Scotsman obituaries: Leslie Bricusse, songwriter behind such classics as Goldfinger

Leslie Bricusse at a Broadway opening night in 2011 (Picture: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)

If you are up against The Bare Necessities for an Oscar then you had better have a pretty good song to stand any chance. Fortunately, songwriter Leslie Bricusse did. And the delightful Talk to the Animals brought Bricusse the first of his two Academy Awards in 1968.

Bricusse wrote songs for a string of films and shows from the 1960s to the 1990s, creating such standards as If I Ruled the World, What Kind of Fool Am I and The Candy Man, songs that are now sometimes better known than the shows from which they came.

That could hardly be said, however, for Goldfinger, although the theme song for the third James Bond movie certainly set the style and standard for future James Bond songs, with its bravura performance from Shirley Bassey. Bricusse co-wrote the lyrics, with Anthony Newley, while John Barry wrote the music.

Bricusse also wrote the lyrics for the theme song for the fifth Bond film You Only Live Twice, which was sung by Nancy Sinatra and used in preference to an alternative song by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, a piece Wilson then reworked as the title instrumental track on the group’s album Pet Sounds.

Often Bricusse wrote both music and lyrics, on other occasions he wrote just lyrics. He regularly worked with Newley and he also collaborated with John Williams and Henry Mancini. He won his second Oscar for Le Jazz Hot!, which he co-wrote with Mancini for the 1982 comedy Victor/Victoria, with Julie Andrews.

Bricusse was born in the Wandsworth area of London in 1931, but grew up largely in Pinner in Middlesex. His father worked in newspaper circulation. Bricusse won a scholarship to University College School in London and, after National Service, went on to study Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge. He became president of the famous Footlights company and co-wrote and appeared in revues alongside Jonathan Miller. His work with the Footlights led him directly into West End revues and shows.

He met Anthony Newley on a cruise liner in the Indian Ocean, suggested they work together and the 1961 stage musical Stop the World – I Want to Get Off was the first of a series of collaborations for theatre and film. The show reputedly took its name from a piece of graffito and featured the showstopper What Kind of Fool Am I. It premiered in Manchester and transferred to the London West End and Broadway with Newley as the protagonist who repeatedly demands that the world pause so he can address the audience and reflect on his life, realising too late that none of his lovers can give him the happiness he once had with his wife.

Scotsman Obituaries: Richard Donner, US director who made Superman fly

After Stop the World, Bricusse wrote the lyrics for the 1963 West End musical Pickwick, with a score by Cyril Ornadel. The original London production starred Harry Secombe and provided him with a Top 20 hit, If I Ruled the World. Tony Bennett had a US hit with it and then rerecorded it many years later as a duet with Celine Dion. Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Tom Jones, Jamie Cullum and even James Brown had a go at it.

Bricusse’s rise to prominence was completed in 1964 when he wrote the lyrics for the theme song for Goldfinger, capturing the essence, appeal and danger of Bond’s world in his mini-drama about “the man with the Midas touch”, beckoning you into “his web of sin”, but offering only “the kiss of death”.

Bricusse’s witty way with words was shown to brilliant effect in the songs for the 1967 film Doctor Dolittle, for which he wrote both lyrics and music, and particularly in Talk to the Animals, delivered by Rex Harrison in his inimitable talking-singing style...

"I would converse in polar bear and python

“And I would curse in fluent kangaroo,

“If people ask me, ‘Can you speak rhinoceros?’

“I'd say, ‘Of courseros, can't you?’ ”

The film, an adaptation of Hugh Lofting’s stories about an eccentric adventurer, was extremely expensive and lost money on its initial cinema release, although it was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, as well as winning two Academy Awards, and it proved a family favourite on television in later years. Talk to the Animals was later recorded by Louis Armstrong, Sammy Davis Jr, Bobby Darin and even Roger Moore and the Muppets.

Bricusse also wrote the songs for the 1969 musical version of Goodbye, Mr Chips, with Peter O’Toole, and Scrooge, a 1970 musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol, with Albert Finney. Later Bricusse-Newley collaborations included songs for the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which starred Gene Wilder and which included The Candy Man.

While the 1960s and early 1970s were the high point of his career, Bricusse continued working fruitfully through the decades, collaborating with John Williams on the music for Hook, Steven Spielberg’s 1991 take on Peter Pan. He racked up a total of ten Oscar nominations. Bricusse turned Sherlock Holmes into a musical in 1989. Although it failed to match the success of earlier work, it was to prove a passion project and he reworked and revived it in the 1990s and again in 2013.

Doctor Dolittle was successfully adapted for the West End stage in 1998, with Phillip Schofield in the lead, Jim Henson puppets and the recorded voice of Julie Andrews as Polynesia the parrot. It ran for a year and then went on a tour that included the Edinburgh Playhouse.

Bricusse split his time between homes in England, France and California. He was married to the actress Yvonne Romain, Elvis Presley’s co-star in Double Trouble, for more than 60 years. She survives him, along with a son and two grandsons.

Obituaries

If you would like to submit an obituary (800-1000 words preferred, with jpeg image), or have a suggestion for a subject, contact [email protected]

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.