Music Fridays 61: Beauty and The Beast

Hello & welcome back.  Recently,  I got to see Beauty and The Beast onstage and it was awesome.  I thought about dedicating this entire Music Fridays to the music of the play as it is that good but then I thought I don't want to ignore the movie either.  So the best solution that I came up with is to look at 2 songs from the film, a cover and two songs from the play. Albeit, the two songs from the play tie into each as one is a 

reprise but I feel to understand the full emotion of that song the reprise is needed.  

Something There






I have to say that in terms of songs from the movie, I always feel that this one gets overlooked.  I think part of that is there are so many good songs in the film and then we have this one which is just a quiet moment compared to the others that feel big.  Since I reviewed this film, this song has grown me a lot more.  It is actually a good song and I'll take it over Human Again any day of the week. Yeah, not a fan of the film version of that song.


Beauty and The Beast







Here we go.  How could I not include this song?  I don't know if there's enough moments for a Top 6 Dancing Scenes In a Disney film but this would probably take the top spot.  I get chills each time I listen to this version because Angela Lansbury puts her soul and heart into this performance.  It's strange, this is a song that makes me happy yet cry on the inside at the same time.   I guess that goes to show how much I love this song.



Be Our Guest - On The Record





Consider this a sampling of what's come to come in the following weeks.  Anyways as for this song,  it's strange I want to like this version because it does something clever with the song by having it be sung in a different language and I 'm assuming French because of the film but even though I'm  very familiar with this song,  it just feels odd to hear this be sung in a language other than the one I'm used to.  That doesn't mean it's bad but I find myself having a hard time enjoying it until it transitions into English.

If I Can't Love Her







Here's the song from the play I was telling you about.  This song comes in the first act after Beast overhears Belle say something about him that hurts him and makes him feel that she will never love him and more importantly that he'll never learn to love.  This and the reprise are hands down my favorite song from the play because I feel that they add another layer to Beast that makes seem more human than he was in the film and just having him reflect on his past actions that led him to this event makes me sympathize with the character  more.  It's almost as if he's given up and given in.  Which is sad but I can understand why he'd do that.


If I Can't Love Her (Reprise)






The reprise comes after the dance scene and when Belle sees her papa is in danger on the Enchanted Mirror and Beast lets her go. This was one of the most beautiful moments when Beast lets her go and says that she's no longer his prisoner and hasn't been for a long time.  I also find this version very somber because Beast has finally fallen in love but he's know that he needs to let Belle go to help her father and he's torn up because he wants Belle to stay with him but he understands what she needs to do and the lyrics while they say She Can't Love Me, those are misleading in a sense because Belle does love Beast but Beast is just hurt and doesn't know what to do.



I hope you've enjoyed these songs from Beauty and The Beast as much as I have. Join me next week as I start a special 2-part Music Fridays taking a look at the music of one of my  favorite Disney soundtracks as we go...