Beauty And The Beast

Album: The Wild Heart (1983)
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Songfacts®:

  • Nicks wrote this for drummer Mick Fleetwood. It was Inspired by the 1946 French film of the same name directed by Jean Cocteau.
  • Nicks (from the liner notes in TimeSpace): "We recorded this live in New York, with Roy Bittan playing grand piano, and Paul Buckmaster doing the strings and conducting the orchestra, and me and the background singers, all at the same time. It was like we had gone back in time; we all wore long black dresses, and served champagne, and recorded it all in one room. When it was over, I walked out with this elderly gentleman who played violin, and the generation gap ceased to exist. I also remember Mick and I years later at the Red Rocks 'Rock A Little' video. He had come by himself to play, and he stayed there with me all night (in the rain) to do close-ups; everyone else had left. Who is the beauty, and who is the beast.? Which one of you? Have you ever really been able to answer that? I have, it took a long time, but I did finally find the answer." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Shawna - Phoenix, AZ, for above 2
  • In the press kit notes of her album The Wild Heart, Nicks explained: "It began as a piano demo done in Lori's husband, Gordon Perry's studio in Dallas; the room is just magical, a church. Lori later sent me a tape with beautiful voices on it, and Sharon and I tried to duplicate it but we couldn't. So we got all the original vocalists together in New York and recorded it live. We brought the orchestra in for a 3-hour live session and I'm someone who's oblivious to being able to do anything in the studio in a mere 3 hours! I knew they were gonna pack their little violin cases and walk away from me in no time; meanwhile Roy Bittan's playing piano just like I do, real simple, and that's hard for a good pianist to do, and everybody's watching me - nobody has done a live session in years, no Stevie Nicks has walked in in a long black dress to sing 'Beauty and the Beast' with champagne for all these men in probably as long as they can remember, even 30 years ago. I wanted them to feel like they were the most special orchestra that ever existed, for that night. They walked in, played, and left, and it's like they don't even have any idea what they gave me, how precious it is." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Annabelle - Eugene, OR

Comments: 4

  • Angela from Collinsville, Il"Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You?" was written about Joe Walsh and his daughter, not this one.
  • Michelle from Pawtucket, Rii have always been drawn to this song. actually stevie nicks was the first artist i ever heard as a young child. today this song has sooo much meaning to me. i never really understood the song til now...
  • Sandy from Huntington, NyStevie had mentioned at a Jones Beach NY concert a few years back that she wrote it for Joe Walsh, who had just lost his daughter to leukemia. He had taken her up to a very beautiful place in the mountains, and she was inspired to write this song. she also says in People magazine Apr. 24 edition that Joe was the "great, great love of my life".
  • Sara from Silver Spring, MdAlso the title tune of the 1991 Disney animated film sung by Peabo Bryson and Celine Dion, but this is a different song.
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