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When a film needs to have a song written for it, the composer (or group of composers) will create what are known as “test” lyrics while the melody is being put together.

As a general rule, test lyrics bear little to no resemblance to the final version, they’re really intended as a tool to help guide the song writers in putting the verses together (in a sense, test lyrics are similar to the temp track created for a film, see The Temp Track for details).

Once the final lyrics are completed, the test lyrics are thrown out and never seen by the public…not usually. There is one notable exception, where the test lyrics became so popular that the writers kept them as the final version.

I’m talking about the song “Gaston” from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991)

There’s a reason those lyrics are particularly silly…

It turns out that when the writers for this movie were putting the songs together, the song that turned out to be “Gaston” was originally planned to be completely different. What it was supposed to be we will never know, because the writers became so attached to the test lyrics, that they decided to just keep them and thus, “Gaston” was born.

 

“Gaston” – Beauty and the Beast

Please enjoy the wonderful silliness that is this song. It’ll be interesting to see if the live remake contains a song like this one (or if it will have any songs at all!). Enjoy! Thank you for all of the likes and comments, you guys are awesome!

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For more Film Music 101, see also: Film Music 101

See also:

Film Music 101: The First Film Score

Film Music 101: Borrowing

Film Music 101: Arranger

Film Music 101: Anempathetic sound

Film Music 101: Empathetic Sound

Film Music 101: Foley

Film Music 101: Montage

Film Music 101: Compilation Score

Film Music 101: “Stinger” Chords

Film Music 101: Dubbing

Film Music 101: Diegetic vs. Non-Diegetic Music

Film Music 101: Underscore

Film Music 101: Sidelining

Film Music 101: Orchestration and cues

Film Music 101: Leitmotif

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