Songfacts®:

• This was featured in the movie Bugsy Malone, a musical starring child actors set in the Prohibition era. Scott Baio and Jodie Foster had the lead roles.
• Paul Williams wrote this and all the other songs for the film. Williams has had a long and successful career as both a songwriter and an actor, working on the films The Phantom Of The Paradise, Smokey And The Bandit and The Muppet Movie, and writing songs for Helen Reddy, the Carpenters, Three Dog Night and Scissor Sisters. This is a very important song for Williams, who told Songfacts in 2007: "I'm 17-years sober, and have essentially been given my life back. I've never been happier, never been more productive. And I've really gotten to a place where I really see my life as a gift. I feel like Lazarus, I feel like it's a second life. And those two lines of that song, 'You give a little love and it all comes back to you, you're gonna be remembered for the things that you say and do,' is probably something you could put on my headstone. That's my philosophy right there. You know, treat the world lovingly and with respect, and the world will take care of you."
• Coke used this in a very popular commercial that aired during the 2007 Super Bowl. The ad is styled after the violent video game Grand Theft Auto, but instead of pillaging, the character does various good deeds around the city as this song plays.