Today’s Monday Muse is brought to you by none other than Disney legend Alan Menken — the musical architect behind some of the most beloved songs in the Walt Disney Animation catalogue. Sitting at the piano, Menken looks back on the creation of the melodies that shaped childhoods, rewrote animation history, and continue to echo across generations.
He revisits the shimmering longing of “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid, written with his brilliant collaborator Howard Ashman. As he explains, it’s the quintessential I Want song — that moment when a character declares their deepest desire. Menken recalls how every note was designed to “reach upward to the surface,” capturing the feeling of moving water and Ariel’s dream of life beyond the ocean.
Then comes the timeless tenderness of “Beauty and the Beast.” Menken reflects on Ashman’s declining health during its creation, describing the song as both a lullaby and a meditation on love’s endurance. He remembers how the writing process was “infused with both the beauty of the moment and the pain of the ephemeral nature of life” .
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He dives into “Proud of Your Boy,” originally written for an early version of Aladdin when Aladdin still had a mother. The song was cut from the film but resurrected for the stage adaptation — a moment Menken championed. And of course, he shares the now‑iconic story of how “A Whole New World” almost began with the lyric “the world at my feet” before Tim Rice gently suggested that maybe “feet” didn’t belong in a love song. The rest is Disney history .
Menken also revisits the soaring emotional architecture of “Colors of the Wind,” the haunting power of “Out There” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and the triumphant fanfare of “Go the Distance” from Hercules. He describes the moment Stephen Schwartz heard a piano sketch and instantly recognized it as Quasimodo’s song — a rare instance where the music arrived before the dramatic concept, and it was “absolutely perfect for that moment”.
Across each reflection, Menken returns to the same truth: he simply loves sitting at the piano and exploring the possibilities of music. “Every day all I want to do is just sit at the piano and play,” he says — a reminder that legacy is built one note, one collaborator, one moment of inspiration at a time.
Dig out the musical mastermind at the piano as he reflects on the collaborators, the craft, and the emotional DNA behind Disney’s most iconic songs.
Which Alan Menken song shaped your Disney era? Share your favorite below.
