I wrote the song ‘Positive Thinking’ specifically for Morecambe & Wise. (My former wife, Jackie Trent, co-wrote the lyrics.) The year was 1971. Eric and Ernie asked for something bright and cheerful that could work as an alternative TV-show closer to their usual ‘Bring Me Sunshine’. They also included ‘Positive Thinking’ in their stage shows.
I knew Eric and Ernie quite well. Jackie had appeared on their TV show and was sometimes the female singing guest in their stage shows. I also met them frequently at Variety Club charity events.
‘Positive Thinking’ was my idea for the title. There had been a bestselling book in 1952 called The Power of Positive Thinking written by the so-called father of ‘positive thinking’, Norman Vincent Peale. Even in the 1970s the phrase ‘positive thinking’ was still in regular use.
I did a quick demo and Eric and Ernie liked it immediately. A songwriter can’t ask for more. Their huge viewing figures made the song instantly popular and they adopted it as their own. They also ‘adapted’ it because, in fact, the melody they sing isn’t quite ‘the tune what I wrote’. Who cares? They made it famous and the words ‘positive thinking’ are now more identified with Morecambe & Wise than with Norman Vincent Peale.
Many years ago, we went to Biagi’s Restaurant in Upper Berkeley Street, London. Eric, with two or three others, was halfway through his meal at a nearby table. By then, he and Ernie were regularly performing ‘Positive Thinking’. Shortly after we received the menu, Eric crawled on all fours over to our table and shouted in my ear, ‘HERE’S SOME POSITIVE THINKING – DON’T HAVE THE FISH!’ He then crawled back again to his own table. Being a small restaurant no one could miss seeing or hearing him. Only Eric Morecambe could do that and not be asked to leave on account of disorderly conduct.
Jackie and I also had the pleasure of entertaining Ernie and his wife Doreen on our boat in Sydney when he toured Australia with his one-man show, following Eric’s untimely death. (Actually, it was really a ‘two-man’ show because Ernie ‘wisely’ included many hilarious Eric and Ernie TV clips.)