This week’s song is “I Can’t Believe My Heart”, which is a deleted song from the film Hercules. It is about Megara singing about her feelings for Hercules, which she did not want to have. This ended up getting replaced by “I Won’t Say I’m In Love”. I have to say that I really like the song, and it’s easier to take seriously than the latter for sure.
The lyrics start with this set, “I’ve always thought that men were slime, and every guy I’ve met has proved me right. Until tonight.” This is extremely significant, because it means she has been screwed over by more than one romantic interest; not just one, like it’s easily thought to be in the film.
She continues with these lyrics, “Just when I thought I had it figured, that life’s a game you cannot win, he comes in and changes all the rules. What I’ve been taught, I learned the hard way, that life and love are never just. And if you trust, you’re just one of the fools.” What I got from this is that there has been no one in her life (not even family) to teach her what love really means, so she is probably lonelier than people think. Hercules “changing all the rules” is a broad statement for her to make, and it means he makes her weak, and vulnerable; not knowing what to do. Megara sings this, “I can’t believe my heart surrendered when I kissed him,” which signals how the film changed from one version to the final version. Megara and Hercules already kissed by this point in the film, while in the final version, they almost kissed, so they took it out. If they almost kiss, it is easier for her to deny it (the final version), but if they do kiss, she can’t deny it (this version).
As the song is ending, Megara sings about how Hercules is the prize, and finally comes to terms that her heart is wise. Usually, the guy considers the girl a prize, so to see this reversal is interesting to say the least. It really fits with the more relaxing instrumentation in the back of it.
There are a few reasons why the song ended up getting deleted. The main reason is that the crew did not feel like Megara would sing a ballad, so they replaced it with the more fast-paced version of the song. Something else tells me that they didn’t want to get too emotional with the film, and incorporating the Muses would make it a bit more lighthearted. Doing this turned it into more of a back-and-forth, instead of a self realization and self analysis. I do not know when in the production of the film this song was removed, but there was a point in time where the story was going to be a but more slow-paced and serious, but they did voice acting for it, so it might have been later.
Overall, it is a bit of a shame that this song was not included, or come up with a combination of both this song, and the final version of the song. It is thematically close to Go the Distance, but the similarity in tone may have been another factor, since that song is Hercules’ moment (since it’s different from all of the other songs in the film).
animatedkid 