(12 June 1928 - 25 May 2024)
The songwriting team that was the Sherman Brothers has achieved almost legendary status, certainly in the world of musical films. They allegedly wrote more songs for films than other musical partnership. Together they were famous for writing songs for Disney’s live action and animated features, the most popular being Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Charlotte’s Web, The Sword in the Stone and several Winnie the Pooh films. They also wrote for non-Disney productions including The Slipper and the Rose and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the latter a great success as a film, and as a stage show it ran for over three years at the London Palladium.
The older brother, Robert B. Sherman, was born in 1925 and died in 2012 aged 86, while the younger Richard M. Sherman was born in 1928 and has died at 95 of an age-related illness on 25 May 2024. Richard Morton Sherman was born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants Rosa Dancis, a silent film star, and Al Sherman, a popular songwriter. The family moved around a lot but eventually settled in Beverly Hills. Richard attended Beverly Hills High School where he took an interest in music and studied several instruments. In 1953 he joined the US Army where he played in the army band and the glee club as conductor for both. At Bard College he also studied and composed music.
At the suggestion of their father, the two brothers began writing songs together. In 1958 Robert established a music publishing company which later worked with Disney’s own publishing outfit. The same year brought them their first hit song, ‘Tall Paul’ for Disney’s television Mickey Mouse Club. Their fate was sealed as they became staff songwriters for Disney, where they wrote not only for films but for the Disney theme parks, too. Their song ‘It’s a Small World’, written for the New York World’s Fair in 1964, became allegedly the most played song ever on the planet.
Although P.L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins, was against having songs in the film version of her book, they were included and really made the film the outstanding success it became. The mixture of live action and animation was enhanced by such songs as ‘Feed the Birds’, ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ and ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’ (which won an Oscar for best original song). The film itself was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and won for Julie Andrews, best editing, best effects and best music. The film translated to the theatre as Mary Poppins: The Stage Musical which was a hit in the West End, on Broadway and on tour. Among the other songs was ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ which must hold the world record for the longest single-word song title.
Other Disney films for which the Sherman Brothers wrote include The Absent-Minded Professor, The Parent Trap, Moon Pilot, Bon Voyage, In Search of the Castaways, Summer Magic, The Gnome-Mobile, The Happiest Millionaire and The Aristocats, but that is just a small portion of their output. They wrote both music and lyrics together which often led to disagreements but the partnership certainly produced the goods to order. They also wrote for television and even had a hand in writing some screenplays such as Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and The Slipper and the Rose, Bryan Forbes’ version of Cinderella. Having won two Oscars for Mary Poppins, the Shermans were also honoured with umpteen Oscar nominations. But there were also many other nominations from Bafta, the Golden Globes and at the Grammys. In 2005 they were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and in 2008 were awarded the National Medal of the Arts, the highest honour bestowed on individual artists by Congress and presented by the US President.
Richard Sherman had married Corrine Newman while at Bard College and they had a daughter, Lynda. Later he married Ursula Gluck and they had a son, Gregory, and a daughter, Victoria Lynn. Robert Sherman eventually moved to London but they continued to work together via e-mail and telephone until he died. He had married Joyce Sasner and they had four children.
MICHAEL DARVELL
