From 1971's "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" is a version of Anthony Newley & Leslie Bricusse's "The Candy Man" that may not be as familiar as Sammy Davis, Jr.'s cover, which topped the charts in 1972. British actor-singer Aubrey Woods sings "The Candy Man" in an early sequence in the film.
4 comments:
The story goes that when he and Leslie Bricusse were writing the music for Willy Wonka, Anthony Newley earmarked "Candy Man" as a cameo performance for himself (billing optional).
You have to admit that it does sound like a Newley show-stopper, as in his other musicals.
The story further goes that someone high up in the production squelched a Newley cameo (reasons unclear even after all these years).
In later years, Newley would appear on talk and other shows; when asked to sing his own songs, Newley would sometimes ad-lib off-color lyrics, i.e.:
... Who can take a rainbow
Stick it in your ear?
... like that ...
I guess we'll never know who had so little faith in Newley's own singing now, will we, Mike?
I don't think it was that they didn't have faith in Newley's singing.
More likely they were worried that Newley's way of dominating anything he did would draw attention away from the rest of the movie.
Version Two of this story is that what Tony Newley really wanted was the part of Willy Wonka; "Candy Man" was what he would settle for.
But that didn't happen either, So There Too.
Can't picture Newley as Wonka. This was the film that made Gene Wilder a star, period.
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