"Pure Imagination" - Ronell Johnson

“Pure Imagination” (PDF) from the Ronell Johnson album, That Gentilly Swing

“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.