‘Mary Poppins’ songwriter Richard Sherman dies at 95

Los Angeles [US], May 26 (ANI): Composer Richard M Sherman, who penned songs for Disney film classics such as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, has passed away. He was 95.

He died on Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills due to age-related illness, Variety reported.

Richard partnered with his late brother Robert, and the pair won two Oscars in 1965 for their work on Mary Poppins.

Even when they weren’t working for the Mouse House, their songs carried a Disney sensibility — bouncy and positive, without any of the cynicism so prevalent in creative works (including music) in the late 1960s and 1970s. All of the Shermans’ songs had a catchy hook, and straightforward, unfussy lyrics with an upbeat attitude. At their best, the duo came up with “Feed the Birds,” heartbreaking in its tenderness, or “Wanna Be Like You,” an infectious Dixieland-style number.

They wrote the score for a WWII-era musical, “Victory Canteen,” that ran for seven months at the Ivar Theatre in Hollywood. That evolved into the 1974 Broadway show “Over Here!” with a book by Will Holt and starring two of the Andrews Sisters, Patty and Maxene. It was nominated for five Tony Awards but is best remembered for a cast of little-known performers including John Travolta, Marilu Henner, Treat Williams and Ann Reinking.

Robert Sherman had died in 2012, but Richard was an enthusiastic campaigner for the film during awards season, appearing at screenings and fronting a sing-along at the Beverly Hills Hotel for awards voters.

In May 2009, Disney released the documentary “The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story” and later that year, the company released “The Sherman Brothers Songbook,” a two-CD set covering 42 years’ worth of their songs for the studio.

Most recently, Richard Sherman appeared in the animated short film, “Once Upon a Studio,” the animated short that celebrates 100 years of stories and magic.