Part of Your World
Encyclopedia
"Part of Your World" is a song written and composed by the songwriting duo of Alan Menken
and Howard Ashman
. It was originally featured in the 1989 Disney film The Little Mermaid
, and is also featured in the Broadway musical adaptation of the film
. The song is sung by Ariel, the title character, while in her hidden cavern which holds all of her treasures, most of which are human objects. It reveals how Ariel longs to be human and live among their culture, and how she's tired of being a mermaid living under the sea. In the film the song was performed by Jodi Benson
.
and John Musker
suggested some rewrites, as Ashman had included terms that would be unfamiliar to someone who gets their "information [about the human world] from a seagull." Ashman complied and replaced his previous lyrics with more off-beat terminology. During recording, Jodi Benson asked that the lights in the studio be dimmed to give the correct atmosphere. Howard Ashman stood by Benson, giving suggestions to benefit her performance.
During production of The Little Mermaid it was suggested by some that the "Part of Your World" song slowed down the story and should have been deleted from the final cut, but Howard Ashman insisted that it be kept in.
of The New York Times
called the song the "first musical bull's-eye" among a half-dozen in the film.
on DisneyMania
. The song has also been performed by Olivia Newton-John
, Miley Cyrus
, Brenda Song
, Faith Hill
, Skye Sweetnam
, Chely Wright
, Anna Maria Perez de Tagle
, Darren Criss
and Esmee Denters
. The Broadway musical version of the song is sung by Sierra Boggess
, which is on the Original Broadway Cast album. The pirate-themed rock band Captain Bogg and Salty
also recorded a hard rock version of the song in 2006, facetiously claiming it to be a "mermaid lullaby" which was used to lure helpless sailors to their deaths.
Alan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
and Howard Ashman
Howard Ashman
Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright and lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974...
. It was originally featured in the 1989 Disney film The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid (1989 film)
The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, the film was originally released to theaters on November 14, 1989 and is the twenty-eighth film in...
, and is also featured in the Broadway musical adaptation of the film
The Little Mermaid (musical)
The Little Mermaid is a stage musical produced by Disney Theatrical, based on the animated 1989 Disney film of the same name and the classic story of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen...
. The song is sung by Ariel, the title character, while in her hidden cavern which holds all of her treasures, most of which are human objects. It reveals how Ariel longs to be human and live among their culture, and how she's tired of being a mermaid living under the sea. In the film the song was performed by Jodi Benson
Jodi Benson
Jodi Marie Benson is an American actress, voice actress, soprano singer, and Disney Legend. She is best known for providing both the speaking and the singing voices of Disney's Princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid and its sequels. In 2002 and 2006, she reprised the role of Ariel in the English...
.
Writing and recording
Howard Ashman wrote the song with the belief that, in a musical, it is necessary for the heroine to sit down and sing about what she wants, referring to it as the "I Want" song. After reviewing Ashman's lyrics, co-directors Ron ClementsRon Clements
Ronald Francis "Ron" Clements is an American animation director and producer. He is one half of America's leading contemporary animation team with John Musker.-Life and career:...
and John Musker
John Musker
John Musker is an American animation director. Along with Ron Clements, he makes up the duo of one of the Disney animation studio's leading director teams.-Life and career:...
suggested some rewrites, as Ashman had included terms that would be unfamiliar to someone who gets their "information [about the human world] from a seagull." Ashman complied and replaced his previous lyrics with more off-beat terminology. During recording, Jodi Benson asked that the lights in the studio be dimmed to give the correct atmosphere. Howard Ashman stood by Benson, giving suggestions to benefit her performance.
During production of The Little Mermaid it was suggested by some that the "Part of Your World" song slowed down the story and should have been deleted from the final cut, but Howard Ashman insisted that it be kept in.
Critical reception
Janet MaslinJanet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called the song the "first musical bull's-eye" among a half-dozen in the film.
Cover versions
Other Disney renditions of the song include one by Jessica SimpsonJessica Simpson
Jessica Ann Simpson is an American recording artist, actress, television personality, and fashion designer whose rise to fame began in 1999. Since that time, Simpson has achieved many recording milestones, starred in several television shows, movies, and commercials, launched a line of hair and...
on DisneyMania
DisneyMania
Disneymania is the first of a series of albums released by Walt Disney Records featuring various musical artists performing Disney songs. The original album, released on September 17, 2002, featured contemporary Disney classics...
. The song has also been performed by Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
, Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus
Miley Ray Cyrus is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana....
, Brenda Song
Brenda Song
Brenda Song is an American actress, film producer, and model. Song started in show business as a child fashion model. Her early television work included roles in the shows Fudge and 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd...
, Faith Hill
Faith Hill
Faith Hill is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S...
, Skye Sweetnam
Skye Sweetnam
Skye Alexandra Sweetnam is a Canadian singer-songwriter, actress, and music video director. Skye first entered the mainstream in 2003 with the release of her debut single "Billy S." Over a year later, her debut album, Noise from the Basement, was released including the singles "Tangled Up in Me"...
, Chely Wright
Chely Wright
Richell Rene "Chely" Wright is an American country music artist and, starting in 2010, gay rights activist. On the strength of her debut album in 1994, the Academy of Country Music named her Top New Female Vocalist in 1995. Wright's first Top 40 country hit came in 1997 with "Shut Up and Drive"...
, Anna Maria Perez de Tagle
Anna Maria Perez de Tagle
Anna Manria Francesca Enriquez Perez de Taglé is an American actress and singer. She is known for her roles as Ashley Dewitt on Hannah Montana and Ella Pador on Camp Rock and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam...
, Darren Criss
Darren Criss
Darren Everett Criss is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and a founding member and co-owner of the theater company StarKid Productions. He currently portrays Blaine Anderson, an openly gay high school student, on the FOX television series Glee...
and Esmee Denters
Esmée Denters
Esmée Denters is a Dutch singer-songwriter. She was a regular cover-artist on video-sharing website YouTube on which she covered songs by contemporary musicians like Justin Timberlake and Natasha Bedingfield....
. The Broadway musical version of the song is sung by Sierra Boggess
Sierra Boggess
Sierra Boggess is an American theater actress and soprano singer. She was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, with her two sisters, Summer and Allegra. The three of them were members of the Colorado Children's Chorale. Her parents are Kellun Turner and Michael Boggess...
, which is on the Original Broadway Cast album. The pirate-themed rock band Captain Bogg and Salty
Captain Bogg and Salty
Captain Bogg and Salty is a pirate-themed rock band from Portland, Oregon, and a representative member of the subgenre of pirate rock. The band is well-known for their live shows, performed in full pirate regalia...
also recorded a hard rock version of the song in 2006, facetiously claiming it to be a "mermaid lullaby" which was used to lure helpless sailors to their deaths.
- A Japanese languageJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
version of the song was recorded by Mayumi SuzukiMayumi Suzukiis a Japanese voice actor who graduated from the Tokyo College of Music as a vocalist. She is best known for dubbing over a number of Disney heroines.-Roles:-OVA:*The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea...
. - American country music singer Faith HillFaith HillFaith Hill is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S...
covered the song for the 1996 compilation album The Best of Country Sing the Best of DisneyThe Best of Country Sing the Best of Disney-Chart performance:...
, the song was then featured again for the album Country Sings DisneyCountry Sings DisneyCountry Sings Disney is a compilation featuring the biggest stars in country music. Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Billy Ray Cyrus, Martina McBride and several others appear on the album. It was released on July 8, 2008 via Walt Disney Records. The album debuted at #15 on the U.S...
in 2008. - Michelle NicastroMichelle NicastroMichelle Nicastro was an American actress and singer.-Life and career:Nicastro was born in Washington D.C., the daughter of Carole Rose and Norman Joseph Nicastro, who was an ophthalmologist...
sang this song for her album Toonful, which was released in 1993. - In 2005, the song appeared in Square EnixSquare Enixis a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
's Kingdom Hearts IIKingdom Hearts IIis an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and published by Buena Vista Games and Square Enix in 2005 for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console...
, which featured The Little Mermaid as one of the many DisneyDisney (disambiguation)Disney usually refers to The Walt Disney Company.Disney may also refer to:-Divisions of The Walt Disney Company:*Walt Disney Pictures, the film banner...
movies in the game. Other songs from the movie were featured. - LOVEBEAT Disney, a 2007 album consisting of covers of Disney songs by Japanese electro artists and DJs, contained a version of the song by Q;indivi as its first track.
- In 2008, Blind Ferret Entertainment recorded a version of the song for the fan-based animation feature Looking for Group, with alternative lyrics.
- "Part of Your World" is instrumentally heard in the Disney movie Enchanted.
- "Part of Your World" is often covered by Darren CrissDarren CrissDarren Everett Criss is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and a founding member and co-owner of the theater company StarKid Productions. He currently portrays Blaine Anderson, an openly gay high school student, on the FOX television series Glee...
during his live performances.