Rest In Peace, Richard M. Sherman: A Look At The Sherman Brothers' Most Beloved Compositions

On 25 May, 2024, the world lost a Disney Legend when Richard M. Sherman passed away at the age of 95. As the Sherman Brothers, Richard and his older brother, Robert B. Sherman (who passed in 2012), may be responsible for more motion picture musical song scores than any other songwriting duo in history.

The brothers, fondly referred to as 'The Boys' by Walt Disney, crafted the songs and score for some of Disney's most beloved classics, including Mary Poppins, The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh, and The Jungle Book, and also wrote music for many Disney theme park attractions, most of which still play in the parks today. Outside of Disney, Richard and Robert also wrote the songs and score for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

In memory of Richard M. Sherman, let's look back at some of the Sherman Brothers' most loved creations.

1. 'It's A Small World (After All)'

In the 60s, the Ford Company enlisted Walt Disney and his Disneyland Imagineers to create attractions for it's pavillion at the 1964 World's Fair. The deal proved lucrative, as while Ford paid the lion's share towards building the attractions, Disney had negotiated to have them relocated to Disneyland once the Fair was over.

One of these attractions was It's a Small World, an Old Mill style boat ride in which guests sail along a river while being serenaded by small animatronic children from around the world. The song that accompanies the ride, It's a Small World (After All), was written by the Sherman Brothers. While it is often parodied or dismissed as annoying, it succeeded in everything Walt Disney asked for the song to do: It can be sung as a round, and easily translated into different languages.

Relatives of the Shermans have claimed It's a Small World (After All) is one of the most performed and translated songs ever produced. In 2022, the Library of Congress selected a copy of the song's original recording to be preserved for it's cultural significance.

2. 'Feed The Birds'

The songs in Mary Poppins, from Supercallifragilisticexpialidocious to Let's Go Fly A Kite, are all written by the Sherman Brothers, and all beloved, iconic classics. However, there is something particularly special about Feed The Birds.

Sung by Mary as a lullaby/bedtime story for the Banks children, Feed The Birds tells the story of the Bird Woman, eliciting donations from passersby in exchange for birdseed. The song leads to the final major conflict of the film, when Michael spots the Bird Woman and wishes to spend his Tuppence on seed, but faces resistance from his Father, George, who would prefer he invested it.

Aside from it's importance to the plot of Mary Poppins, the song was also a dear favourite of Walt Disney, who would often ask Richard to play it for him on the Piano. This Piano now resides in a recreation of Walt's office on the Disney archive tour.

3. 'Chim-Chim Cheree'

Mary Poppins would not be the same film without Dick Van Dyke's performance as Bert, the loveable Chimney Sweep who often joins Mary Poppins and the Banks children on their adventures. And Bert would not be Bert without the song Chim Chim Cheree.

As well as being a recurring motif in the film's score, Bert sings verses of the song as segues into different segments of the film, before it is performed in full towards the end. The song earned the Sherman Brothers an Academy Award nomination.

4. The 'Winnie The Pooh' Theme Song

After gaining the film rights to A.A Milne's Winnie-The-Pooh books, Walt Disney realised that the characters were not as well known to American audiences. To combat this, Disney commissioned a series of theatrical shorts in the hope of boosting the characters' popularity enough for an eventual feature film. The efforts were aided by a theme song introducing the Hundred-Acre Wood, Pooh Bear, and all his friends.

This theme was, of course, penned by the Sherman Brothers. It has continued to be used in most Disney Winnie The Pooh projects since, unchanged except for a single line extended to include Tigger in the early 2000s (Tigger was not in the first short, Winnie The Pooh and the Honey Tree, for which the theme had originally been written). Sadly, Walt Disney died without ever seeing the theme used in a theatrical film, passing away during production of the shorts.

5. 'The Bare Necessities'

While Walt Disney Pictures The Jungle Book has many beloved songs, The Bare Necessities is among the most immediately recognisable. The song establishes the growing bond between Baloo the Bear and Mowgli, the 'man-cub', as Baloo promises the boy an easy life in the Jungle.

The Jungle Book is often referred to as the final film to carry Walt Disney's personal touch, as while he fell ill and passed away during production, he still had some input before this occurred. The film's songs, among them Bare Necessities, were the final new pieces the Shermans played for Walt. The song, and film sequence surrounding it, remain so iconic that very little was changed about either when adapting them for Jon Favreau's live-action The Jungle Book remake in 2016.

6. 'The Age of Not Believing'

Walt Disney initially acquired the rights to Mary Norton's two novels about the adventures of three children and a magical travelling bedknob gifted to them by friendly witch Eglantine Price in the early 1960s, as a back up when he could not initially secure the rights to Mary Poppins. The planned film was delayed in favour of Poppins, but was eventually made, under the title Bedknobs and Broomsticks, in 1971. While not considered a classic on the level of Mary Poppins, the film is something of a cult hit.

One of the film's songs, 'The Age of Not Believing', about the struggles of growing up and learning to believe in oneself, earned the Shermans another Academy Award nod. Sung by Angela Lansbury in her role as Eglantine Price in the film, it is mostly directed towards Charlie, one of the children in her care, as she realizes he is not as willing to believe in magic as his siblings.

The performance set Lansbury on her path to Disney Legend status, as she was remembered when Disney was searching for the right person to voice Mrs. Potts, and therefore sing the title song, for Beauty and The Beast in 1991.

7. Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang

The Sherman Brothers took a rare step away from the Disney stable to write the songs for the 1968 adaptation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Ian Fleming's novel about a magical former racecar. This of course included the film's title track.

The track earned the brothers yet another Oscar nomination, and has wonderful staying power, remaining unchanged for the film's stage musical adaptation.

8. Hushabye Mountain

Many family musical films of the 60s and 70s included at least one tearjerker song on their soundtrack. While Mary Poppins had 'Feed The Birds', Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has 'Hushabye Mountain'.

Initially a lullaby sung to Caractacus Potts's children, Jeremy and Jemima, Caractacus later sings it to comfort and bring hope to the exiled children of Vulgaria. It is also heavily featured in most versions of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stage musical, and has been covered by a number of notable artists, from Tony Bennett, to, most recently, Amanda Holden.

9. Most of the soundtrack for 'The Tigger Movie'

By the late 90s, the relationship between Richard and Robert Sherman became increasingly volatile, but despite not working on the direct-to-video film Pooh's Grand Adventure, the brothers managed to come together at least one last time to write songs for The Tigger Movie. Like Grand Adventure, The Tigger Movie was eventually slated for direct-to-video release. However, the quality and high test audience scores for the Sherman Brothers songs, including 'The Whoop-de-dooper Bounce', 'Round My Family Tree', and 'How To Be A Tigger', convinced Disney executives to upgrade it to a theatrical release.

Unfortunately, despite their critical role in the film's success, The Tigger Movie became one of the last projects the brothers successfully worked on together. While each maintained contact with the other's children, it is believed they spoke little in the later years of Robert's life, even when both attending events celebrating their work.

10. 'Busy Doing Nothing'

Despite his older brother's death in 2012, Richard M. Sherman made one more solo return to the Winnie The Pooh universe, for the 2018 live-action film Christopher Robin. Richard contributed three songs to the soundtrack: 'Goodbye Farewell', 'Christopher Robin', and 'Busy Doing Nothing'.

Richard enjoyed returning to work on the film, saying that 'Winnie The Pooh became a dear friend of his' through his work on the earlier films and shorts, and that Christopher Robin told a wonderful story. He appears in a cameo in the film's credits, singing 'Busy Doing Nothing' as the characters enjoy a holiday on the beach.

Rest In Peace, Richard M. Sherman. Your work will continue to touch the childhoods of many for years to come.