Song Lyric Sunday | “If I Never Knew You” – Jon Secada & Shanice
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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.
The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Duets.”
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If I Never Knew You is sang by Jon Secada and Shanice over the end credits of Disney’s 1995 animated feature film, Pocahontas. It was the second single released from the movie soundtrack after Vanessa Williams’ pop and R&B rendition of the Academy Award-winning Colors of the Wind.
The song was originally developed for the prison scene where Pocahontas visits Captain John Smith before he is sentenced to death for the alleged murder of Kocoum, Chief Powhatan’s warrior whom Pocahontas was supposed to marry. Composer Alan Menken decided it had to be cut because he felt that it slowed the pace of the movie and too closely followed another song.
If I Never Knew You charted on the U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles and U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, reaching #8 and #24, respectively. It also reached #51 on UK charts.
FUN FACTS
Performed by Mel Gibson (Captain Smith) and Judy Kuhn (singing voice of Pocahontas), If I Never Knew You was added to the tenth anniversary edition of Pocahontas in 2005, fully animated and integrated as a viewer option on the DVD.
In 2001, If I Never Knew You was covered by Michael Crawford and Sherie Rene Scott for The Disney Album.
Jon Secada has written songs for Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, and Jennifer Lopez. He has toured with Luciano Pavarotti and recorded duets with Jim Brickman, Olivia Newton John, and Frank Sinatra, as well as winning two Grammys for his own music releases.
Also an actress, Shanice became the first black performer to star in the role of Eponine in the musical Les Misérables on Broadway in 1997. She also starred in the made-for-TV movie One Special Moment, an adaptation of Brenda Jackson’s 1998 novel of the same name. Shanice and her husband of twenty years, actor/comedian Flex, starred in their own reality show Flex & Shanice, for three seasons on OWN.
Filmed in New York City, the music video features Shanice and Secada performing the song with clips of Pocahontas being projected on buildings behind them.
I could listen to this song on endless repeat. And, maybe I have! 
