Robert Sherman, 1925-2012

“As for perhaps their most famous song, Bob Sherman recalled how 40 years earlier they were asked to replace a ballad which Julie Andrews had rejected. After two weeks they were still looking when his eight-year-old son came home from school. ‘I said, “How was school?” He said, “Fine. We had our vaccine today.” I said, “Oh, did it hurt?” “Oh no, they just put a drop of medicine on a lump of sugar.” The next day I said, “Dick, what do you think about a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down?”’ The next day they sang it to Walt Disney who was just down the hall in the animation building. He said, ‘Yeah, that’ll work, finish it up.’”
 — Robert Sherman, who has died at the age of 86, co-wrote a large number of songs that are lodged somewhere deep within your psyche. I would list some of them, but I don’t want to be responsible for getting them stuck in your head all day, particularly “It’s A Small World (After All).”