Richard M. Sherman, along with his brother Robert B. were responsible for the jazz-inspired musical numbers of THE ARISTOCATS.
Q: How critical is music – and specifically songs – to the success of classic animation? Especially at Disney?
A: Walt Disney was a great believer in the use of song to convey story. He was primarily a storyman & story-driven songs were his ‘pets.’ He always asked what was going on with the song – he hated ‘singing heads.’ He loved learning about character & motivation thru music & lyrics.
Q: Richard, how excited were you to have
Maurice Chevalier record this title track? He did a great job in Castaways
as well as Hailey and all those hits for Annette Funicello?
A: It was an extremely gratifying day when Maurice Chevalier agreed to come out of retirement to record our title song for THE ARISTOCATS. My brother Robert & I actually had written songs for Maurice in ‘In Search of the Castaways,” and “Monkey’s Go Home,” prior to this. But our history with Maurice Chevalier goes much further back then that. Maurice had introduced a song our father – Al Sherman wrote in the 1930 film “The Big Pond.” The name of that song was – “Living in the Sunlight – Loving in the Moonlight.” It was a hit – twice. The first time with Maurice Chevalier, the second time with Tiny Tim who revived it with his ukulele – Yes! A very big thrill!
Q: Richard, what made THE ARISTOCATS a musical challenge as opposed to other Disney scores?
A: The challenge in writing the songs for THE ARISTOCATS truly fell on the animators & director of the film. Robert & I wrote the initial songs for the film, just prior to leaving full-time employment at the Walt Disney Studios. Therefore, some of the songs we wrote for ARISTOCATS were never used. I believe, therefore, the challenge fell upon the makers of the film to select what songs made the final cut.
Q: Could you talk a bit about your pre-Disney
career and how you joined the Disney Company?
A: Prior to becoming Walt Disney staff songwriters in 1960, Robert & I were popular songwriters in the Rock & Roll era. One of our songs, ‘Tall Paul’ was recorded by young Annette Funicello, who, as you all should know, was a star of Walt Disney’s ‘Mousketeers’ Show. She had a big hit with ‘Tall Paul’ late in 1958. Throughout 1959 & 1960, Bob & I wrote a number of hit-songs expressly for Annette to sing. We were totally unaware that Walt Disney, himself, was very fond of Annette – having discovered her – and listened to all of her recordings. One day, he was going to put Annette in a film, ‘The Horse Masters,’ and because of her popularity, he decided to have her sing a special song in that film. Bob & I were asked to take a stab at writing a song for this film. Of course, we jumped at the opportunity. Walt liked it very much and the rest is history.
Q: Have you managed to write a song in
just one day? How is your composing process?
A: My brother & I have always said that to write a song, it takes all the experiences of your life, plus the time it takes to write it! To be specific, yes, sometimes a song takes place in one session – together in one day. Sometimes, months elapse before we’ve completed the song completely. There’s no set rule. Something inside of you says – ‘now you can present it!’ If one of us feels it’s not quite right, lyrically or melodically, we don’t present it.
Q: What is your favorite song of THE ARISTOCATS?
A: I love the title song. It’s a mood and scene setter and accomplishes many things. First of all it’s very French – very period… In words, this title song describes these very pampered pussy-cats…so it accomplishes what we set for it.
Q: How early into preproduction of a film like THE ARISTOCATS do you come in – after the script is written and insert songs, or at the scripting stage?
A: With each film, there’s a different process. In JUNGLE BOOK, we worked sequence to sequence. In SWORD & THE STONE, we worked from an overall storyline. In the WINNIE THE POOH featurettes, we worked with situations & character developments. Each project has its own scenario.
Q: Where do you keep your Academy Awards?
A: My two Oscars are enshrined on an alabaster, crystal-domed plinth with several spotlights on 24 hours a day while incense burns and heavenly music is piped in on a custom THX sound system w/ 7.0 Surround Sound…while a band of trained penguins dance to ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”!
Q: You’ve written music and songs
for so many films. Which project would you consider the most challenging
of your career?
A: MARY POPPINS was the most challenging career assignment that Robert & I ever had. We were working without a script, with a series of books with no plot and we had to cobble together a plot and please the most difficult authoress on the planet – P.L. Travers. With the incredible help of Walt Disney, himself, and screenwriters Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, we put together what many consider Walt’s masterpiece. I’m very proud to have been part of it.
Q: What kind of relationship do you have with your music? Do you love it when you hear one of your songs, regardless of which one it is and in what context, or is it the other way around? Or something in between?
A: I’m very fond of my songs, when they’re performed well…at any time of day…night…morning…or anything in between. They’re like an extension of myself and if you look in a mirror, and you’re all washed-up & dressed nicely – you feel pretty good about yourself. In the converse, if it’s a terrible performance of something I’ve written, I can get very sick to my stomach.
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