MOVIE MUSIC UK

Composer Robert B. Sherman, one of the greatest and most influential songwriters in the history of Hollywood, died on March 6, 2012, at his home in London, after a short illness. He was 86 years old.

Robert Bernard Sherman was born in New York, New York, in December 1925, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. His father, Al, was a composer and arranger in Tin Pan Alley in New York, and was a contemporary of George Gershwin; the Shermans eventually relocated to Los Angeles in 1937, and Robert attended Beverly Hills High School. Robert joined the Army in 1943 aged 17, and was awarded the Purple Heart medal after being shot in the knee in 1945, an injury which forced him to walk with a cane for the rest of his life. After completing his national service, Sherman and his brother Richard started a songwriting company, and they enjoyed success writing popular songs for artists including Annette Funicello. This success brought them to the attention of producer Walt Disney, who eventually hired them as staff songwriters for the Walt Disney Studio.

Sherman wrote songs for several Disney productions in the early 1960s, including The Absent Minded Professor (1961), The Parent Trap (1961), and The Sword in the Stone (1963), but achieved lasting fame and critical acclaim following the release of Mary Poppins in 1964. The songs that Sherman wrote for that production – “Feed the Birds,” “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” “Chim-Chim-Cheree,” and “Let’s Go Fly a Kite,” among others – became immediate classics and pop culture icons, and won Sherman Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

Over the course of the next twenty years Sherman would write songs for dozens of other Disney productions; he received Oscar nominations for his work on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1968, Bedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971, Tom Sawyer in 1973, The Slipper and the Rose in 1977, and The Magic of Lassie in 1978, and also wrote for projects such as The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats (1970), Snoopy Come Home (1972), Charlotte’s Web (1973), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1974), and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977).

Sherman was also instrumental in designing the musical sound of Walt Disney’s theme parks, and songs that he wrote can still be heard today; “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” is heard in the Carousel of Progress at Walt Disney World in Florida, “It’s a Small World” – which was originally written for the 1964 New York World’s Fair – is still heard in the Disney Park installations of the same name, and “The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room” is heard in the Enchanted Tiki Room attractions across the world.

Sherman received numerous personal awards and accolades for his work. In 1976 he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in 1990 he was honored as a Disney Legend, in 2005 he was inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 2008 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush, the is the highest honor the United States Government bestows on artists. In addition to his Oscar wins and nominations, Sherman was nominated for a BAFTA, four Golden Globes nine Grammys, and a Laurence Olivier Award in 2002 for the London West End musical version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In addition to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, several of his other screen musicals were also adapted for the stage, including Mary Poppins in 2004. He was the subject of a documentary film – The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story – which was released to critical acclaim in 2009.

Sherman re-located to live in London in 2002. His wife Joyce Ruth Sasner, pre-deceased him in 2001. He leaves behind his brother, Richard, and four children, one of whom Robbie is also a songwriter.