"The Candy Man" (or alternatively, "The Candy Man Can") is a song which originally appeared in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It was written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the film. Although the original book by Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) contains lyrics adapted for other songs in the film, the lyrics to "The Candy Man" do not appear in the book. The soundtrack version of the song was sung by Aubrey Woods, who played Bill the candy store owner in the film.
The song is best known through Sammy Davis, Jr.'s version, which appears on the Sammy Davis Jr. Now album. Though he admitted to hating the song, finding it too saccharine, it became his only number-one hit, spending three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart starting June 10, 1972 and two weeks at the top of the easy listening chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1972. The track featured vocals by the Mike Curb Congregation, who had earlier released their own unsuccessful version of the song. It is recognized as one of Davis's signature songs, and "The Candy Man" came to be his moniker later in his career.
In the 1980s the tune was adapted as a commercial jingle ("The Sunshine Baker Man", sung by Davis) for Sunshine Biscuits.
Sloppy Seconds included a cover of the song on their 1989 LP Destroyed.
In 2014, Sammy Davis Jr.'s lead vocals from the original 1972 recording were sampled to create a "virtual duet" with singer Barry Manilow, which appeared on Manilow's album My Dream Duets.
"The Candy Man" has been featured in a number of radio, films and TV shows, like Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, sung by the candy man
Jennifer Tilly's character, Monica Moran, sings the song in an audition to be a lounge singer in the film The Fabulous Baker Boys
Chris Evans originally played the song on his popular drive time BBC Radio 2 show every Friday afternoon. Once he replaced Terry Wogan on the breakfast show in January 2010, he has continued to play the tune every Friday morning, immediately following the 8:00 am news. The song was also used on a TV trailer, promoting his new breakfast show.
Danny Baker used the song extensively as a theme during his breakfast show for BBC London 94.9. He would reward listeners who phoned into the show and greeted him as Candy Man. During his time on the show he amassed a large number of existing versions of the song and commissioned guests such as Ray Gelato to produce new versions. He continued to use the song as a theme tune for his afternoon show on BBC London 94.9 until its cancellation.
In an episode of My Name Is Earl (season 1, episode 24), Randy Hickey finds a coin in a drain, which is accompanied by an instrumental rendition of The Candy Man.
On Krayzie Bone's 1999 album Thug Mentality 1999, he uses the melody and meter of "Candy Man" for the intro to the song "Dummy Man".
Comedian Tim Hawkins released a parody of the song entitled "the Government Can" in 2009. The video for the song went viral and has garnered over 5.7 million hits on YouTube.
M&M Mars used the song from time to time as a jingle for "The M&M's Man". EDM artist Zedd later released his single "Candyman", which samples the original song, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of M&M's candy. An M&M's ad featuring the song shows Red and Yellow trying to remix the "M&M's Man" jingle with help from Zedd and Aloe Blacc.
In an episode of We Bare Bears, Panda sings a parody of the song called "Girl Be Selling Sunshine" after he falls in love with a girl that saves him from a peanut allergy.
In an episode of Malcolm in the Middle entitled New Neighbours, Commandant Spangler makes the cadets sing the song in order to impress his hero, Oliver North.
The Kidsongs singers sing this song on their 1987 video: "What I Want to Be".
