''The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' is the

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

for the eponymous Disney film. It contains songs from the film written by British singer, songwriter and pianist

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

and English songwriter

Tim Rice Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English songwriter. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, '' Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ''Jesus C ...

, and a score composed by German score composer and music producer

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, five Grammy Awards, and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards and a Tony ...

. Elton John has a dual role of performer for several tracks. Additional performers include South African singer and songwriter

Lebo M Lebohang Morake (born 11 July 1964), known as Lebo M, is a South African producer and composer, known for his songwriting and vocal work on the soundtracks to films such as ''The Lion King, The Power of One'' and ''Outbreak'' and numerous sta ...

, American actress and singer Carmen Twillie, American actor and singer Jason Weaver, English actor

Rowan Atkinson Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles in the sitcoms ''Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and '' Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and in the film series '' Johnny English'' (2003– ...

, American rock singer Joseph Williams, American actress

Whoopi Goldberg Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (), is an American actor, comedian, author, and television personality.Kuchwara, Michael (AP Drama Writer)"Whoopi Goldberg: A One-Woman Character Parade". ...

, English actor

Jeremy Irons Jeremy John Irons (; born 19 September 1948) is an English actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards, ...

, American actor

Cheech Marin Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marin (born July 13, 1946) is an American comedian and actor. He gained recognition as part of the comedy act Cheech & Chong during the 1970s and early 1980s with Tommy Chong, and as Don Johnson's partner, Insp. Joe Dom ...

, American actor

Jim Cummings James Jonah Cummings (born November 3, 1952) is an American voice actor. Beginning his career in the 1980s, he has appeared in over 400 titles. Cummings has frequently worked with the Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros., serving as the offic ...

, New Jersey actor

Nathan Lane Nathan Lane (born Joseph Lane; February 3, 1956) is an American actor. Since 1975, he has been Nathan Lane on screen and stage, on stage and screen in both comedic and dramatic roles. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Na ...

, New York actor

Ernie Sabella Ernest Sabella (born September 19, 1949) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Pumbaa from '' The Lion King'' franchise, voicing the character in all media except the 2019 and 2024 films. Sabella's TV roles include Mr. Donald ...

, and American singer

Sally Dworsky Sally Dworsky is an American singer-songwriter and playback singer in animated films. In addition to her solo work and co-fronting the alt-rock band Uma, Dworsky served as the singing voice for lead characters in iconic animated films including ' ...

. The album was released on May 31, 1994, on CD and

audio cassette The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...

. The soundtrack was recorded in three different countries: the U.S., the U.K. and South Africa. It is the best-selling soundtrack album to an animated film in the United States with over 7 million copies sold, with 4,934,000 copies sold in 1994. Hans Zimmer was awarded an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for Best Original Score at the

67th Academy Awards The 67th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) took place on March 27, 1995, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the cer ...

in 1995. An expanded version of ''The Lion King'' soundtrack, featuring 30 minutes of previously unreleased material, was released as part of the '' Walt Disney Records: The Legacy Collection'' series on June 24, 2014. In 2014,

Hot Topic Hot Topic, Inc. is an American fast-fashion company specializing in counterculture-related clothing and accessories, as well as licensed music. The stores are aimed towards an audience interested in rock music and video gaming, and most of the ...

released a vinyl picture disc of the soundtrack. In 2010, Rhapsody included the soundtrack as one of 10 essential

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

and

Pixar Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney ...

soundtracks.

Track listing

All songs are composed by

with lyrics by

. All scores are composed by

''The Legacy Collection'' release

Walt Disney Records Walt Disney Records is an American record label owned by the Disney Music Group. The label releases soundtrack albums from the Walt Disney Company's Walt Disney Studios (division), motion picture studios, television shows, Disney Experiences, them ...

released an expanded edition of ''The Lion King'' soundtrack containing an additional thirty minutes of previously unreleased material from the film, as well as a collection of demo versions of cues. This revision contains a new remastered mix by Alan Meyerson.

Commercial performance

The soundtrack shipped over 10 million copies in the U.S. and eventually was 10× platinum in 1995, thus becoming the biggest-selling soundtrack ever from Disney's 1994 animated feature film. Its certification was promoted to

Diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

when the award was instituted in 1999 by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. According to

Nielsen Soundscan Luminate Data, LLC (formerly MRC Data and P-MRC Data) is a provider of music and entertainment data. Established as a joint-venture in 2020, it brought together Nielsen Music, Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music) and Variety Business Intellige ...

the soundtrack, as of April 2014, has sold a total of 7.873 million copies in the US. It is also the best-selling vinyl album in the Nielsen SoundScan era (starting 1991), with 1,043,000 copies sold as of June 2014.

Accolades

Personnel

Song Tracks (1–5 & 10–12) *

– composer (1–5, 10, 11, 12), piano and vocals (10, 11, 12) *

Davey Johnstone David William Logan Johnstone (born 6 May 1951) is a Scottish rock guitarist and vocalist, best known for his long-time collaboration with Elton John as a member of the Elton John Band. Career Johnstone was born in Edinburgh. At the age of s ...

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

(10, 11, 12), backing vocals, (10, 11) *

Chuck Sabo Chuck Sabo is an American drummer, musical director, songwriter, and producer who has performed and recorded with prominent artists including XTC, Natalie Imbruglia, Elton John, Tom Jones, Chaka Khan, Bryan Adams, Cher, Tina Turner, Pet Shop Boy ...

– drums (10, 11, 12), backing vocals (10, 11), strings (12) *

Phil Spalding Philip Trevor Spalding (19 November 1957 – 5 February 2023) was an English bass player. He was best known as a session musician and player of Fender Precision Bass guitars. He played and appeared with performing artists such as Mike Oldfiel ...

– bass (10, 11, 12), backing vocals (10, 11) *

Guy Babylon Guy Babylon (December 20, 1956 – September 2, 2009) was an American keyboardist/composer, most noted for his work with Elton John. Babylon was born in New Windsor, Maryland. He attended Francis Scott Key High School before moving on to th ...

– keyboards (10, 11, 12) * The

London Community Gospel Choir The London Community Gospel Choir is Britain's first renowned contemporary "performance touring, inspirational gospel choir band", fusing gospel with multi-genres of music, including pop, soul, jazz, R&B, and classical. It was founded in 198 ...

– choir (10, 11) *

– vocal arranger (1, 2, 3), background vocals (1, 2, 3), co-lead vocals (1), African chant (1) *

Mark Mancina Mark Mancina (born 1957) is an American film composer. A veteran of Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures, Mancina has scored over sixty films and television series including ''Speed'', '' Bad Boys'', ''Twister'', ''Tarzan'', '' Training Day'', '' Brothe ...

– arrangements (2, 4, 5) *

– arrangements (1, 3) music supervision (1–5) *

– lead vocals (4, 5) * Jacqueline Barron, Charles Biddle Jr., Mary Carewe and Louis Price – background vocals (2, 3) * Richard Harvey – ethnic pipes (2, 3) * Joseph Williams – co-lead vocals (4, 5) * Rodney Saulsberry – background vocals (1, 4) * Carmen Twillie – lead vocals (1) * Jason Weaver – lead vocals (2), co-lead vocals (4) *

– spoken word and lead vocals (3) *

– spoken words (3) *

– co-lead vocals (3) *

, Laura Williams – co-lead vocals (2) * Kristle Edwards – co-lead vocals (5) * Sally Dworski – co-lead vocals (5) *

Rick Astley Richard Paul Astley (born 6 February 1966) is an English singer, radio DJ and podcaster. He gained fame through his association with the production trio Stock Aitken Waterman, releasing the 1987 album ''Whenever You Need Somebody'', which sol ...

Gary Barlow Gary Barlow (born 20 January 1971) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He is the lead singer of the pop group Take That. Barlow is one of the United Kingdom's most successful songwriters, having writ ...

Kiki Dee Pauline Matthews (born 6 March 1947), better known by her stage name Kiki Dee, is an English pop singer. Known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown's Tamla Records. Dee is best known f ...

– background vocals (12) *

Nick Glennie-Smith Nickolas Glennie-Smith is an English film score composer, Conducting, conductor, and musician who is a frequent collaborator with Hans Zimmer, contributing to scores including ''The Rock (film), The Rock'' (nominated for the Academy Awards, Acad ...

, Mbongeni Ngema,

Andraé Crouch Andraé Edward Crouch (July 1, 1942 – January 8, 2015) was an American gospel singer, songwriter, arranger, record producer and pastor. Referred to as "the father of modern gospel music" by contemporary Christian and gospel music profess ...

– vocal arrangements (1) *

Jay Rifkin Jay Rifkin is an American record and film producer. Rifkin co-founded the company Media Ventures with Hans Zimmer, a childhood friend. As CEO of the company from 1988,Oren Waters Oren Waters is an American vocalist best known for his work with the backup singing group The Waters, his siblings: Luther, Maxine and Julia. As an ensemble, Waters has been a part of 260 gold and over 100 platinum albums with artists including ...

Maxine Waters Maxine Moore Waters (née Carr; born August 15, 1938) is an American politician serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for since 1991. The district, numbered as the California's 29th congressional district, ...

, Luther Waters, Julia Waters, Sam Vamplew, Thandazile, Khuluiwe S’thole, Susan D. Stevens, Sindisiwe Sokhela, Kipizane Skweyiya, Happy Skhakhane,

Alfie Silas Alfie Silas is an American singer who has had a long career as a session singer. She has also had success as a solo artist and has had five hits on the r&b charts during the 1980s. Background Alfie Silas has been described by ''Cash Box'' as havin ...

, Philile Seme, Rick Riso, Phindile, Bobbi Page, Nini Nkosi, Bongani Ngcobo, Nandi Ndlovu, Bheki Ndlovu, Thembi Mtshali, Nonhlanhla Mkhize, Vusi Mhlongo, Batho Mhlongo, Myrna Matthews, Abner A. Mariri, Khanyo Maphumulo, Tsidi Manye, Rick Logan, James Langa, Ron Kunene, Thembi Kubheka, Skhumbuzo Kubheka, Stella Khumalo, Faca Khulu, Sphiwe Khanyile, Faith Kekana, Bob Joyce, Kuyanda Jezile, Matoab’sane Jali, Clydene Jackson, Linda Cgwensa, Rick Charles, Lucky Cele, Baby Cele, Johnny Britt, Terry Bradford and Maxi Anderson – choir (1) Score Tracks (6–9) * Hans Zimmer – arrangements * Lebo M – vocal arrangements *

– choir arrangements *

– choir arrangements * Tonia Duvall – vocal contractor * Don Davis, Brad Dechter,

Gordon Goodwin Gordon L. Goodwin (born December 30, 1954) is an American pianist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is the leader of Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band. He has won three Daytime Emmy Awards, four Grammy Awards, and 25 Grammy nomina ...

, Don L. Harper, Larry Kenton, Dave Metzger, Conrad Pope, Carl Rydlund,

Mark Watters Mark Watters (born May 25, 1955) is an American composer of music for film and television. Biography Watters is a six-time Emmy award-winning composer, conductor and arranger. He was born in Irving, Texas and majored in Saxophone at the Unive ...

– orchestrations * Yvonne Moriarty – additional orchestrations,

french horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

* Steve Becknell, David Duke, William Lane, Brian O'Connor, Richard Todd, Brad Warnaar, Phillip Yao – french horns * Walt Fowler,

Malcolm McNab Malcolm Boyd McNab (born March 25, 1943) is a trumpeter and player of other brass instruments, and a Los Angeles-based session musician who has performed on nearly 2000 film and television soundtracks. Education Raised in the San Gabriel Valle ...

– trumpet * Sandy DeCrescent – orchestra contractor *

Bruce Fowler Bruce Lambourne Fowler (born July 10, 1947) is an American trombonist and composer. He played trombone on many Frank Zappa records, as well as with Captain Beefheart and in the Fowler Brothers Band. He composes and arranges music for movies, a ...

– vocal arrangements, trombone * Alan Kaplan, Charlie Loper, Bill Reichenbach, Phillip A. Teele, Lloyd Ulyate –

trombones The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the air column inside the instrument to ...

* Richard Harvey – flute, ethnic pipes * Sheree Ali, Monica Zierhut – music coordinator * Andy Hill – music supervisor

Technical

Greg Penny Greg Penny (born October 12, 1955) is an American record producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, musician, songwriter and artist best known for his work as a producer for Elton John and k.d. lang. Career The son of pop singer Sue Thomp ...

- Dolby Atmos Mix

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales

, - ! colspan="3" , Original album release , - , - ! colspan="3" , Original cast recording , - , - ! colspan="3" , Sing-Along shortform , - , - ! colspan="3" , Hans Zimmer Re-release , -

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lion King, The 1994 soundtrack albums 1990s film soundtrack albums Albums produced by Chris Thomas (record producer) Albums produced by Jay Rifkin Albums produced by Mark Mancina Disney animation soundtracks Elton John soundtracks Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children Hans Zimmer soundtracks The Lion King (franchise) albums Disney Renaissance soundtracks Walt Disney Records soundtracks Tim Rice albums Albums recorded at United Western Recorders Musical film soundtracks Scores that won the Best Original Score Academy Award Pop soundtracks