"Pure Imagination" - Ronell Johnson

SONG: “Pure Imagination” (PDF)
ALBUM: That Gentilly Swing
YEAR: 2017
LABEL: Ronell Johnson

“Pure Imagination” was originally written by the British songwriting team of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley for the 1971 film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory and performed onscreen by Gene Wilder. Bricusse once suggested that the song may have been written in a single day, as its composers had developed a song-factory work routine behind their prolific catalog, however its enduring legacy can be attributed to the song’s adoption by the city of New Orleans - where “anything you want to, do it” is the way of life. The showtune closes out Ronell Johnson’s 2017 album That Gentilly Swing as a jazz ballad featuring his wife, pianist Rachel Johnson, to create a musical duo as prolific, perhaps, as its composers.

Here is a YouTube video of Ronell and Rachel Johnson performing with Haruka Kikuchi:

Recommended reading: Pure Imagination: A Sorta Biography by Leslie Bricusse. Published by Faber Music.