Nathan Lane says Elton John didn’t want Timon and Pumbaa singing all of this classic ‘Lion King’ song

When it came to his Oscar-winning ballad for The Lion King, Elton John was not feeling the love with the song’s original recording.

Nathan Lane reveals to Entertainment Weekly that in early versions of the 1994 animated classic, Timon and Pumbaa were meant to sing all of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” — not just the opening and closing verses.

“Originally, we sang the whole thing,” he recalls. “Elton John was mortified that the warthog and the meerkat were singing it. He said, ‘The reason I wrote the score was because I wanted to have a Disney love song. I didn’t want it to be sung by the rat and the pig.'”

“We did [record] a version,” Lane continues. “We sang the whole thing in our character voices. It wasn’t like we were going to do our legit Broadway version. We were doing two very character-type voices. It’s hard to do that and be romantic. Elton was right.”

The duo was also originally set to do a number titled “The Warthog Rhapsody,” but it was replaced with “Hakuna Matata.”

“Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” as recorded by John, earned the singer his first Oscar for Best Original Song (he won again in 2019 for Rocketman’s “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again”), providing him with the “O” in his EGOT status.

“Thankfully, everyone came to their senses,” quips Lane of the song’s Oscar chances before John intervened.

That doesn’t mean Lane and scene partner Ernie Sabella, who voiced Pumbaa, didn’t have their own special contributions to the film. Timon and Pumbaa didn’t even exist in the script before their joint audition for the hyenas led filmmakers to create comedic sidekick roles explicitly for their talents.

In fact, Timon and Pumbaa were built around Lane and Sabella’s gig starring in Guys and Dolls on Broadway at the time of their audition. “They said, ‘You’re doing Guys and Dolls, and that’s the right energy for these two characters,” Lane told EW. “They’re Damon Runyon-esque characters. So, Timon became a Brooklyn Jewish meerkat. And Ernie very cleverly did this vocal thing, which was a combination of two actors — Michael Gazzo and Wallace Beery. In the old days of vaudeville, there was a lot of dialect comedy, but now we’re not allowed to do that. But in animation, you can get away with it.”

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Fans will have the chance to see Lane and Sabella bring their beloved characters to life in Disney’s The Lion King 30th Anniversary – A Live-to-Film Concert Event at the Hollywood Bowl. The live concert, which plays the Bowl May 24 and 25, will feature Lane and Sabella performing a live rendition of “Hakuna Matata,” as well as their verses in “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?” (not, alas, the entire song). Jeremy Irons, Billy Eichner, and Jennifer Hudson will also participate in the event.

“I initially thought it would be, we came out and sang songs,” said Lane. “But it’s a whole extravaganza they’re putting together. There’s costumes and scenery.”