Robert B. Sherman

There will be, no doubt, plenty of encomiums for Robert B. Sherman, who died today in London. And there will be talk about his relationship with Richard, his music-writing brother/partner. (Watch The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story for a super bio of the two.) Grinwout's doesn't have much to add to that; we are enormous fans, and seldom do more than a couple of days go by for us without a Sherman brothers song or two being played around the house. But there is something that should be remarked about Robert's skill, and that is this: the man could make lyrics out of anything. He was the ultimate genius for hire. For example, on being asked to write a song about the Tiki Room, he wrote the lyrics, "In the tiki tiki tiki tiki Tiki Room," and they worked! For the musical of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, he wrote the lyrics "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," and they worked! Winnie the Pooh? How about the lyric "Winnie the Pooh"? He was more than capable of going deep into an emotion or a thought, like any of the best lyricists, but he was also able to find the fun in the simplest of lyrics, that others might never have thought workable. (It didn't hurt that his brother was capable of providing music for these lyrics.) I've always gotten the impression that Walt would sit around and think, we need a song about cement mixing, and he'd dial up the brothers and tell them, "I need a song about cement mixing!", and half an hour later they'd be in his office singing the song "Cement Mixing." And a week later it would be a hit.

Their biggest hit? Easy: If you can get "it's a small world (after all)" out of your mind, you've accomplished the impossible. "Feed the Birds" was Walt's favorite; hard to argue with that. "You're sixteen, you're beautiful and you're mine," might sound a little illegal, but "you come on like a dream, peaches and cream..."

Here's the boys and Walt pitching to GE.



R.I.P. Robert B.