Disney is known for its amazing soundtracks, and there are a few rockers you probably forgot played characters in some of their most well-known animated movies.
The first full-length animated Disney movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, came out in 1937. Thus, Disney’s film empire is actually older than the term rock ‘n’ roll, which wasn’t coined until the early 1950s!
If you’ve ever seen The Jungle Book (1967), you may have noticed that the vultures Mowgli meets looked a lot like The Beatles. That’s because they were designed specifically to have the members of The Beatles voice them, but John Lennon was allegedly against it and there were also scheduling conflicts, according to The Independent.
So The Beatles didn’t make it into The Jungle Book, but that wasn’t the end of rock’s relationship with Disney films. Scroll below to see some rockers that did make it into Disney films in some way.
Billy Joel
billy joel in leather jacket playing piano
Billy Joel may be best known as The Piano Man, but in 1988, he was known as Dodger — the witty street mutt who stars in the movie Oliver & Company. He delivered his best and most charming New York accent for the role, and even sang and played piano in a catchy song on the soundtrack titled “Why Should I Worry?”.
His iconic sunglasses and piano even made their way into the scene, which you can check out below.
The movie was Joel’s film debut, and one of only a few that he’s credited on.
“I got into the role, actually, because there were no cameras,” Joel said of the experience [via Moving Picture Show]. “We were in the recording studio, where I was very comfortable. As a matter of fact, a lot of the sessions were done in a studio that I’m used to working in. So I just walked in, and there was a microphone, and it was real comfortable.”
Billy Joel, ‘Why Should I Worry?’
Joseph Williams (Toto)
toto singer joseph williams
Matthew Broderick voices the curious Simba in 1994’s The Lion King, but Joseph Williams, singer of Toto from 1986 until 1988 (and again since 2010), provided vocals for the adult Simba in the film. He sang on the songs “Hakuna Matata” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”
Williams was initially asked to audition for the singing voice in Aladdin, but Disney went with a different singer for the role. He was contacted again a little over a year later and asked to try again for another movie that Elton John was providing music for.
“I went down to the studio and they literally had two lines for me to sing in that song and I went in there and I listened to Matthew Broderick singing it and it sounded like Matthew Broderick speaking, really! He didn’t have a bad voice, his pitch was good. He sounded fine but it sounded like him,” Williams explained during a telephone interview in 1998.
“And it just so happened that the album turned out to be a big hit. So, in a way, The Lion King record is probably the biggest hit I’ve ever had.”
Williams wasn’t the in Toto when they released the hit “Africa,” but that would have been a hilarious coincidence.
‘The Lion King,’ ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’
Phil Collins
phil collins holding microphone
We shouldn’t have to remind you that Phil Collins produced and composed one of the greatest movie soundtracks of all time (Tarzan, duh), but it’s the truth. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, Grammy Awards and several other accolades for the album and some of its songs.
READ MORE: 15 Rock + Metal Bands Banned by Disney
Due to the success of the soundtrack, he was also asked to work on one for the 2003 film Brother Bear.
Collins didn’t actually play a character in either of the two films, but he did voice the vulture Lucky in The Jungle Book 2 (2003). We included a song from Tarzan below, though, because it’s just that good.
Phil Collins, ‘Strangers Like Me’ (‘Tarzan’)
25 Actors Who Transformed Into Real-life Rockstars for Movies
These actors starred as rock stars in movies.
Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner
