Songfacts®:

• Collins wrote this for the Disney movie Tarzan, and it earned him an Oscar for Best Original Song. It was Collins' first win in the category - he was previously nominated for "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" for the movie Against All Odds and for "Two Hearts" from the movie Buster. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Logan - Troy, MT
• The song is about two people with a very close bond who will be physically separated, but always together in spirit. It's a song of comfort that can relate to many close relationships, but in the movie is deals with mother and son - the song is used in a scene where a young Tarzan is soothed by his adoptive gorilla mother, voiced by Glenn Close.
• According to Lily Collins, who was born in 1989, her dad wrote this song for her. "It was written as a lullaby to me when I was younger," she told NBC in 2016. "We grew up watching Disney shows and movies together so that was his way of kind of being able to do it for his kids. It was so special."
• Collins' association with Disney perplexed some of his fans, but he grew up watching Disney films and was thrilled to take on the project. "With or without the glory, I would have taken the experience," he told Rolling Stone.
• In the '90s, songs from Disney movies were Oscar bait, so Collins put himself in good position to earn a trophy with this track. The 1991 winner was "Beauty and the Beast," written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman; in 1992 "A Whole New World (Aladdin's Theme)" took the prize. These songs were sung in the films by the voice actors who portrayed the characters, with high-profile singers (Celine Dion, Peabo Bryson) doing the versions that were released as singles. With these songs, we see the animated characters sing them in the films.
  
  For The Lion King in 1994, Elton John wrote the winning song, "Can You Feel The Love Tonight," with Tim Rice, and also performed it in the film and on the single release. The next year, "Colors Of The Wind" won from Pocahontas - that one was composed by Menken and Stephen Schwartz.
  
  Collins was the sole composer of "You'll Be In My Heart" and sang it in the film. It followed tradition and claimed the Oscar, giving him a nice career bump and another hit for his canon. The song didn't become one of his greatest hits, but Tarzan didn't become one of Disney's greatest movies either. Collins included the song on the setlist for his 2004 tour, but played it live only sporadically outside of that tour.
• In the film, the gorilla voiced by Glenn Close begins singing this song as a lullaby to Tarzan, softly singing the first few lines "Come stop your crying, it will be alright..." before Collins comes in to sing the rest. This version appears on the movie soundtrack along with the Collins-only rendition.
• Collins wrote four other songs for the Tarzan soundtrack.
• In the South Park episode "Timmy 2000," Phil Collins is seen throughout the entire episode holding an Oscar, a reference to his win for this song, which defeated "Blame Canada" from the South Park movie Bigger, Longer, & Uncut.
• The video doesn't show any scenes from the film, although Collins does appear in a movie theater. Directed by Kevin Godley of the Godley & Creme team (they worked as both musicians and music video directors), the clip features the latest in 1999 compositing technology, placing Collins in a variety of locals amid myriad characters.
• The next high-profile Tarzan theme came in 2016, when Hozier wrote and recorded "Better Love" for the live-action film The Legend of Tarzan.
• Indonesian singer-songwriter NIKI released a cover of "You'll Be in My Heart" as part of Spotify Singles on April 2, 2025. Her reinterpretation introduced the song to a younger audience and reignited interest in the original version.