RIP Robert Sherman

[Mistral]

Songwriter Robert Sherman passed away. Many of you are going "Who?" No, not Bobby Sherman-Robert, one half of a sibling team that gave us songs damn near everyone reading this knows. See, Robert worked for Disney for a long stretch and won Oscars and Grammys for such songs as :

A Spoonful of Sugar
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Chim-chim-cheree
Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang
Ringo Starr's "You're Sixteen"

as well as songs for The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Sword and the Stone, The Parent Trap, The Aristocats etc.

The real claim to fame comes from writing the most played song in the world. If you get tunes stuck in your head easily-stop reading now. No, seriously.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
because this was also the guy that co-wrote *drumroll*

"It's A Small World".

Thanks for all the joy you brought me as a child, all the charming songs I learned (and still know by heart) and still find myself singing in unguarded moments.

RIP-you will be remembered, Robert Sherman. For generations to come.

 

[chardman]

...as well as songs for The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Sword and the Stone, The Parent Trap, The Aristocrats etc.

The Aristocats. About kitties. The Aristocrats, on the other hand, is a documentary by Paul Provenza and Penn Gilette, about the world's most repugnant and filthy joke. Not at all the kind of thing Bob would likely write a song for.

 

[Mistral]

...as well as songs for The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Sword and the Stone, The Parent Trap, The Aristocrats etc.

The Aristocats. About kitties. The Aristocrats, on the other hand, is a documentary by Paul Provenza and Penn Gilette, about the world's most repugnant and filthy joke. Not at all the kind of thing Bob would likely write a song for.

Typo. Thanks for being so worried about that little detail you missed the point of a posting honoring a man who's achievements will (and do) actually survive beyond his lifetime-something all of us would love to accomplish and few of us succeed in.

 

[chardman]

Just because I didn't opt to comment on Sherman's passing, and instead chided you for your typo, doesn't mean I missed the point. It simply means I opted not to comment about it, at that time.

We used to have a joke that there was a special circle in Hell for whoever wrote "It's a Small World". Of course, Bob more than atoned for that particular sin when he and his brother wrote "You're Sixteen" for Ringo.

His songs were part of the soundtrack of my childhood. Of course he'll be mourned and missed.

 

[E-DUB]

Minor nitpick. The song "You're Sixteen" was not written for Ringo, but was a hit in 1960 for Johnny Burnette.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Didn't recognise the name but I certainly recognised the songs. RIP.

 

[Alrik]

I can stick with the spirit of the thread. RIP RS. Thanks for the memories and music.

 

[chardman]

Minor nitpick. The song "You're Sixteen" was not written for Ringo, but was a hit in 1960 for Johnny Burnette.

Frankly doesn't matter who it was written for, merely that it was written. And I remember the Burnette version as well. Again, all part of the soundtrack of my youth.

Think I'll need to see this in Bob's honor...

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOQr7fYME34&feature=share[/yt]

 

[JiNX-01]

Condolences to the family. I loved the songs he wrote.

BTW, I believe you left out my favorite from Mary Poppins: Feed the Birds.

 

[scotpens]

And so another part of my childhood slips away. The Sherman brothers were good at writing simple but memorable tunes that kids could pick up easily. I used to drive my mother nuts banging out the songs from Mary Poppins on the piano when I should have been practicing my Mozart and Beethoven.

Minor nitpick. The song "You're Sixteen" was not written for Ringo, but was a hit in 1960 for Johnny Burnette.

Thank you. Some of you younger folks may think “Makin’ Whoopee” was written for Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys. Or Irving Berlin wrote “Puttin’ on the Ritz” for Taco in 1981.

 

[chardman]

^Don't be silly. Everyone knows "Puttin on the Ritz" was written for "Young Frankenstein"*.

Yeah, I hate that, and am kind of ashamed I earlier played to that, by repeating the OP's flub about Ringo's "You're Sixteen", when I knew Starr's recording was a cover of an earlier tune I knew as a kid. But I knda figured that few enough here were old enough to remember Ringo's version, so why even bring up the Burnette version?

What's really fun is when a song is a cover of an even earlier cover. Like when some kid talks about "Tainted Love" as a Marilyn Manson song, only to be corrected by a slightly better educated friend that MM is covering a tune from the 1980s by the band Soft Cell, totally unaware that the song was originally recorded by Gloria Jones way back in the mid 1960s.








*Actually, I know perfectly well that "Puttin' On The Ritz" was the title song of a movie musical from the late 20s or early 30s iirc.

 

[ancientone51]

Sad to read he had passed, but what a legacy!
So many good memories.
RIP dear sir.

 

[23skidoo]

Awful news - what talent. What iconic songs.

It should be noted that his brother, Richard Sherman, is still very much alive and still writing songs, including the "Make Way for Tomorrow Today" song for Iron Man 2. Still, it's sad this famous partnership is gone forever.

Alex

 

[Larkin251]

It simply means I opted not to comment about it, at that time.

 

[uite0914]