Pocahontas [Original Soundtrack] [Remaster] (CD - 1995)

Recorded at Todd-AO Scoring, Signet Sound, Paramount Stage M, The Hit Factory and Sony Music Studios, New York, New York.

"Colors Of The Wind" won a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Song Written Specifically For A Motion Picture Or For Television. Vanessa Williams' version of "Colors Of The Wind" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Principal cast includes: Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, Linda Hunt, Jim Cummings, Judy Kuhn, Bobbi Page.

Producers: Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, Keith Thomas, Robbie Buchanan, Emilio Estefan, Jr.

Engineers: John Richards, Billy Whittington, Dana Jon Chappelle.

Recorded at Todd-AO Scoring Studio, Signet Sound Studios, Paramount Stage M, The Hit Factory and Sony Music Studios, New York, New York.

"Colors Of The Wind" won a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Song Written Specifically For A Motion Picture Or For Television. Vanessa Williams' version of "Colors Of The Wind" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

In the hands of composers Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwarz, POCAHONTAS--the romantic tale of an English settler, Captain John Smith, and a Native American maiden, Pocahontas--becomes a gateway to the examination of colonialism, environmentalism and spiritual awareness in the New World. The men of the Virginia Company sing about killing "an injun/or maybe two or three" and plundering natural resources for profit, to tunes that sound deceptively like old sea chanties. On the other hand, the songs of the Native American characters are full of nature imagery, evoking a simple existence and a peaceful spirit--leaving no question as to whose moral camp the writers align themselves with. Menken's instrumental sweeps tie the featured vocal tracks together, using meditative orchestral flourishes and bringing to mind his earlier Disney scores.

The soundtrack's last two songs pull the story's romantic overtones to the forefront, and they are the album's grand pop moments. Amidst synthesizer stardust, Vanessa Williams' "Colors Of The Wind" invokes Pocahontas' wild, instinctive tendencies while confessing the willingness of her heart and spirit to leap into the emotional unknown. Jon Secada and Shanice end the adventure with the duet "If I Never Knew You," prophesizing that love is indeed mightier than the sword (and the ideology), even when it goes unfulfilled. minimize