Music: A defense of "Cheer Up, Charlie"

While nearly all of the songs from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" have gone on to become famous in their own right ("The Candyman," "(I've got a) Golden Ticket," "Pure Imagination," the Oompa-Loompa song, etc.), one song is invariably forgotten - "Cheer Up Charlie."

Performed by Diana Sowle, an actress who has gone on to an active career in theatre, "Cheer Up, Charlie" is the slowest song in the movie and also the most depressing. Charlie's mother, working late washing laundry to make ends meet, is visited by her son who expresses resentment at how all the other kids in life get the breaks. As Charlie walks home from his paper route through the night streets, dejected at his lot in life, his mother sings this ballad.

Cheer up, Charlie

Give me a smile

What happened to the smile I used to know

Don't you know your grin has always

Been my sunshine;

Let that sunshine show...

It's a moving scene, at least for me. It fleshes out Charlie's mother (who, let's face it, is probably the only sane adult in the whole movie) and gives Charlie a deep, dark hole to work out of. It shows the viewer that Charlie, although a strong and honest boy, is human like the rest of us, and has wishes and dreams that might be considered selfish if it were not for the fact that Charlie works so hard for so little.

I can't believe some people fast-forward through it.