Songoftheday 4/3/18 - Tale as old as time true as it can be, barely even friends then somebody bends unexpectedly...
from the album Beauty and the Beast (Original Soundtrack) (1991) and Celine Dion (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's song of the day paired up two artists from different worlds, much like the movie it came from. French-Canadian singer Celine Dion had finally broke through in the English-language pop market with her Unison album, which scored her a top ten hit in the U.S. with the ballad "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" as well as a top-40 follow-up in "(If There Was) Any Other Way", that climbed to the top ten of Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. Soul veteran Peabo Bryson, who released hit debut album back in 1976, had landed his own top ten solo hit in the summer of 1984 with "If Ever You're In My Arms Again". In 1991, he topped the R&B chart in Billboard with the quiet-storm gem "Can You Stop The Rain". At that time, Disney Animation Studios was riding high on the success of the first movie of their "Renaissance" period, The Little Mermaid, which had sold incredibly well and won Academy Awards for its music, including Best Song for "Under The Sea". While none of the songs reached mainstream radio in America, the soundtrack climbed into the top-40 on Billboard's Albums Sales chart (#32) in 1989. The next big release from Disney was a retelling of the fairy tale Beauty & The Beast two years later, with Paige O'Hara and Robby Benson voicing the respective titular characters. In the supporting cast was Broadway and screen legend Angela Lansbury, who plays Mrs. Potts, the cook who was magically transformed into a teapot. The music from the film, like Little Mermaid, was written by Harold Ashman and Alan Menken, who gave the title theme to Lansbury to perform during the movie. Hesitant to take on the ballad, she nevertheless recorded it in one take to grace the movie. Meanwhile, Disney contracted Dion and Bryson to record a "pop" version of the song to be in the credits, on the soundtrack, and released to radio. It would become the first "Disney movie song" a new generation would hear on the airwaves...
"Beauty and the Beast" became both Celine and Peabo's second top ten pop hit in April of 1989, sadly the month after Ashman passed away from complications from AIDS. The song spent four weeks at #3 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, lasting 34 weeks on the list. Internationally, Dion and Bryson's version also made the top ten in the UK (#9) and New Zealand (#8), and reached the top-40 in Ireland (#12), Australia (#17), the Netherlands (#20), Canada (#23), and Belgium (#36). Their single would go on and win a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Duo/Group Performance, and be nominated for both Song and Record of the Year (losing both to Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven").
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The original movie version from Angela Lansbury ended up winning Ashman and Menken an Academy Award for best song, and remains one of the best Disney recordings to date..
At the 1992 Oscars, where Beauty and the Beast made history by being the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, Angela, Celine, and Peabo arrived to perform the song...
Peabo and Celine also sang "Beauty and the Beast" at the Grammys...
Now here's Celine and Peabo singing "Beauty and the Beast" at a concert from uber-producer David Foster in 1994...
In 2017, a live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast was released starring Emma Watson, with Ariana Grande and John Legend reprising Celine and Peabo's performance. Their version went to #20 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart, and #87 on the pop Hot 100...
Finally, back to Celine and Peabo from her 1995 Color Of My Love tour...
Up tomorrow: Rapper baby talks his way into the top-40.
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