Alan Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American Broadway and Academy Award … Read Full Bio ↴Alan Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American Broadway and Academy Award winning film score composer.
Menken has collaborated with several renowned lyricists including Howard Ashman (1950-1991), Tim Rice and Stephen Schwartz. He is best known for his work on several Disney animated features, including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, Pocahontas, Aladdin, and Home on the Range. His first successful work was the 1982 off-Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors. Menken has received eight Academy Awards, and has one of the the highest film to Oscar ratio of anyone in the industry.
Howard Ashman ( May 17, 1950 - March 14, 1991) was an American playwright and movie music lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College (with a stop at Tufts University's Summer Theater) and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974. He collaborated with Alan Menken on several films, notably animated features for Disney, Ashman writing the lyrics and Menken composing the scores.
Ashman and Menken first worked on a 1979 musical adapted from Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. They also collaborated on Little Shop of Horrors with Ashman as director, lyricist, and librettist.
Along with Menken, Ashman was the co-recipient of two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and two Oscars. His second Academy Award in 1992 was awarded posthumuously for Best Song and was accepted by his partner, Bill Lauch. It was the first Academy Award given posthumously to someone who had died of AIDS.
Ashman died on March 14, 1991, at age 40, during the making of both Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. The song Proud of Your Boy was the one of the last songs ever written by Ashman, for Aladdin but was cut from the movie after the mother was taken out of the story. Ashman and Menken had finished the songs for Beauty and the Beast, but Tim Rice was brought in to finish the Aladdin songs with Menken. Beauty and the Beast was dedicated to him with the following:
To our friend, Howard,
Who gave a mermaid her voice,
and a beast his soul.
We will be forever grateful.
Howard Ashman
1950-1991
Menken has collaborated with several renowned lyricists including Howard Ashman (1950-1991), Tim Rice and Stephen Schwartz. He is best known for his work on several Disney animated features, including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, Pocahontas, Aladdin, and Home on the Range. His first successful work was the 1982 off-Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors. Menken has received eight Academy Awards, and has one of the the highest film to Oscar ratio of anyone in the industry.
Howard Ashman ( May 17, 1950 - March 14, 1991) was an American playwright and movie music lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College (with a stop at Tufts University's Summer Theater) and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974. He collaborated with Alan Menken on several films, notably animated features for Disney, Ashman writing the lyrics and Menken composing the scores.
Ashman and Menken first worked on a 1979 musical adapted from Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. They also collaborated on Little Shop of Horrors with Ashman as director, lyricist, and librettist.
Along with Menken, Ashman was the co-recipient of two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and two Oscars. His second Academy Award in 1992 was awarded posthumuously for Best Song and was accepted by his partner, Bill Lauch. It was the first Academy Award given posthumously to someone who had died of AIDS.
Ashman died on March 14, 1991, at age 40, during the making of both Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. The song Proud of Your Boy was the one of the last songs ever written by Ashman, for Aladdin but was cut from the movie after the mother was taken out of the story. Ashman and Menken had finished the songs for Beauty and the Beast, but Tim Rice was brought in to finish the Aladdin songs with Menken. Beauty and the Beast was dedicated to him with the following:
To our friend, Howard,
Who gave a mermaid her voice,
and a beast his soul.
We will be forever grateful.
Howard Ashman
1950-1991
God help the outcasts
Alan Menken & Howard Ashman Lyrics
I don't know if You can hear me
Or if You're even there
I don't know if You will listen
To a humble prayer
They tell me I am just an outcast
I shouldn't speak to You
Still, I see your face and wonder
Were You once an outcast, too?
God help the outcasts
Hungry from birth
Show them the mercy
They don't find on earth
The lost and forgotten
They look to You still
God help the outcasts
Or nobody will
I ask for nothing
I can get by
But I know so many
Less lucky than I
God help the outcasts
The poor and down trod
I thought we all were
The children of God
I don't know if there's a reason
Why some are blessed, some not
Why the few You seem to favor
They fear us
Flee us
Try not to see us
God help the outcasts
The tattered, the torn
Seeking an answer
To why they were born
Winds of misfortune
Have blown them about
You made the outcasts
Don't cast them out
The poor and unlucky
The weak and the odd
I thought we all were
The children of God
Or if You're even there
I don't know if You will listen
To a humble prayer
They tell me I am just an outcast
I shouldn't speak to You
Still, I see your face and wonder
Were You once an outcast, too?
God help the outcasts
Show them the mercy
They don't find on earth
The lost and forgotten
They look to You still
God help the outcasts
Or nobody will
I ask for nothing
I can get by
But I know so many
Less lucky than I
God help the outcasts
The poor and down trod
I thought we all were
The children of God
I don't know if there's a reason
Why some are blessed, some not
Why the few You seem to favor
They fear us
Flee us
Try not to see us
God help the outcasts
The tattered, the torn
Seeking an answer
To why they were born
Winds of misfortune
Have blown them about
You made the outcasts
Don't cast them out
The poor and unlucky
The weak and the odd
I thought we all were
The children of God
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Alan Irwin Menken, Stephen Laurence Schwartz
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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