Richard M. Sherman

One of Walt Disney's most successful songwriting teams was that of brothers Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman who created the music heard in Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, and many more Oscar-nominated scores for family films. After attending Bard College, the duo started out writing country and rock tunes. At the outset of the 1960s, they began working for Disney, starting with 1961's Parent Trap. Just four years later, the brothers were awarded Oscars for Best Score and Best Song for the music of Mary Poppins and the song (not "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" but) "Chim Chim Cheree." 1967 brought another lasting accomplishment for Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman with the animated feature The Jungle Book. The Academy Award nomination went, this time, to the only song in the film that the brothers did not write, "Bare Necessities," but the rest of the music in this children's favorite was written by the duo, including the theme "My Own Home," "Trust in Me," and "I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)." One year after the success of The Jungle Book came another hit, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which won the Sherman Brothers another Oscar for Best Song. The duo quit working for Disney in the early '70s, but before they left, they scored Aristocats (1970) and 1971's Bedknobs & Broomsticks, which garnered them more Oscar nominations for Best Score and Best Song. After this, the Sherman Brothers began freelancing work on screenplays and scores, including Snoopy, Come Home (1972), Tom Sawyer (Oscar-nominated score), Charlotte's Web (1973), Disney's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella (1977; Oscar-nominated score and song), and The Magic of Lassie (1979; Oscar-nominated song). Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman also wrote the famous song "It's a Small World." A book about the careers of the Sherman Brothers was published in 1998, entitled Walt's Time: From Before to Beyond. Richard M. Sherman died on May 25, 2024 at the age of 95. ~ Joslyn Layne, Rovi