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Richard M. Sherman, 1928-2024
Composer Richard M. Sherman, one of the greatest and most influential songwriters in the history of Hollywood, died on May 25, 2024, after a short illness. He was 95 years old.
Richard Morton Sherman was born in New York, New York, in June 1928, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He grew up in a musical household – his father, Al, was a composer and arranger in Tin Pan Alley in New York, and was a contemporary of George Gershwin – and then after the Shermans relocated to Los Angeles in 1937 Richard attended Beverly Hills High School, where he was a classmate of André Previn. After completing his national service, Sherman and his brother Robert 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. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2023, Part 7
I’m pleased to present the latest instalment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world. This article, the seventh of 2023, covers five scores from across genres and countries: a documentary about female conductors, an animated short film in the classic Disney style, a Spanish romantic comedy, a French political comedy, and a bloody horror film about sloths on the rampage! Read more…
MARY POPPINS – Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Walt Disney had long kept the book Mary Poppins in his office and was determined to one day bring it to the big screen for his daughters. The book series authored by P. L. Travers offered a series of fantastic tales, which unfortunately lacked a cohesive story. Disney tasked the Sherman brothers and screenplay writer Don DaGradi to create a cogent narrative. Robert Stevenson was tasked with directing the film and he secured a fine cast, which included Julie Andrews making her acting debut as Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke as Bert, David Tomlinson as George Banks, Glynis Johns as Winifred Banks, and Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber the Banks children Jane and Michael. The story tells the tale of a nanny who comes to the aid of a family in disarray. She uses her magical gifts to bring back joy into the lives of the children, but to also reconnect George with his family. The movie was both a critical and commercial success earning eight Academy Award nominations, winning five for Best Actress, Best Film Editing, Best Special Effects, Best Original Song and Best Film Score. Read more…
SAVING MR. BANKS – Thomas Newman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The much-loved Disney feature Mary Poppins celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2014. It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long since the world first learned the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, or were first able to hear the worst Cockney accent in cinematic history courtesy of Dick Van Dyke, but it’s true, and the legacy and popularity of the film remains as strong today as it was in 1964. The new film Saving Mr. Banks, directed by John Lee Hancock, tells two parallel stories. Firstly, it charts how the film Mary Poppins was made, with the irascible English spinster P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) traveling from her home in London to Los Angeles, where she is wooed mercilessly by no lesser figure that Walt Disney himself (Tom Hanks), in an attempt to secure the rights to her book, which she is loathe to give up. Secondly, and possibly most importantly, it explores in flashback Travers’ childhood in rural Australia, and how her relationship with her loving, caring, but hopelessly drunk and irresponsible father (Colin Farrell) helped inspired her work, and her famous umbrella-wielding nanny. Read more…
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