They were the “boys” to Walt Disney, who had privately invited Richard and Robert Sherman to work as full-time team artists at his Burbank workshop in 1960.
The Sherman brothers were the perfect fit for Disney’s household- film factory, where they built a career creating what Richard Sherman previously described as “upbeat, passionate, happy songs that make people feel good”.
The music siblings were liable for the bouncing, tongue- twistingly spectacular” Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and” A Spoonful of Sugar” from the hit 1964 movie music” Mary Poppins”, for which they won two of the film’s five Oscars—for best score and best song, the disturbing” Chim Chim Cher- ee”.
The Shermans were just as invested in the first Disney magic as the workshop artists who created the excursions and theme parks. Collectively, they wrote dozens of songs for Disney Television productions and movies for as” The Sibling Trap”,” The Absent- Thinking Professor”,” Summer Magic”,” That Darn Cat”!,” The Weapon in the Stone”,” The Jungle Book”,” The Aristocats”,” Bedknobs and Broomsticks” and” Winnie the Pooh” cartoons.
They also penned the theme song for Disney’s TV show” The Wonderful World of Color” and wrote songs heard in Disney theme- park attractions, including” The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room”,” There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” and the unforgettable — in ways both good and bad —” It’s a Small World ( After All )”.
” They were made by God for Walt Disney”, said Dick Van Dyke, who stared in” Mary Poppins” opposite Julia Andrew. ” They somehow managed to convey Walt’s meaning in those songs”.
The gregarious half of the prolific songwriting duo, Sherman died Saturday, May 25, at Cedars- Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, due to age- related illness. He was 95. In a press release, the Walt Disney Company revealed the news of his passing.
Robert Sherman, who was two- and- a- half years older than his brother,  , died in London , in 2012 at 86.
They were struggling songwriters when they ( and Bob Roberts ) wrote” Tall Paul” ,which became a No. 7 hit in 1959 for Annette Funicello, who the brothers regard as their” Luck Star”.
That led to the Shermans writing a string of other pop songs for the ex- Mousketeer, including the hit” Pineapple Princess”. And that in turn resulted in assignments to write songs for various film and television productions at the Disney studios.
During one fateful meeting with” the boys” in August 1960, Disney handed them a copy of a book and said,” Read it, and tell me what you think”.
The book was” Mary Poppins”, P. L. Travers ‘ tale of a magical English nanny.
” Mary Poppins,” in which Julie Andrews played the title role and Dick Van Dyke played Bert the chimney sweep, was” the turning point in our lives, and it’s the highest point in our career,” according to Sherman.
He and his brother “underlined some chapters that we thought were really musical” after reading the book. And when we showed Walt our notes and played the song sketches, he pulled out his book, and he’d underlined the very same chapters”, Sherman recalled in a 2011 interview with the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Massachusetts.
Disney surprised them by enticing them to ask if they wanted to work full-time at the studio at the conclusion of their meeting.
It was, Sherman said,” the greatest day of our lives”.
He never forgot the moment, once” Mary Poppins” finally got underway, when he first heard Andrews singing one of their songs for the movie.
In a 2011 interview with the Philadelphia Daily News, he recalled that she sang” A Spoonful of Sugar” in her incredible voice. ” I was sitting in]the recording ] booth listening to it, and I was crying. It was magical”.
The Sherman brothers were “deeply involved” throughout the filming of” Mary Poppins,” which earned Andrews a best actress Oscar after Robert Sherman passed away, Van Dyke claimed in a statement to The Times.
They were constantly on the set assisting Julie and I in our song interpretation, he said. ” They had a lot to do with the atmosphere, the lightness”.
The Shermans ‘ hauntingly poignant” Feed the Birds, about an older woman selling bags of crumbs to feed the hungry birds, was Disney’s favorite song from” Mary Poppins.”
The song, Sherman told the Philadelphia Daily News in 2011, was really a” prayer for understanding—be kind, give love. It does n’t cost anything.”
When Disney first heard their musical concept for the song, he told them”, That’s what it’s all about, is n’t it?”
From that point on, Disney would frequently meet with the Shermans in his office on Friday afternoons to talk about what was happening in the studio. Then he’d say”, Play it.”
” So I would play piano and sing’ Feed the Birds ‘ for him,” Richard Sherman recalled in a 2004 Sacramento Bee interview”. Then he’d say,’ Well, have a good weekend, boys,’ and we’d go home. That was our Friday afternoon.”
After Disney died in 1966″, it just was n’t the same,” Sherman said in a 1985 Times interview”. I really do n’t want to say anything negative about anyone]at Disney]. It just was n’t the same with Walt gone.”
After leaving the studio in 1968, the Sherman brothers wrote songs for films such as” Charlotte’s Web” and collaborated on screenplays for films such as” Tom Sawyer,”” Huckleberry Finn,”” The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella, “and” The Magic of Lassie.”
They also wrote the music and lyrics for the Tony Award- nominated 1974 Broadway musical” Over Here!,” starring Maxene and Patty Andrews.
Besides their two Oscar wins for” Mary Poppins,” they received five Oscar nominations for their work on” Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,”” Bedknobs and Broomsticks,”” Tom Sawyer “and” The Slipper and the Rose.”
The Shermans received the National Medal of Arts in 2008 for their creation of music that “has brought joy to millions” and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Richard Sherman was born on June 12, 1928, in New York City as the son of Tin Pan Alley songwriter Al Sherman. In 1938, the family relocated to Beverly Hills.
Robert served in the Army in Europe, where he was one of the first GIs to enter the Dachau concentration camp after the Germans fled and was later seriously wounded in the knee. While Richard attended Beverly Hills High School during World War II, Robert later went to Beverly Hills High School.
After the war, both brothers entered Bard College in Annandale- on- Hudson, New York. Robert studied literature, Richard majored in music.
Richard and his brother both had ideas for writing the great American novel, and Richard had the ambitions to pursue a career as a symphonic composer after graduating. But as Richard later recalled”, Nothing was happening with either of us.”
When their father challenged them to write a song that some kid would give up his lunch money to buy, they were sharing a small apartment above a dry cleaner on West Pico Boulevard in 1951.
They eventually ended up writing the country-western song” Gold Can Buy Anything ( But Love ),” which Gene Autry, a singer-cowboy star, recorded in 1951.
After Richard served a time in the Army from 1953 to 1955, the brothers separated, though more songs came after.
Before they reteamed for” Tall Paul” in 1958, they both had songs written for other people. ” Among their hits was Johnny Burnette’s 1960 recording of” You’re Sixteen,” which peaked at No. 8. It reached No. 1 in 1974 when Ringo Starr’s recorded the song.
Although Robert and Richard were primarily the composers, they typically collaborated on both the words and the music. Indeed, when asked who did what, their standard reply was”, He writes the words and the music, and I write the music and the words.”
The Sherman brothers and their families have had separate personal lives since the middle of the 1960s despite their close professional collaboration, which they frequently completed one another’s sentences.
Their strained personal relationship was revealed in the 2009 documentary” The Boys: The Sherman Brothers ‘ Story, “directed by Richard’s son, Gregory, and Robert’s son, Jeff.
” There was n’t a single specific incident. But I can still see the separation between our fathers and our families in 1965, Jeff Sherman said in a letter to the Toronto Star in 2009.
” During our professional lives, we maintained a facade of unity, and Bob and I have great love and respect for one another,” Richard said. However, we agreed to live completely separate lives from one another in order to continue working together. We were comfortable working together, but otherwise it would have been explosive.”
They were, he said”, very different people.”
” In the broadest terms, Bob is an introvert who wanted to write great novels, and I was the showman, “he said”. I loved to perform, and he’d rather sit in a corner reading a book. …
” We’re not idiots. There was a good thing going on. Rather than petty personal differences, success and creativity prevailed. There was no way we would allow those differences to sabotage our work.
Richard is survived by his wife of 66 years, Elizabeth, son Gregory and grandsons William and Matthew, daughter Victoria Wolf, son- in- law Doug Wolf, and grandchildren Mandy and Anthony. He is also survived by his daughter from a previous marriage, Lynda Rothstein, as well as her two children and three grandchildren. May 31 is the day of a private funeral at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles. Plans for a celebration of life will be made public at a later time.
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