2021 In Memorium - #3: Leslie Bricusse (Born 1931)

I'm sure that for many of you visiting this blog, the name of Leslie Bricusse, who died this past October 19th at the ripe old age of 90, won't ring any particular bells. But for a time in the '60s and '70s, the man was a giant in music, particularly in musical theater. His work provided the world with several beloved and memorable tunes which are now regarded as popular standards.

Born in London in 1931 to a wholly nontheatrical family (his father was a newspaper circulation manager), Bricusse gained entrance to the prestigious University of Cambridge, majoring in languages. While there, he quickly found a place in the college's famous amateur theatrical troupe, Footlights, an organization he eventually became president of during his senior year (later, beginning in the 1960s, Footlights alumnae came to dominate British comedy, producing such celebrated performers as David Frost, Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy), National Lampoon's Tony Hendra, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and several members of the Monty Python troupe).  

As president of the Footlights, he co-wrote and appeared in the 1954 revue Out of the Blue, the first Cambridge revue to reach the West End (London's equivalent to New York's Broadway theater scene). The success of this show caught the attention of longtime West End music hall star Beatrice Lillie, who took Bricusse under her wing as her leading man in her own popular revue, An Evening With Beatrice Lillie. Lillie's show played in both London and New York, and through it Bricusse was established as a "name" in international musical theater. He remained with Lillie's show through the end of the 1950s.

Late in that decade, while on a cruise in the Indian Ocean, Bricusse caught the show of the ocean liner's featured performer, British radio star, screen actor and occasional pop singer Anthony Newley. The two became acquainted while at sea, and began making plans to work together on a musical production. The pair's first collaboration, 1961's Stop The World - I Want To Get Off, was a smash hit in both the West End and on Broadway. The show included Bricusse and Newley's show-stopping song "What Kind Of Fool Am I?", which eventually won a Grammy Award as Song Of The Year and is currently a popular standard. The pair followed this show with another Broadway musical success, 1965's The Roar Of The Greasepaint - The Smell Of The Crowd, a show that was nominated for several Tony Awards that year.

Fresh from their Broadway triumphs, Bricusse and Newley moved into the world of movie music, with their first effort turning out to be a classic; in 1964, they wrote the words to composer John Barry's theme for a James Bond movie coming out later that year - Goldfinger. This tune - sung the HELL out of by Shirley Bassey - is still considered the all-time greatest Bond movie song:

Bricusse scored the title theme to another James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice, in 1967. The song is regarded as another Bond classic and was a huge hit for Nancy Sinatra that year.  From that year onward, Bricusse concentrated his work in film scores and movie musicals rather than with stage productions.  This included 1967's Doctor Doolittle (a notorious box-office bomb for its time, that still produced a hit song, the Oscar-winning "Talk To The Animals") and 1970's Scrooge (featuring another popular hit, "Thank You Very Much").

But in 1971, again collaborating with Newley, the pair produced the work they are most known and revered for. They were commissioned to write all of the songs for a musical fantasy film being directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder - Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. This movie is chock-full of Bricusse/Newley classics, including "The Candy Man", a revised version becoming a big hit for Sammy Davis Jr. the following year (in fact, his only #1 song):

But probably the most beloved song from the Willy Wonka soundtrack is the one sung by the title character, the great "Pure Imagination".

In the past fifty years, this song has been covered and remixed hundreds of times by a wide variety of artists, including Lou Rawls, Mariah Carey, The Muppets, Barbra Streisand and Primus.

Willy Wonka the movie was not a huge success when first released, barely making back its production costs, and the original owners and producers (Paramount Pictures and Quaker Oats) sold off the rights to the property to Warner Bros. for a pittance a few years later. The film really didn't become widely seen or popular until the advent of home video in the mid-1980s, gradually growing its status from a cult film into a widely-loved classic. Eventually, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2014 as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

However, the flick's soundtrack was almost immediately recognized and celebrated as something special.  Bricusse and Newley's work received Willy Wonka's only Academy Award nomination that year, for Best Original Score (it lost to Fiddler On The Roof).  The soundtrack album was first released on Paramount Records in 1971; here's the complete track listing, for your edification:

1. "Main Title (Golden Ticket/Pure Imagination)"
2. "The Candy Man"
3. "Charlie's Paper Run"
4. "Cheer Up, Charlie"
5. "Lucky Charlie"
6. "(I've Got A) Golden Ticket"
7. "Pure Imagination"
8. "Oompa Loompa"
9. "The Wondrous Boat Ride"
10. "Everlasting Gobstoppers/Oompa Loompa"
11. "The Bubble Machine"
12. "I Want It Now/Oompa Loompa"
13. "Wonkamobile, Wonkavision/Oompa Loompa
14. "Wonkavator/End Title (Pure Imagination)"

In 1996, Hip-O Records (in conjunction with MCA Records, which by then owned the Paramount catalog), released the soundtrack on CD as a "25th Anniversary Edition".  And in 2016, Universal Music Group and Geffen Records released a 45th Anniversary Edition LP.  In all, these multiple releases seemed like overkill/a money grab by the respective labels, since every version had the exact same songs listed above on it.

Leslie Bricusse continued to write music and lyrics for several movie and stage productions throughout the remainder of his life... but Willy Wonka will probably always be the one he'll be most remember for. In honor of his long and productive life, here's Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (Music From The Original Soundtrack), put out by the labels noted above in their respective years.  Enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think.

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