‘Pure’ joy in Wilder’s song
The greatest tune in ‘Willy Wonka’ also captured the late actor’s spirit
G ENE Wilder’s most celebrated partnership was, of course, with
Mel Brooks in such comedy classics as “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein.” But I’ve been struck by the fact that nearly every TV or radio tribute to Wilder since his death Monday either begins or ends with him in that purple velvet coat singing “Pure Imagi- nation” from “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”
Megyn Kelly closed her show Monday night saying the movie — and the song — “helped convince this little girl from upstate New York that anything is possible.”
That’s pretty good for a tune that, when “Willy Wonka” was first released in 1971, did “absolutely nothing,” says Leslie Bricusse, who, with Anthony Newley, wrote the movie’s songs.
“We thought it was a lovely tune that carried the mood of the movie, sung by a man who comes up with all these wonderful enchantments,” Bricusse tells me. “It was a nice message to put forward to children. But the song went nowhere.”
Bricusse says he and Newley, who died in 1999, probably spent no more than a day on “Pure Imagination.”
“We wrote very quickly,” he says. “We were a-song-aday people. And we weren’t even working in the same place. Anthony was in Los Angeles, and I was in Europe for some reason. I think we wrote it over the phone.”
“Pure Imagination” also “got blocked,” says Bricusse, by the film’s song that did become a smash, “The Candy Man.” But even that — which Newley once told me he wrote very quickly in a friend’s bathroom — didn’t catch on at first.
“In the film, the song was diabolically performed by an actor who couldn’t sing,” says Bricusse. (The actor was Aubrey Woods, who played the owner of the candy store.)
Fortunately for the songwriters, Sammy Davis Jr.’s manager was looking for a song Davis could sing for children. The manager wanted the kind of success Frank Sinatra had with “High Hopes,” and picked “The Candy Man.” Davis tossed off a recording — unhappily, because he thought the song was cloying — which became his only No. 1 hit.
Bricusse was disappointed in “Willy Wonka” because it didn’t have enough songs.
“We wanted to write 10 songs, but the budget only allowed for six,” he says. “All the kids should have a song . . . I wrote a very nice song called ‘Think Positive’ for [Charlie], but it wasn’t used.”
“Willy Wonka” was a minor hit in 1971. But in the mid-’70s it started airing regularly on American television. It was through those repeated airings that the movie, “Pure Imagination” and Wilder became favorites with generations of children.
“Willy Wonka” would eventually prove hugely popular on VHS and DVD.
“I think every kid in the world would love to have a golden ticket,” says Bricusse. “And Gene’s performance is wonderful. He’s on the verge of madness — shades of ‘Young Frankenstein’ — and yet he’s very tender at the same time.”