Richard M. Sherman, the Academy Award-winning songwriter who collaborated with his late brother on scores for Disney classics such as Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Jungle Bookdied on Saturday (May 25) aged 95.
Sherman, who also co-wrote “It's a Small World (After All)” — considered one of the most covered songs of all time — as well as “You're Sixteen,” a 1960 hit for Johnny Burnette, who Ringo Starr took to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of age-related illness, Disney announced.
Songwriters Hall of Fame members and National Medal of Honor recipients, Richard and his older brother, Robert Sherman, wrote approximately 1,000 songs and scores for 50 films and are said to be responsible for more film scores than anyone in history.
For their work above Mary Poppins (1964), the Sherman brothers made two triumphant trips to the Academy Awards stage at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, accepting trophies for best original score and best song (“Chim Chim Cher-ee”).
The pair, who were hired by Walt Disney himself and worked directly with the Hollywood legend for nearly a decade, were also nominated for the songs “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” from the 1968 United Artists film. “The Age of Not Believing' by Bed knobs and broomsticks (1971); “The Slipper and the Rose Waltz (He Danced With Me/She Danced With Me)” by The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella (1976) and “When You're Loved” by The magic of Lassie (1978). They received three more nominations for their score.
Their film work was also included The parent trap (1961) – which included “Let's Get Together”, their inventive “duet” performed by Hayley Mills – The sword in the stone (1963), Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), The AristoCats (1970), Snoopy, come home (1972), Charlotte's Web (1973), Tom Sawyer (1973) and Movie The Tigger (2000).
In 1961, Richard and Robert separately watched British actress Julie Andrews perform two songs from her Broadway musical. Camelot on The Ed Sullivan Show and she knew immediately that she would be perfect for the lead Mary Poppins. In a smart move, they asked Disney's secretary to buy tickets Camelot for the head of the studio and his wife, and he saw the same thing in Andrews that they did.
Mary Poppins may have been inspired by characters in books written by PL Travers, but it was the siblings and their songs — including the 34-letterer “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Sister Suffragette” and the lullaby “Feed the Birds “, which was Walt's favorite song – which shaped the film's narrative.
“You don't get songs like 'Spoonful of Sugar' without a genuine love of life, which Richard passed on to everyone lucky enough to be around him,” said Pixar director and chief creative officer Pete Docter. “Even in his 90s, he had more energy and enthusiasm than anyone else, and I always left refreshed by Richard's infectious zest for life.”
In a 2011 interview with THRScott Feinberg, Richard described how “the boys” — as Disney affectionately called them — came to work. Mary Poppins.
“One day, he had just accepted one of our songs—I think for a Zoro episode or something — and he said, “You know what a nanny is?” And we said, “Yeah, it's a goat.” We thought he would make a picture about a singing nanny goat or something. So he says, “No, no, no, in an English nursery school!” “Oh, yes, sure, in an English nursery school there is a nanny, that's right.”
“Well, he says, 'Well, I have a book. I want you to read this and tell me what you think.' He didn't say, “I have this book, I want you to write me a title song for it,” or “I have a situation I want you to write for this character to sing.” He simply said, “Read the book and tell me what you think.” “
In other words, Disney was looking for a plot.
In a 2013 interview, Richard described the brothers' first meeting with Travers. “Her opening line to us was, 'I don't even know why I'm meeting you guys, because we're actually not going to have any music in this movie, and we're actually not going to have any dancing and dancing.' We were completely devastated.”
Of course, Walt and the boys would change her mind, and in an unforgettable backstage photo taken at the 1965 Oscars, the trophy-bearing brothers are seen planting a kiss on the cheeks of Andrews, who is holding her own Best Actress statuette. .
Disney also asked the Shermans to come up with a catchy theme tune for its “UNICEF Salutes the Children of the World” attraction at the 1964 World's Fair. Before the brothers got involved, it featured the obnoxious cacophony of various national anthems sung by sound dolls -animatronic.
“But Walt, are we stuck with this title, 'Greet the Children of the World?' “UNICEF?” It's a mouthful,” Richard told Feinberg. “He said, 'Yes. Well, it's the young children of the world who are the hope of the future — that's what we're trying to say.” He kept saying, “Little children are the hope of the world,” and we were like, “Yeah, little… world. This is! And let's not blow each other up!'
“Now, what do we call this? Let's finally use our heads. “Finally… small… finally.” This rhymes. “Small world after all.” And that was the way we came up with the expression.”
Disney liked it so much, they named the attraction after themselves, and “It's a Small World After All” is now played at theme parks around the world, thousands of times a day. Richard described the song as “a prayer for peace” and said it's the brothers' only tune that makes people want to “either kiss them or kill them”.
Despite their overwhelming success, the brothers didn't always get along, as has been documented The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story (2009), produced and directed by their sons Gregory V. Sherman and Jeffrey C. Sherman.
“Bob was on track. I was in mine,” Richard said. “I wouldn't say it was anything but that his interests were different. I've always been a bit of an extrovert. he was always an introvert. … Basically, one of the chemistry things that worked with us was the fact that we both had a stereoscopic view of things, so we could put our thinking together, and success came that way.”
Robert died in March 2012 aged 86. BJ Novak played him and Jason Schwartzman played Richard in the Disney film Saving Mr. Banks (2013), on its construction Mary Poppins.
Richard Sherman was born in Manhattan on June 12, 1928, 30 months after his brother. Their mother was a Broadway actress and their father was Tin Pan Alley composer Al Sherman, whose song “Potatoes Are Cheaper, Tomatoes Are Cheaper, Now's the Time to Fall in Love” was a favorite of Eddie Cantor. His tunes were also recorded by Maurice Chevalier, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Cyndi Lauper.
The family moved west in the mid-1930s, and Richard attended Beverly Hills High School. He and his brother attended Bard College in New York (his major was music, while Roberts was English literature and painting), and Richard wrote what is now the school's official song.
Challenged by their father — “Guys, I bet you couldn't even write a song that some kid would leave his lunch money to buy on record!” — the boys began writing, and their first song, “Gold Can Buy You Anything But Love,” was recorded in 1951 by singing cowboy Gene Autry.
In 1958, they celebrated their first top 10 hit with “Tall Paul”, covered by Mouseketeer Annette Funicello. They wrote a string of hits for the teenager they called “our lucky star,” and Mr. Disney took notice. He gave the brothers various assignments and then offered them jobs as staff composers when he told them he loved their ideas for Mary Poppins.
They were named Disney Legends in 1990.
Most recently, Sherman wrote a song with composer Fabrizio Mancinelli for Andreas Deja's animated short 2023, Muska. “Mushka's Lullabye” was performed by soprano Holly Sedillos.
Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Elizabeth; his children, Grigoris, Victoria and Linda. five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Asked by Feinberg what the best lyrics he ever came up with were, Sherman touched on the ones he wrote for “A Man Has Dreams” from Mary Poppins.
“When it comes to writing what a man really feels – every man, every man – he dreams of doing something great, of walking with the giants in his own special world,” he said. “An insurer wants to be the top in the insurance business. I dreamed of being a top man in the music industry, so it went out of my head.”
I said, “A man dreams of walking with giants.” I wanted to be with Gershwin. Who knows if I got there? I wanted to carve out my place in the edifice of time, so what I was saying — I was speaking for myself, really.”
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
