Alan Menken

Details of Life and Musical Achievements
Alan Menken was born on July 22, 1949 and is still alive to this day. Over the years, Menken worked with lyricists such as Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, Stephen Schwartz, David Zippel and Glenn Slater. He composed the music for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules and Tangled. He started composing as a career in 1980 and still does so today.

Work with Howard Ashman
When Menken first composed Disney Music, he worked with Howard Ashman to write all the songs for The Little Mermaid which was released orignally in 1989. He also composed the movie's score and he and Ashman won an Oscar for Under the Sea during the 1989 film awards. He resumed his role with the score and songs with Ashman in Beauty and the Beast and they both won another Oscar for their work on the Beauty and the Beast Song in the 1991 film awards. Menken's final role as cooperator with Howard Ashman was with Arabian Nights, One Jump Ahead, Friend Like Me and Prince Ali from Aladdin before Ashman died.

Work with Tim Rice
Seeing as Ashman died before Aladdin was finished, Menken did A Whole New World and the Prince Ali Reprise with lyricist Tim Rice who worked on the rest of Aladdin's songs in Ashman's place. Menken and Rice won an Oscar for Best Original Song with A Whole New World. It is unknown if Menken wanted to work with Rice on The Lion King songs and score as Hans Zimmer did the score while Elton John did the composition of The Lion King Songs. However, it is known that Rice wrote the lyrics for those songs. John and Rice may have been nominated for best original song with The Circle of Life and definitely won an Oscar for Best Original Song for Can You Feel The Love Tonight at the 1994 movie awards.

Work with Stephen Schwartz
One of the main reasons that Tim Rice did not work with Menken on The Lion King is probably because Rice already agreed to work with John on the movie and that Menken was busy composing the music for Pocahontas and lyricist, Stephen Schwartz wrote the lyics for all the songs in that movie in Rice's place. One of Menken's and Schwartz's greatest achievements in that film were their 1995 Oscar Award for Best Original Song in the form of Colors of the Wind. Menken and Schwartz returned into the music of The Hunchback of Notre Dame but this time, they did not win any Oscars, but Menken did get a 1996 nomination for Best Original Score in that film.

Work with David Zippel
Menken only worked with David Zippel on all the songs for one movie, 1997 Hercules. They got a nomination for Best Original Song, Go the Distance in the 1997 film awards. While Zippel did not work with Menken on Mulan, he did continue as lyricist for that movie.

Work with Glenn Slater
After thriteen years, Meneken's music finally returned to the big screen of Disney in Tangled from 2010. During the film's production, Menken worked with lyricist Glen Slater on the lyrics for the songs and although none of them won an Oscar, When Will My Life Begin and I See The Light were nominated for Best Original Song in the 2010 film awards.