Published on Feb 15, 1998
Come here, children, gather ’round the computer as Uncle Bob
tells you about the soundtrack to a movie you’ve all seen or are
begging your parents to buy you the video of. (Don’t worry, Mom and
Dad, I’ll watch my language.)
Alan Menken has been on a roll the past few years, both with his
late songwriting partnet Howard Ashman (
The Little Mermaid) and with such collaborators as Elton
John and Tim Rice. His latest work,
Hercules, pairs him up with lyricist David Zippel, and while
it’s not as strong as some recent Disney soundtracks, it is very
enjoyable.
One person I know once complained to me that the main tracks in
the movie were done in a gospel style – never mind the fact that
gospel wasn’t around in ancient Greece. This is a definite grown-up
complaint; you have to allow both Disney and the songwriters a bit
of a poetic license when it comes to the music. (Plus, I’ve heard
re-creations of music in ancient Greece, in some of their plays –
it would drive the kids to tears and the parents to sleep out of
boredom. Trust me – the gospel is a better choice.)
Even Michael Bolton, whom some consider to be the antithesis of
real music, puts in an admirable performance on the single from the
soundtrack, “Go The Distance”. ‘Course, it’s really hard to slam
any single from a Disney movie – they’ve been very solid efforts
over the last decade.
What is surprising about
Hercules is the number of vocal songs – or rather, the small
number. Not including the single or the spoken-word intro by
Charlton Heston, there are only ten songs highlighting vocals –
three of these inter-related (“The Gospel Truth” numbers). Having
not seen the movie yet (sorry to my friends at Disney – I’ll rent
it soon!), I have to wonder about the placement of the songs in the
film – I’m used to Disney films with numerous vocal performances.
This just seems, well, sparse.
Of these numbers, it’s surprising to hear the love song
performed outside of a true ballad style (with Susan Egan handling
the main vocal chores). The movie version of the single “Go The
Distance,” featuring Roger Bart as the singing voice of Hercules,
is okay, though I thought it stretched a little too long with the
reprise. Even Danny DeVito does a great job on his one opportunity
to sing (“One Last Hope”).
But the highlight of
Hercules, in the end, turns out not to be the Menken/Zippel
collaborations, but rather Manken’s score for the film, which takes
up the entire second half of the disc. It honestly is better to lie
back and listen to this without following the CD player’s display
and track listing; it almost is like placing yourself in the
context of the film and its score. Menken has done a wonderful job
on it, bringing back memories of some of Disney’s golden days.
Of course, the kids will most likely be bored stiff with the
score, and will be constantly playing the hits from the film (hint:
anything where the Muses are singing, there’s a good chance the
parents will be hearing this for the next two months). But there is
enough on
Hercules to appeal to both children and adults – as well as
the kid within all of us. It’s just a nice way to kick back for
forty-five minutes and let your imagination take over.