In 2001, the original Mrs. Potts from the animated Disney classic Beauty and the Beast performed the film’s title track alongside the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The actress who portrayed Mrs. Potts, Angela Lansbury, joined the Choir for the Christmas concerts in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Before singing the song to more than 20,000 people in the Conference Center, Lansbury said, “When Howard Ashman and Alan Menken first sent me the demo tape of Alan singing the title song, ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ I thought to myself, ‘My goodness, can I ever do this beautiful lyric justice?’ But when Disney showed me the drawings for the snuggly, beaming little Mrs. Potts, I said to myself, ‘I knew this kind of cockney little lady when I was growing up in London.’ And from that memory is exactly where I found her voice.”

Lansbury was born in East London, England, in 1925. She studied acting from her youth and left for the United States when World War II began. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her first film, Gaslight, while she was still a teenager. She holds the record for the most Golden Globe nominations (10) and the most Emmy® nominations (12) for the lead actress categories. Her long-running television series Murder, She Wrote, in which she starred as Jessica Fletcher, was one of the most successful shows in history.

Watch this video of Lansbury’s charming performance of “Beauty and the Beast.” This song will appear on a new Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD entitled Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Friends, to be released in May. Watch for further details about this exciting new recording. Pre-order on Amazon.com. Pre-order on DeseretBook.com.