Elton John can feel the love tonight.
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The “Tiny Dancer” singer confirmed to Variety that he played an influential role in ensuring that his song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” was not deleted from Disney’s “The Lion King.” John saved the song from the cutting room floor, and it went on to win the Oscar for best original song.
“The whole Disney team came down to Atlanta and showed me a rough cut of the nearly finished film, and there was no ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight,'” John told Variety . “So I asked, ‘Where’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”‘”
“And they go, ‘Well, we just couldn’t find a place for it,’ and I go, ‘It’s a love song. Every Disney animation film has a great love song. You really ought to reconsider this,'” John continued. “I was quite astonished that it wasn’t there, and to Disney’s credit, they went back and found a place for it, and it won the Oscar.”
John also quipped that he felt that “Circle of Life” should have won the Oscar instead of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” When pressed on why, John said, “Because it’s the song of ‘The Lion King.’ ‘The Lion King’ starts and you hear ‘The Circle of Life,’ and you think of ‘The Lion King.’ To me, that’s the song that makes ‘The Lion King,’ but I’m not going to complain.”
John revealed this when he stopped by Variety’s studio at the Toronto Film Festival. John was there to tout his new documentary, “Elton John: Never Too Late,” which captures John’s journey to becoming one of the world’s biggest rock stars, bookended by his landmark performances at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in 1975 to more than 100,000 fans and again in 2022 as the final North American stop on his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour.
The documentary also chronicles the music icon’s relationship with his husband, David Furnish (who served as co-director with “The September Issue” filmmaker R.J. Cutler) and their boys, Zachary and Elijah.
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On what was most challenging for him when it came to producing the documentary, John told Variety , “Talking about my family and talking about my children. Talking about how my life is now compared to what it was in 1975. I’ve been through a hell of a lot. I mean, you name it. I’ve been through the highs, the lows, the highs and the lows. But it’s been an amazing life. It’s been an amazing journey.”
Near the end of the interview, John praised some of the younger female singers of this generation, listing off a roster of powerhouse talent he’d love to work with in the future.
“There are plenty of young singers around. I mean, this has been the summer of the great female singers and songwriters. Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX and Gracie Abrams — they’ve just ruled it. They’ve made records that are really good songs, and they brought a lot of joy to the people. And the songs are really good songs, so I’m happy to sing with any of those people.”
Asked whether he’d want to collaborate with Swift specifically, John said, “She’s a great songwriter, she’s a great artist and she’s a phenomenon. I’ve never seen a phenomenon like that since the Beatles, and she works her ass off, so good luck. Good luck to her.”
The documentary will be available to stream on Disney+ on Dec. 13.
Variety’s Toronto Film Festival Studio is sponsored by J. Crew and SharkNinja.
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