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| King Louie, 1967 |
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| Robert B. Sherman 1925-2012 |
OK – Everybody put on your childhood memory hats. Ready? Go!
The Flubber Song (The Absent-Minded Professor)
Let’s Get Together (The Parent Trap)
The Ugly Bug Ball (Summer Magic)
The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room (The Enchanted Tiki Room, Disneyland Park)
It’s a Small World (The New York World’s Fair)
A Spoonful of Sugar (Mary Poppins)
Chim Chim Cher-ee (Mary Poppins)
Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag) (Mary Poppins)
Supercalifragilisticexpialidiocious (Mary Poppins)
The Monkey’s Uncle (The Monkey’s Uncle)
That Darn Cat (That Darn Cat)
Winnie the Pooh (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree)
Up, Down and Touch the Ground (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree)
Little Black Rain Cloud (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree)
I Wan’na Be Like You (The Jungle Book)
Trust In Me (The Jungle Book)
Are We Dancing? (The Happiest Millionaire)
The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers (Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day)
Heffalumps and Woozles (Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)
The Age of Not Believing (Bedknobs and Broomsticks)
• Pick your favorite…mine is I Wanna be Like You.
• Pick your favorite…mine is I Wanna be Like You.
ALL of these songs, plus hundreds more are part of my childhood. ALL of them were written by the same pair of brothers: Robert B. Sherman & Richard M. Sherman. Yesterday it was announced that Robert passed away at 86 years of age.
What an amazing legacy was left by these two men! Their songs are embedded in the DNA of my generation – and my children’s generation. The Jungle Book is still one of my all-time favorite movies, and I spent plenty of years singing little ones to sleep with Winnie the Pooh songs. Fondly. I can’t even begin to count how many times I rocked a baby to sleep singing “I’m Just a Little Black Rain Cloud”. I must add that I do a pretty good Tiger voice as well. Woo-hoo-hoo-hooo!
King Louie was probably my introduction to jazz and scatting, and I thought people in England actually talked like Dick Van Dyke. As years have passed, I have developed a near hatred of It’s a Small World, and I think Disneyland wrecked the sanctity of the Tiki Room a few years back, but those are just tiny aberrations that didn’t even come to mind as I plunked down $250 to see Mary Poppins on Broadway.
HOWEVER…
While I am sad at Robert’s passing – there is something about the Sherman Brothers that makes me even sadder: They didn’t like each other. Plain and simple. For 40 years they avoided each other, and cut each other out of their lives. They made no bones about the estrangement – and it lasted for over 40 years!
While I am sad at Robert’s passing – there is something about the Sherman Brothers that makes me even sadder: They didn’t like each other. Plain and simple. For 40 years they avoided each other, and cut each other out of their lives. They made no bones about the estrangement – and it lasted for over 40 years!
“By day, Richard and Bob Sherman could lock themselves in a studio for hours and clock out after writing the jolliest of songs. But by night, outside of a quick photo op at film and theater premieres, the brothers could hardly muster even a cheerful smile toward one another. This awkward arrangement continued for decades, and reached a point where the sides of the family, including cousins Gregg and Jeff, were forbidden to speak to one another, despite growing up just a five- minute drive apart.” (Link here)
Just a few years ago, those cousins got together and created a documentary about their fathers called “The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story” (Link here) It is an amazing documentary that tells the story of their working and personal relationships. (I highly recommend it, and I think it’s on Netflix.) Their achievements were staggering – their relationship was tragic.
Yes, the Sherman brothers were genius, prolific, clever, talented, musical etc.
Isn’t it sad?
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Grew up with these songs. My kids grew up with these songs. My grandkids . . . well, you see the pattern. Why is it that genius (and I don’t use this term lightly) always makes such emotional demands. What a great pity that two such gifted artists lived such a bereft emotional familial existence. Family is everything.
What great songs! What a sad story. Sadly, my children have had an estrangement since New Years 2011. It is hard for a mother when children will not see each other! All good people, most of them trying to live the gospel. But a little bit too much stubborn and pride. I pray that we can resolve this before 40 years go by!
Wonderful songs! Sad story. 🙁 Thanks for sharing that. I had no idea about any of it. I guess you never know what is going on in someone’s life–even if their work is amazing and seems unaffected.
Those two were awesome! I didn’t know that they didn’t like each other. So sad.
Sandy
My favorite was always “Feed The Birds.” The scene of the lady feeding the birds while the song played is the only scene that stuck with me as a child.
Yeah, this was a walk down memory lane with those song titles. Now I kinda wanna watch Jungle Book. No kids in the house – strange? Yeah, I thought so.
More saddened by their relationship. I thought of my sons and their friendships with each other and am grateful we are strife free these days.
You mean successful Hollywood artists have personal relationship problems? I’ve never heard that before. Just kidding. Most of these songs are on the Disney compilation CDs that our kids like to listen to in the car. Too bad artistic genius and fame seem to have a reverse correlation with happiness in the home.
How could they write a song like “That’s what friends are for” and then walk away still hating each other?
That was my thought, as well. Maybe the melancholy part of the song was them wishing they could fix that relationship.
Gosh how do I pick?? I’ve never been good at picking favorites. I love them all, except for Feed the Birds. That one always bored me growing up. I was uncultured obviously. I always feel sad when such great talent passes. Because now we are left with Beiber and his “baby baby baby oh.”
How sad! I also love their songs, but it makes me so sad to think that their relationship was never healed, and now one of them is gone. 🙁
There’s a good lesson it this!
My favorite song from that list has got to be “A spoonful of sugar.” I often find myself humming or singing it. And not just because as a child I dreamed of actually being able to eat a spoonful of sugar, but because I love the deeper meaning of how just having a happy attitude can help us with the nastiness of whatever ‘medicine’ life throws at us!
The story of the brothers sounds fascinating to me. I will have to find it somehow and watch it, although I don’t have Netflix. I could actually write my own story about sibling rivalry. For years growing up as children my little sister and I hated each other. I mean like, truly could not stand each other at all. I am pretty sure that my parents thought we were going to Hell for it, and I am sure they cried over how bad we hated each other.
Well, luckily for us (and them) we now love each other dearly and I can’t imagine NOT having her in my life. I am closer to her than most of my siblings, and we are like BFF’s!! 😉
So, there’s a little “happy ending” for ya’! (And probably the longest ‘comment’ I have ever left anywhere!)