Pure Imagination
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"Pure Imagination" is a song from the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It was written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the movie and does not appear in the original book by Roald Dahl. It was sung by Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka).
Portion of lyrics: sample
If you want to view paradise,
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it
[edit] Adaptations
Guitarist Buckethead has covered the song several times, including on his debut Bucketheadland in 1992, on his second album Giant Robot in 1994, and several times live.
In 2004, the rock band Maroon 5 composed a cover version of "Pure Imagination" that was released on the compilation album Mary Had a Little Amp. A previous cover, by punk band Smoking Popes appeared on their 1997 album Destination Failure. Mariah Carey also sampled the song for the 1999 remix of her hit single "I Still Believe", releasing it as the "I Still Believe/Pure Imagination (Damizza Reemix)".
Sammy Davis Jr., who famously covered the song The Candy Man from the film, also covered this song.
In The Muppet Show Season One, Ben Vereen sings the song to a Muppet atop a rooftop, accompanied by flying creatures.
UK electronic act Crazy Penis sampled some of the lyrics on their track "There's a Better Place" from their 2002 album The Wicked is Music.
In 2005, MasterCard commissioned an upbeat, alternative-style version of the song for its television commercial "Candy Store." [1] Although it was only 30 seconds long, this commercial jingle version has attracted a great deal of attention from listeners who tried to find out the musical group performing the jingle and purchase a copy of it, only to be told by MasterCard that "Unfortunately, there is no way to get a copy of this song."
Also in 2005, dance music artists FORD and Jori remixed "Pure Imagination", releasing two versions: a "Wonka Trance" version and an "Oompa Loompa Breakbeat" version, with each version released in edit and club mix lengths. As of October 2005, the trance version is a highly requested song on XM Satellite Radio's dance hits channel BPM.
Irish rock band The Frames also frequently samples a part of the song during live performances of their song "Star Star", as heard in their 2002 live album Set List.
The tune served as the basis for Southwind Drum and Bugle Corps 2005 Program "Distorted Imagination".
Pianist/keyboardist Bradley Joseph arranged a cover version of "Pure Imagination" on his 2005 album, For the Love of It.
Jazz singer Lou Rawls sung a version of Pure Imagination too. Lou Rawls died on 6th of January 2006
Electro mixer Stylophonic mix a version on his album Baby Beat Show using a sample of the Lou Rawls vocals.
Jazz Pianist Bob James (whose most popular work is probably his song "Angela" which was made popuar as the theme song for th T.V. show "Taxi" starring Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch) also did a version of this song.
[edit] Spoofs
In an episode of Family Guy called "Wasted Talent", Pawtucket Pat (a spoof of Willy Wonka) sang a song called "Pure Inebriation" when showing the Beer Room.
Portion of lyrics:
Come on buds, drink my suds,
And you'll reach that pure inebriation
You'll be tanked,
Like the whole Irish nation
This song was then stolen by the radio show Matt and Huggy (94.1 WYSP in Philadelphia) and played on Fridays as one of their beer songs.
