Simple, Singable and Sincere

The news of songwriter Richard M. Sherman's passing hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday evening - maybe nearly as deep as the sorrow I felt with the death of Prince in 2016. That may sound like a wild juxtaposition, but the work of the Sherman brothers has lit up countless lives, particularly if you identified, empathized or were at any point enamored by the works of The Walt Disney Company. More than any other songwriters who worked for the studio (and, I'd argue, as much as the animators themselves), Richard and his older brother Robert defined and codified the Disney experience through sound the way the "Nine Old Men" and their disciples did through image.

I've now written eulogies for both Bob (who died in 2012) and Dick on the Internet, sharing the latter with my dear friend and creative partner Joe Marchese (who had the privilege of meeting him!), and I'd direct you to those to get the best sense I can put into words of the significance of their cultural impact. Here, I'm going to spin you a quick Top 10 of Sherman Brothers songs I adore dearly. I hope you find them as "simple, singable and sincere" as the brothers did of every song they set out to write.

Honorable mention: the rest of Mary Poppins (1964)

You'd be forgiven to imagine this list was just songs from Disney's adaptation of the P.L. Travers stories about a magical British nanny. Poppins - the first film my mother saw as a child - has become one of my 10 favorite films, its ebullient charms bursting at the staves of every music cue. My proper list only includes two tunes from the picture, but I can sing the praises of any song in the score: "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Jolly Holiday," "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" (a word I can spell from memory), and particularly "Step in Time," my pick for favorite dance sequence on film and a stunningly easy way to forgive Dick Van Dyke's baffling attempt at a Cockney accent.

10. "Makin' Memories" (from Magic Journeys, 1982)

The Shermans didn't start writing exclusively for Disney until the early '60s, after a series of late '50s pop novelties for Mouseketeer Annette Funicello (including the Top 10 hit "Tall Paul"). The Disney brand was by then a known quantity for three decades, and by the end of the '60s, Walt would pass away - but it sure feels like there are Sherman Brothers songs in the walls and foundations of the studio buildings and under the concrete that became Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Case in point: this jaunty tune was written for the preshow of a 3-D film at Disney World park EPCOT, and still packs an emotional wallop as if it was written for an Oscar winner. (I have to share my preferred version, from the Disney Sing-Along Songs: Disneyland Fun videotape, which I played often as a child.)

9. "Ten Feet Off the Ground" (from The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, 1968)

No assignment was too small for "the boys," like this long-forgotten post-Walt period piece about the titular family band, settling to the Dakotas and supporting the presidency of Grover Cleveland(??) in song. The magical "Ten Feet Off the Ground" is a love letter to the concept of music itself, and it's perhaps most potent when sung by a legendary American voice who knew a thing or two about its most potent charms like Louis Armstrong.

8. "The Spectrum Song" (from Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, 1961)

Later musical work at Disney, particularly the Broadway/pop-infused brilliance of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, helped codify the ways and means a song would spring on you in a film or feature. But the brothers, sons of Tin Pan Alley songwriter Al Sherman, were just as at home building a song for vibes as much as plot purposes. When Walt Disney's TV programming slot moved from ABC to NBC in 1961 - and, crucially, went from black-and-white to color, something the studio had already been taking advantage of in their filming - the first episode of the new era kicked off with Ludwig Von Drake (Paul Frees) singing a paean to every color of the rainbow and more - a fluffy little number that might get stuck in your head the way it does mine.

7. "The Monkey's Uncle" (from The Monkey's Uncle, 1965)

Beyond Disney's squeaky-clean image, the Shermans had no problem in the early rock and roll idiom; consider their "You're Sixteen," a two-time hit for Johnny Burnette (No. 8, 1960) and Ringo Starr (No. 1, 1973). Their masterstroke in the genre, though, was this silly number from an Annette Funicello picture of the same name. Backed by The Beach Boys, who were just about to slide from America's pre-eminent surfing band to the jaw-dropping pop brilliance of Pet Sounds, "The Monkey's Uncle" sounds as natural to the group as if Brian Wilson himself had penned it.

6. "Let's Get Together" (from The Parent Trap, 1961)

Believe me, the fun of this lovely little pop song wasn't lost on me even before I had twins of my own.

5. "I Love to Laugh" (from Mary Poppins, 1964)

Perhaps unfairly forgotten in the wall-to-wall bangers of Poppins, "I Love to Laugh" sounds as silly as it is, its melody buoyed by an inspired one-scene performance from legendary comedian Ed Wynn. (Here is where I must credit another one of Poppins' legendary contributors, orchestrator Irwin Kostal. The return to the swaying "hook" of the song every time another joke is told in the film is brilliant.) It's a testament to the Shermans' brilliance that they could weave a wonderful song about one of the simplest, most fun things you could do any day of the week and really make magic out of it.

4. "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat" (from The Aristocats, 1970)

Indeed, Satchmo covered the Shermans twice (the second with another cut from Family Band called "Bout Time"); perhaps he sensed underneath their light Americana style was a real appreciation for the nation's distinct musical makeup. This was rarely more evident than on the assured "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat," a slick jazz/blues number that gives way to a hot New Orleans breakdown. Hallelujah!

3. "I Wan'na Be Like You" (from The Jungle Book, 1967)

As hot as "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat" was, the real crown jewel of Disney jazz was this tour de force for two of the best scatters in the game: Louis Prima as King Louie and Phil Harris as Baloo. I'm gone, man - solid gone!

2. "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" (from Carousel of Progress, 1964)

As hard as it can be to do sometimes, it's ultimately more fun to believe in progress, innovation, and the dream of tomorrow. Walt Disney was not a perfect person, but he understood that concept better than most, and brilliantly put the boys to work on a song that would represent that promise for the 1964 World's Fair in Queens and endures to this day. My mom attended that World's Fair, but the real joy for me was visiting the Carousel of Progress in the Magic Kingdom in the '90s, when my late uncle Joe was an engineer in Tomorrowland and would maintain attractions like this one. I have wonderful memories of him at work: six feet tall, steel-silver hair, permanently tanned by a lifetime of naval service and boating, dressed like a pilot in his white short sleeve shirt with epaulets and grey slacks. I miss him and credit him with stoking my love for magical art like what the Shermans delivered for fans around the world.

1. "Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag)" (from Mary Poppins, 1964)

"Play it." Even after Mary Poppins became an Oscar-winning blockbuster and Bob and Dick Sherman moved on to many other projects at the Disney studio, Walt would make a request many Friday afternoons before ending the work week: he would walk over to the brothers' office - his smoker's cough often giving him away before he entered the door - and ask to hear them perform the emotional core of the film. Less about the act of feeding birds and more about the simple, transformative act of love and generosity - the principle which Disney, beyond all the behemoth corporate growth of the company that long outlives him, tried to make central to his life.

For many, many, many, many years, Dick was on hand to play it for us the way he played it for Walt. Julie Andrews may have made it an immortal song, but Richard M. Sherman was never too far away to remind us of the honesty and humanity within the song, and within us. Listen, listen. It's calling to you.