Phil Collins amazed Disney bosses when he agreed to sing his songs for the studio's films Tarzan and Brother Bear phonetically in a number of different languages.

Rick Dempsey, the animation director for Disney, feared the company would have to hire foreign singers to croon the former Genesis star's tunes, until the rocker thought it would a good idea for him to have a go.

Dempsey recalls, "That was my highlight because I was a huge Phil Collins and Genesis fan.

"We oversee all the foreign language versions of all the Disney films - the 36-plus languages that our animated films are in. On Tarzan, we knew that when we went out to France, Italy, Germany and Spain that we'd lose Phil because he's singing the songs in English.

"We got this superstar and we're gonna lose him and what a shame that would be that we'd have to ask local artists to sing those songs.

"We went to Phil and asked him if he would be interested in singing the songs phonetically and he agreed. We spent an amazing six weeks in Switzerland with Phil recording syllable-by-syllable and line-by-line.

"Then, when we did Brother Bear, Phil did the same thing and actually threw in Japanese, a Castillion version and a Latin Spanish version.

© Contactmusic