Richard M. Sherman has died. As half, with his brother Robert, of legendary songwriting pair The Sherman Brothers, Sherman wrote some of the most iconic scores and songs to ever grace the Disney film library—and theme parks, with the pair’s “It’s A Small World (After All)” making a strong case for itself as the most formidable ear worm in all of human history.
Besides working as a composer and songwriter on dozens of Disney projects—including , which won the pair double Oscars, for score and song, in 1965—Sherman was also an occasional screenwriter, notably writing a pair of successful musical adaptations of the works of Mark Twain for the screen in the 1970s. , Sherman—who continued to be credited in Disney projects as recently as last year, usually as a “musical consultant” on works referencing his iconic tunes—died in California on Saturday, due to age-related illness. He was 95.
The younger of the two brothers, Sherman was one of two sons of Al Sherman, a songwriter prominent in New York in the 1930s. The family eventually moved to Beverly Hills, where both boys caught the musical bug; after completing military service, they eventually ended up as staff writers for Disney, where “It’s A Small World,” originally written for the New York World’s Fair in 1964, became an early hit. That same year (and after writing music for Disney films like and ) the brothers’ reputation and profile exploded, thanks to their work on Disney’s lavish adaptati.
