Gene Wilder’s death on Sunday has left a void that many fans are trying to fill with music.
A performance by the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps of “Pure Imagination,” the song Wilder made famous in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” is really striking a chord.
The video above is from a performance at the 2015 Drum Corps International World Championships in Indianapolis.
The organization posted the song on its Facebook page yesterday and it’s been shared more than 12,000 times.
With a mellow baritone horn solo, it’s not the typical marching band song, but it definitely conveys the faraway look in Wilder’s eyes in the movie.
This rendition is just one of many purely imaginative covers of “Pure Imagination” that people have been listening to this week.
Coldplay honored the actor on Tuesday by posting a video featuring a brief snippet of “Pure Imagination” at the end of “The Scientist.”
Barbra Streisand did what might be considered an advance Wilder tribute when she covered “Pure Imagination” with Seth MacFarlane earlier this month on her new album, “Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway.”
Here are some other versions of “Pure Imagination” that are each, in their own way, a sweet tribute to Wilder.
Maroon 5:
Gloria West and the Gents:
Lou Rawls:
Buckethead:
Primus:
This “Family Guy” spoof called “Pure Inebriation”:
Of course, there’s always the original:
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