Remembering Richard Sherman

Hey, everybody. As you can see, we're here with Jimmy Mulligan the
Great and producer Chris and I. And this is an add on, this
is a little a special one. We just had some news that a mutual
good friend of ours and yours, Richard Sherman, has passed away. And
well, if the name doesn't ring a bell, the five hundred songs that
he wrote will Mary Poppin's all Mary Poppins songs, all the songs from Jungle
Book, and I'm pretty sure he had a few songs in Winnie the Pooh
too. Yeah, I could be wrong, but yeah, it's uh,
you know, he's one of the good guys, and he's he's a legend,
a legendary man. He's I remember meeting him for the first time saying,
well, thank you for the soundtrack of my life. Yeah, it
was, Uh, it's so funny to add on to what Jim was just
saying. The wonderful thing about the Sherman brothers, of course, is their
music and the legacy that they've left and really the ability to tell stories.
Something Richard always said, things that were simple, singable and sincere, and
they certainly accomplished that, and also anybody who ever got to know Richards as
a person, he was, without question, one of the kindest people I've
ever met. I mean, I think you would attest to that. I
mean, this morning, the show, busy stuff aside. He was a
star as a human being. I mean, his very soul was pure kindness
and pure love. And you couldn't write those songs without having having the kind
of soul and the kind of spirit that he had. And the love for
people. God, he loved. He genuinely loved people. Yeah, really
did. I remember I was privileged to introduce oh, my whole family,
Margaret and all our daughters, and there were there at the premiere of Christopher
Robin and he was gracious. He was like he was meeting princesses. You
know. He was just so kind and so great. And then, my
goodness, I've got so many stories. I'm overflowing with them, and I
remember just different things. Like I asked him when I first met him,
I said, so, how many how many movies did you do the soundtrack
for the Legendary And and Dick was walking back and forth, he goes,
twenty five movies. We did twenty five different movies. And if you count
Chitty Chitty Bang bang, it's what and his brother, you know, was
sitting down there going no. Twenty eight, twenty eight, and he goes,
wait, hold on, hold on. I think I was twenty eight,
could be twenty seven. It was just the two of them together.
Boys, the boys. Yeah, and that's what we'll call them, Yeah,
the boys. You know, Well, what's gonna happen here? And
I heard a great story that when Walt is it was prepping to do Mary
Poppins, he read the book and he gave the book to the Shimmer brothers
and said, I'm thinking of doing this movie and I would like to turn
it into a musical. So could you read this and see what you think
it would be appropriate to put a song here there, you know, wherever.
And the story goes that when they came back to him, they all
had identical spots. Jim Jimmery was right there. You feed the Birds was
right there. And I think a lot of people know that Feed the Birds
was I get from what I hear it was Walt's favorite song that they ever
wrote. It was this Friday afternoon song. He would just say play it
and the boys would come in in play a neat little addend of this,
and we could go for hours, which we won't do because we're in the
middle of a show and right now. But when I went through the archives
with with Greg Sherman, Richards, Richard's son, and Tim O'Day and Howard
Green and the whole the whole Disney gang, we were in Walt's office and
Becky Klein went over and she pulled this old, uh, this old tattered
yellow book off the shelf that was Waltz. And when when Dave Smith had
gone into the archives and really done a fabulous job, the whole team of
of making Walt's office at exactly as it was, to the point of where
the pencils are sort of playing in the direction of the amount of paper clips,
and the books were in the same order that Walt had. So Becky
sort of picked up this old, you know, yellowed tome and pulled it
down and opened it up, and on the inside of it it said,
uh, forgive me for quotes I said, for mister Disney. May Mary
Poppins b as she's so is she so often put it a pleasure of a
tree love pel travers and of course you know chills. The second I saw
that, and I'm walking through the Walt Disney archives of Disney one hundred last
night where they have the Pooh Bear from the film that they used with you
for Christopher Robbin and I turned and I yelped to my wife and my brother
in law. I said, oh my god. I turned around and the
book is there next door. And we were talking about Richard last night before
he we found out he had passed, and it was just like his little
sense of humor and maybe maybe it was Walt sort of, you know,
guiding us through that, that that legacy. So the end of the movie
was Richard playing the piano like they brought you know, he was in a
little cute little musker hat on the beach. Yeah, and the kind of
had that barbershop quartet look about him. But he was only one quarter of
it, but it was it was really great. And I'm gonna say,
I'm busy, busy, busy doing nothing and nothing is good enough for me.
That's classic Sherman Brothers. It's so Sherman, isn't it. I mean,
busy doing nothing and nothing's great. You know, it's it's and you
were you guys were out there on the city in your chair, getting a
sun tan, Yes, getting getting a for tan, whatever it was.
But yeah, great memories, great memories for free from the Sherman brothers.
What a precious man and the legacy that you've shared with me. They said
that that Richard Sherman was Tigger, and obviously we have We've got Richard Sherman
being. It was a Jim Cummings being being Tigger. So it truly was.
He was a He was a bouncy, bubbly lollipop of a man.
Yeah, for sure, just dear, dear, So like I said that,
the ending of of Christopher Robin, it just gave me chills thinking about
it, sitting there on the beach pounding it out. It was great.
And if you want to do yourself a favor, look up all the songs
that he wrote. And you're including the Wiener Schnitzel theme. Oh the boys
wrote back in the fifties. I guess, oh my gosh, the Wiener
Schnitzel theme. Yeah. Another neat thing is that theme to Christopher Robin.
Oh I'm whatever he played at the end of Christopher Robb. Yeah, song
that was used in a commercial here in the UK, and so I was
over a few years ago. I was in the UK, and I forget
what brand it was, but they used that song in the UK from Christopher
Robin and it was this really well known commercial here so sorry advert yeah,
so yeah. So if you think you don't know them, you were wrong,
because you do. And I have to tell you that really briefly.
Uh, I don't. I don't remember what we were recording, but I
went in and like a goose, I said, oh, by the way,
I found the cure for It's a Small World. And and I know
you never saw, you know, Bob throw his head back and labbing.
Tell him again, he found the cure for it's a small worm. I
said, well, everyone wants a cure for that, for that song.
That yeah, that earworm. You know, you get it in your head
and you're done. And I'll okay, it's okay, I'll give you a
cure in a second. And I said it's the Beatles. The Beatles are
the cure. And I said, well, no, I mean, but
one song in particular, because it's a lilting melody, the Long and Winding
Road he goes, and that's the cure. Yeah, And he just thought
it took the Beetles to find the cure for the Sherman brothers. That's not
bad, that's sing and it's just crack. I'll never forget it. Well
it, but it would it would have to be the Beatles that would that
would defroll that song. Out of Earth, Yeah, out of your earth.
He said, either either wanted to kiss him or kick him. He
preferred kisses, but he got it, you know, Yes, I got
stuck at Christmas time with them when it's a small world. One time we
were together in the boat riding it broke. Well, it was only about
five minutes. Oh yeah it was that was were ready to confess the crimes
you did even commit. Absolutely so, God, he's so missed it,
going for hours, but you missed. Yes, yes, we could probably
do this all day, but we also probably shouldn't before I'll end up being
modlin' you know. So, uh my goodness, I think it would be
wonderful to have maybe maybe Pooh, give a little thank you to to Richard
Sherman for for everything that Richard and Bob Sherman for the what they've contributed.
So take it away, pooh bear, don't dum do do do do.
Thank you very much for putting words and music in my mouth and uh do
wonderful thing about tigers. To Sherman brothers, thanks guys, very sweet of
you, Jimbo. Good night, folks. Mm hmm