Pocahontas (soundtrack)

Pocahontas: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the 1995 Disney animated film, Pocahontas. It was released by Walt Disney Records on May 23, 1995 on CD and audio cassette. The soundtrack contains songs from the film, including each instrumental song, written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, and conducted by David Friedman. The main songs were performed by artists: Judy Kuhn, Mel Gibson, Linda Hunt, Jim Cummings, David Ogden Stiers, and Bobbi Page. The soundtrack features two hit singles; "Colors of the Wind" performed by singer and actress Vanessa Williams, and the film's love theme song "If I Never Knew You" performed by recording artists Jon Secada and Shanice.

On August 7, 2015, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the film, a new edition of the soundtrack was released as part of the Walt Disney Records: The Legacy Collection series. The new edition includes the film's complete original soundtrack in chronological order, along with six demo recordings in a two-disc set. There are 28 tracks on disc one, and 8 tracks on disc two. This release includes the song “If I Never Knew You”, performed by Judy Kuhn and Mel Gibson in the film. The original song performed by the characters was cut from the film, and not included on the original soundtrack. The song was put back into the movie when it was re-released for the 10th anniversary of the film, and finally featured on the new edition of the soundtrack.

The making of the soundtrack
The soundtrack music for Pocahontas has one of the largest and most complex scores ever written for a Disney animated film. It was the fourth Disney animated film that was composed by Alan Menken. He had previously worked with lyricist Howard Ashman, who died before the making of Pocahontas. He began working with Stephen Schwartz, who became the lyricist for the soundtrack.

Stephen Schwartz was recommended to Alan by people at Disney Animation Studios. On a documentary of the soundtrack, Alan says that after he thought about it he realized that Stephen's style would be perfect for the film's music because of his writing that is a brilliant combination of theater, folk, and classic. Alan said, "I just really felt that he and I would be able to find a voice that was unique to the two of us together, and we did." The first song they wrote together was "Colors of the Wind". According to Jim Pentecost, the producer of the film, the emotion of the lyrics and music for "Colors of the Wind" was very powerful and defined the movie and what it was going to be about. The song was written at the beginning stages of developing the story. Jim Pentecost said, "When Stephen came up with the title "Colors of the Wind" and developed his lyric, it helped greatly to tell us what this movie should be."

Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz came together and were able to create this soundtrack based on things they felt strongly about and found a way of expressing through music. On the soundtrack documentary video, Stephen talked about how they knew what they wanted to say through the music and portray who Pocahontas was, and they were able to find the parts of themselves that met with the character of Pocahontas to create the music for the film.

Track listing
The music for every song on the album was composed by the Academy Award winning composer, Alan Menken, and the lyrics were written by the Tony Award winning lyricist, Stephen Schwartz.

Chart and commercial success
The film's soundtrack is probably best known for the song that serves as the film's anthem, "Colors of the Wind", which went on to win an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Grammy Award. As a single, "Colors of the Wind" went on to reach #4 on the U.S. pop charts in 1995, and was one of Williams' biggest hits. The Pocahontas soundtrack joined other Disney animated feature soundtrack albums in the multiplatinum category in the certifications from the Recording Industry Assn. of America. Pocahontas was simultaneously certified triple-platinum, platinum and gold. It became the fifth consecutive soundtrack for a Disney animated film to surpass the 3 million milestone, following The lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and The Beast and The Little Mermaid.

The soundtrack also won the Academy Award for Best Musical or Comedy Score, sold 2.3 million copies in the remaining two months of 1995 alone, and went on to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200.