Song of the Day 12/10: Sammy Davis Jr., “The Candy Man”

Today’s song is in honor of former White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, who yesterday filed to run for Congress in a deep-red Texas district. Dr. Jackson, who also served in that position for presidents Bush and Obama, was known as the Candy Man for his willingness to dispense pharmaceuticals without any of that bothersome paperwork.

That slang meaning of “candyman” as a drug dealer has been around since the mid-1800s, so Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley must have been aware of the double entendre when they wrote the lyrics for 1971’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” The tune is sung in the film by the candy store owner in a performance so low-key that Newley, who knew a hit when he wrote one, offered to forego his writing credit if producers would let him overdub the vocals. They refused, but Newley got his hit — and Sammy Davis Jr. got his first and only No. 1 record — in the middle of the next year. Davis, who disliked the tune in the first place, was a little chagrined that it became his signature song; people even began calling him the Candy Man. He ended up performing it thousands of times.

Zedd and Aloe Blacc redid the song in 2016 — sponsored, fittingly, by the Mars candy company for the 75th anniversary of the introduction of M&Ms.