IT’S A SMALL COFFIN AFTER ALL
Disney songwriting engine Richard M. Sherman has chim chim cher-eed out of here aged 95, coincidentally the same amount of time “It’s a Small World After All” lasts. He and his elder brother Robert were encouraged by their father, Tin Pan Alley songwriter Al Sherman (not the Hello Mudduh Hello Fadduh guy, though both did die in the same year), to follow in his footsteps. The Sherman Brothers would occasionally scrape the heights of the pop charts in the early 60s with “You’re Sixteen” and several Annette Funicello hits, but it was in crafting the soundscape of Disney classics they truly found their groove. Walt Disney instructed them to write songs that could appeal to children and adults alike, and they did just that in supplanting the soundtracks to “Mary Poppins”, “The Jungle Book”, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, “The Aristocats”, and “The Sword in the Stone” to name but five. It is a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious legacy you can hardly complain about. He was unique for God, It’s Brutal Out Here.
Richard M. Sherman
12 June 1928 – 25 May 2024, aged 95
💀💀💀💀💀 + 👻 = 9 POINTS