When D23, Disney’s Official Fan Club had its first Destination D event, called “Disneyland ‘55”, at the Disneyland Hotel, I had the privilege to attend. The end of Day 1 was an amazing concert, “E-Ticket: Music from Disney Parks”, featuring Richard Sherman. During his portion of the program, Richard reminisced, played songs, and told stories of his days writing music for Walt Disney and Disneyland with his brother, Robert.
In one of those stories, he talked about one day when Walt called the Sherman Brothers and told them he had something to show them. He took them into an area (part of one of the soundstages on the Disney lot, I believe) and showed them some of the Audio Animatronics for what was to become Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. He showed Richard and Robert some of the figures, what they did, and so on.
Richard said, “That’s great, Walt. But what is it?” Walt replied, “That’s exactly why you’re here! Nobody understands what this is! I need you to write a song to explain this to people!” And from that, the Sherman Brothers’ first song written exclusively for the theme park, The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room was born. Two days later, I sat in the Tiki Room enjoying the show and thinking, “This song really does exactly what Walt asked for. It tells you everything you need to know about what’s supposed to be happening here.”
Walt had a similar request for The Carousel of Progress and it’s a small world, both for the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. “I need a song to explain this!” And the Sherman Brothers delivered every time. Catchy tunes that tie scenes together, explain what’s happening around you, and make you laugh or touch your heart in a very special way.
There’s one song that’s not featured in any attraction, but a story about the Sherman Brothers writing music for Walt wouldn’t be complete without it.
The first feature film “the boys” (as Walt called them) wrote the music for was Mary Poppins. That soundtrack contains Walt’s favorite song of theirs: “Feed the Birds”. As Richard tells it, Walt would come into their office whenever he was feeling stressed or sad, look at the Sherman Brothers, and say, “Play it boys.” They knew what he wanted. He would stare out the window overlooking his studio as they quietly played it. As Walt grew more ill, this happened more and more frequently.
Once again, a simple song, that tells a story…and tells us what we really need to know at that moment.
As a special bonus for you, here is a recent episode of D23’s Armchair Archivist, called “An Evening with Richard Sherman”. Enjoy.
For you to discover: When the Sherman Brothers originally wrote it’s a small world (after all), there was something very different abut it. What was it?
Read more from Randy on his blog, Faith and the Magic Kingdom. You can also find him on Twitter (@Belgarion42) and on Facebook.
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