Richard M. Sherman

Richard Morton Sherman, born June 12, 1928, in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants Rosa (Dancis) and Al Sherman, was an American songwriter, composer, and book writer whose Broadway credits include Over Here!, Mary Poppins, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He died on May 25, 2024. His father, Al Sherman, was a successful popular songwriter during the Tin Pan Alley era, known for songs such as "No! No! A Thousand Times No!!" and "You Gotta Be a Football Hero," and it was a challenge from him that prompted Richard and his older brother Robert B. Sherman to begin writing songs together.

The Sherman family relocated to Beverly Hills, California in 1937, following seven years of frequent cross-country moves. During his time at Beverly Hills High School, Sherman developed a passion for music and studied piano, flute, and piccolo. At his 1946 graduation ceremony, he performed a musical duet with classmate André Previn, with Previn on piano and Sherman on flute. Both would go on to win Academy Awards for music in 1964: Previn for Scoring of Music – Adaptation or Treatment for My Fair Lady, and the Sherman Brothers for Music Score – Substantially Original for Mary Poppins, along with a second award that year for Best Original Song for "Chim Chim Cher-ee." Sherman attended Bard College, where he majored in music and composed numerous sonatas and art songs.

In 1953, Sherman was drafted into the U.S. Army and assigned to the Army Band and glee club, serving as musical conductor for both groups until his honorable discharge in 1955. He was stationed solely within the United States during his service. Within two years of graduating from Bard, he and Robert began their songwriting partnership. In 1958, the brothers scored their first Top Ten hit with "Tall Paul," performed by Annette Funicello, which drew the attention of Walt Disney. Disney subsequently hired the Sherman Brothers as staff songwriters for Walt Disney Studios. Among their most recognized work from this period is "It's a Small World (After All)," written for the 1964 New York World's Fair attraction of the same name, which Time has reported may be the most publicly performed song in history.

The Sherman Brothers' film work spanned a wide range of Disney and non-Disney productions, including The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats (1970), The Parent Trap (1961 and 1998), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), Snoopy Come Home (1972), Charlotte's Web (1973), The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), and Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992). The Walt Disney Company has credited the Sherman Brothers with producing more motion picture musical song scores than any other songwriting team in film history. Robert and Richard Sherman worked directly for Walt Disney until Disney's death in 1966, after which they continued as freelance songwriters across film, television, theme park projects, and stage musicals.

Their first post-Disney assignment was the 1968 Albert R. Broccoli production Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which earned the brothers their third Academy Award nomination. In 1973, they became the only Americans to win First Prize at the Moscow Film Festival, for Tom Sawyer, for which they also co-wrote the screenplay. The Slipper and the Rose, a musical adaptation of the Cinderella story featuring both song score and screenplay by the Sherman Brothers, was selected as the Royal Command Performance for 1976 and attended by Queen Elizabeth. That same year, the brothers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located directly across from Grauman's Chinese Theater. Their song "You're Sixteen" reached Billboard's Top Ten twice, first with Johnny Burnette in 1960 and again with Ringo Starr fourteen years later.

On Broadway, Sherman's credits as composer and book writer include the Tony-nominated Over Here! (1974), which was the highest-grossing original Broadway musical of that year, as well as the stage adaptations of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins. The stage musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang premiered in London in 2002, where it became the longest-running production in the history of the London Palladium. A Broadway production followed in early 2005 at the Foxwoods Theatre, and the Sherman Brothers wrote six additional songs specifically for the stage versions. Mary Poppins: The Stage Musical made its world premiere at the Prince Edward Theatre in London in December 2004, produced by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, and opened on Broadway in 2006.

In 2000, Sherman and his brother returned to Disney with the song score for The Tigger Movie, their first major Disney motion picture in over 28 years. Sherman later rewrote "I Wan'na Be Like You" for Jon Favreau's 2016 remake of The Jungle Book, adjusting the lyric to reflect the film's depiction of King Louie as a Gigantopithecus. He wrote three new songs for the 2018 film Christopher Robin — "Goodbye Farewell," "Busy Doing Nothing," and "Christopher Robin" — and performed the latter two himself. He also served as a music consultant on Mary Poppins Returns. In June 2005, Sherman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside his brother Robert. By May 2023, a feature film development deal was announced for the Sherman Brothers' animated musical Inkas the Ramferinkas.