Thank you, The Tonight Show, for continuing Jimmy Fallon and The Roots' charming "Classroom Instrument" editions of songs—and especially for last night's version of Idina Menzel singing the Oscar-winning song, "Let It Go" from Frozen. Because the Oscars telecast arrangement of the power ballad was awful!
The song, written by Brooklynites Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, was sped up to make do for the Oscars (even though the show did two other non-nominated songs). Menzel, a.k.a. Adele Dazeem, did a great job, though she seemed out of breath as she tackled the now-compressed lyrics:
Menzel seems to be enjoying herself much more in this low-fi version:
And here's the original:
The song, Lopez and Anderson-Lopez say, was inspired by a walk in Prospect Park and their young daughters. Anderson-Lopez told the NY Times, "You know the Park Slope world — we’ve all taken the women’s studies classes in the ’90s, at our small liberal arts colleges. I was really excited to write an anthem that said, ‘Screw fear and shame, be yourself, be powerful.’ I wanted to give them the same message that I’m always saying at bedtime: ‘It’s O.K. You don’t have to be like everybody else.’"
