You may not know the name Leslie Bricusse (pronounced Brick’-us), but you very likely hum some of the songs he’s written: “Pure Imagination,” “What Kind of Fool Am I?,” “Talk to the Animals,” Superman’s theme “Can You Read My Mind,” “Goldfinger.”

And remarkably, some 60 years after his heyday, the composer-lyricist is having a moment.

In A Quiet Place: Day One, a woman who may be the last human survivor on a Manhattan infested with aliens checks her iPod and pulls up Nina Simone singing “Feeling Good.” She needs a song to express defiance and how, as her world lies in ruins, she exults in being alive. Sentiments Bricusse put to music six decades ago seem perfect.

That same song popped up on the premiere of the Netflix series Obliterated to help a bomb defuser steady his hand. And family audiences spent last Christmas singing along with “Pure Imagination,” crooned by Timothée Chalamet’s Willy Wonka to tie him firmly with the Gene Wilder original.

Bricusse often wrote lyrics for other composers’ music. He wrote “Pure Imagination” and “Feeling Good” with Anthony Newley. At other times, he wrote both music and lyrics. He was a master of many styles, all of them entertaining, and it turns out that’s every bit as true of the papers his widow, actress Yvonne “Evie” Romain Bricusse, best known for co-starring with Elvis Presley in Double Trouble, donated recently to the Library of Congress.

Mark Eden Horowitz, a senior music specialist at the Library of Congress, where the Bricusse papers join those of Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rodgers, the Gershwins and others, says that in addition to the scripts, musical scores, notes for ideas on shows that never came together, recordings and other items, what’s remarkable about this particular collection is Bricusse’s notebooks.

“Just sort of drugstore notebooks,” he says, holding one out, “but he lived his life in these things.

“They’re beautifully calligraphed, most pages are numbered and often dated and indicate where he was in the world at the time, Acapulco on November third, 1986.” And then he does these amazing calendars.”

Calendars rendered in five or six colors, and necessary because “he’s constantly working on 10 or 12 projects at a time.”

Some of those, no one’s heard of. “For a long time, chuckles Horowitz, “he was working on a musical version of Henry VIII. I swear he considered 30 different titles, one of which was The King & I & I & I & I & I.”

There are lots of fun discoveries. Bricusse’s lyrics sound so natural that it’s hard to imagine they didn’t just spring from him that way, but the notebooks are where he polished them. Take page 58 in the one where he’s working on “Goldfinger.” He has heart of gold/this heart is cold….web of sin but don’t come in. But he has too many “golden”s, so in the notebook, he’s slashed through golden, in “the man with the golden touch” and replaced it with “Midas.”

That turned an OK line into a classic and goes much better with the next line that he already had: “A spider’s touch.”

That’ll be a fun find for somebody’s dissertation. Mixed in with that sort of thing is marginalia about theater, movies, budgets, life … seemingly whatever was on his mind.

“He asks himself questions,” says Horowitz, “he puts down what he’s thinking, asks himself should he be thinking that? Why is he thinking this? What should he do about it?” It’s his thoughts about everything that is ideal for researchers.

Asked whether George Gershwin did something similar, Horowitz almost laughs. “No. I’ve never seen a collection with this much-organized detail.”

So, it is a treasure trove, but also one in which those details are sometimes puzzling — blocks of letters, say, in some of the margins. It turns out that’s how Bricusse wrote out the melodies — not with musical notes on sheet music as most composers do, but using the alphabetical letters that represented the notes. C, A, B-flat, and so on. Horowitz figured out how to read them and how to play the melodies if asked.

These pop songs were Leslie Bricusse’s life work. The notebooks, decorated, colorized, wildly ornate, feel — perhaps inadvertently — like art, themselves.

Horowitz, noting that Bricusse’s widow is an artist and that they collaborated on some things together, agrees. “Clearly, yes, he has a sense of design, and color, and he seems to want to keep things lively and interesting and attractive.

“I think he’s an entertainer in every sense. He wants people to be bubbling joyous; I think he’s always looking for the rainbow, for the magic.”

Judging from the notebooks that have found a new home in the Leslie Bricusse Collection at the Library of Congress, he found it.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Hawaii’s Democratic Gov. Josh Green says President Biden has yet to make a final decision about whether he will continue his bid for a second term.

“If the president doesn’t think he can beat Donald Trump, he will hand it off to Kamala [Harris],” Green said during an interview on Saturday with NPR.

“The president has to make this decision with his life-long colleagues from the Senate and his wife. Jill Biden is a superstar. They’ll make the right decision,” Green added.

Green, a close Biden ally, said he still fully backs the president should he choose to continue his campaign. He said he thinks it’s likely that Biden will stay in the race.

He spoke after a closed-door session with the president, which took place on Wednesday in the wake of Biden’s disastrous debate performance.

Green was among 25 Democratic governors who met with Biden. Eleven were present in the room, while others, including Green, joined via video link.

The meeting came amid growing questions, in the media, from voters and voiced by some Democratic lawmakers about the future of Biden’s candidacy.

Green acknowledged feeling alarmed after watching the debate, but said he was reassured by Biden during their meeting.

Noting that he is also a family physician, Green said, “I asked him the question, among our governor colleagues, ‘Mr. President, are you OK? What happened on Thursday, the debate, was terrible and you weren’t yourself.’ ”

Green said Biden responded by saying he had been “exhausted” and “under the weather” during his exchange with Trump.

In the June 27 debate, Biden struggled to speak clearly, appeared to lose his train of thought, and seemed unable to counter Trump’s arguments, which fact-checkers later concluded were laced with false claims.

Biden: “It’s just my brain”

Biden, 81, and his opponent, former President Trump, 78, are “elderly,” Green said: “Biden and Trump are going to have moments when they’re not totally clear. It’s who they put around themselves, how they respond when they need to.”

Green confirmed that during the meeting with governors, when asked about his health, Biden said that he was in good shape but then quipped, “It’s just my brain.”

Biden’s campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement: “He was clearly making a joke and then said, ‘All kidding aside.’ ”

Green also read the remark as Biden’s effort at humor.

“It is difficult for a person to actually put together humor like that if they’re not cognitively sound,” Gov. Green said. “He was absolutely making a joke and I know America may not be in a joking mood right now.”

Green said he hoped the media would also focus on Trump’s mental acuity and character.

“If we’re going to judge one gentleman … we should judge the other,” he said.

Biden is “in it to win it”

In public appearances and interviews in the days after the debate, Biden has acknowledged performing poorly on the stage, while saying he will remain in the race.

“I’m not leaving,” Biden said on Wednesday in a fundraising email sent to supporters.

Three other Democratic governors spoke about their meeting with Biden on Wednesday during a press conference outside the White House.

All three Democrats signaled support for Biden.

“President Joe Biden is in it to win it,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. “All of us said we pledged our support to him because the stakes could not be higher.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz acknowledged Biden turned in “a bad performance” in the debate, but added “it doesn’t impact what I believe: He’s delivered.”

Walz said he believed Biden was “fit for office.”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore called the conversation with Biden “candid” and “honest.”

“We were honest about the feedback we were getting. We were honest about the concerns we were hearing from people,” he said.

Copyright 2024 NPR

A luxury retailer is making its own high-end purchase: Saks Fifth Avenue’s parent company is buying Neiman Marcus for $2.65 billion, in a merger that would create a dominant upscale department store in the U.S.

HBC, the owner of Saks and the Canadian chain Hudson’s Bay, has agreed to buy Neiman Marcus, which also owns Bergdorf Goodman. Amazon will take a stake in the new combined company, slated to provide technology and logistics as part of the deal. Another tech partner, Salesforce, will also be a minority shareholder. The head of Saks.com, Marc Metrick, will run the new combined firm Saks Global.

Saks and Neiman Marcus have long weighed the idea of combining forces to confront a changing market. Neiman was the first department store to topple into bankruptcy at the start of the pandemic, later emerging under new investment-firm owners.

Both chains are facing pressure, particularly from luxury brands that are increasingly flexing their muscles over department stores, connecting with shoppers directly and opening their own retail locations.

“For years, many in the industry have anticipated this transaction. … This is an exciting time in luxury retail, with technological advancements creating new opportunities to redefine the customer experience,” HBC’s CEO Richard Baker said in a statement, touting a plan to use artificial intelligence to create personalized shopping experiences online and in stores.

Luxury shopping went gangbusters as pandemic-weary shoppers splurged on upscale handbags, outfits and skin care. But the shopping spree has now cooled. Those purchases now are often done online.

Rival Macy’s, the owner of Bloomingdale’s, has been closing stores and shifting its focus more to its luxury business, facing big pressure from activist investors to turn around its slumping business. Meanwhile, the family that owns Nordstrom is trying to take the company private.

The merger is likely to face tough scrutiny from federal regulators, who’ve recently sued to block several high-profile deals between market leaders. That includes the mergers of top two grocery chains, Kroger and Albertsons, as well as another luxury merger: Tapestry, which owns Coach and Kate Spade brands, wants to buy Capri Holdings, which owns the Versace and Michael Kors brand.

Saks Fifth Avenue has 39 stores across North America plus numerous off-price stores called Saks Off 5th. Neiman Marcus has 36 stores plus two Bergdorf Goodman locations.

Copyright 2024 NPR