy nomination certificate, as it was sold by Julien’s Auctions for $640 in 2018.
• Aloha, Bobby and Rose, 1975. The soundtrack included Elton/Bernie classics such as Tiny Dancer and Bennie and the Jets.
• FernGully: The Last Rainforest, 1992. Elton sang Some Other World for the animated flick, and his writing partner was Bruce Roberts.
• The Road to El Dorado in 2000. As with The Lion King, Elton’s writing partner was Tim Rice.
One of the songs, Someday Out of the Blue, reached the fifth spot on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
• Mona Lisa Smile (2003) for which Elton sang The Heart of Every Girl, and starring Julia Roberts.
• 27 Dresses, 2008. Bennie and the Jets is played, while a couple of characters sing (badly) over it.
• Gnomeo and Juliet, 2011.
Elton and Bernie wrote a couple of new tunes. One of them, Hello Hello, was a Golden Globe nominee for Best Original Song.
Gnomeo and Juliet location manager David Seaton told Elton John World he was asked to search for gardens full of gnomes. And Lior Noy, the head of Garden Fun, which created souvenirs like the Elton John gnome, shared the process with us. That included changing colours and adding more glitter.
• Sherlock Gnomes, 2018. There was quite a cast, with players including Emily Blunt, Ozzy Osbourne, Mary J Blige (singing Stronger Than I Ever Was), and Johnny Depp.
• Rocketman, 2019, starring Taron Egerton.
Elton and Bernie shared an Oscar for (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again, which was deemed Best Original Song.
Of course, Elton himself has appeared on the big screen. Tune in to Elton John World for more on this soon!
