"Practically perfect in every way"

So I heard on the radio that Robert Sherman died Monday.  My fellow Mary Poppins devotees will immediately know that this news makes me a little melancholy.  Mr. Sherman, along with his brother Richard, wrote the music for that fabulous movie, along with all the tunes for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and Winnie the Pooh.  They also wrote "It's a Small World (After All)," but we won't hold that against them.

In honor of the Sherman Brothers, check out these supercalifragilisticexpialidocious songs:

From Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, here's "Toot Sweets":

And just for Lisa, here's one of her all-time favorites, from Winnie the Pooh:

A story for another day is about the cross-country trip my sister and I took, with our dad and our (then) five children.  As we drove across the eastern United States in a 1984 Dodge Ram 12-passenger van that my dad bought off the side of the road ("RUNS GOOD!" the sign said), we listened to a videotape of The Aristocats.  A lot.  I think my dad can sing this song by heart.  I know Carolyn and I can:

And how much do you love this song from The Jungle Book?!  Groovy, man, groovy!

But oh!  My friends!  I love Mary Poppins so much!  It was the first movie I ever saw in a theater, when I was two years old.  I can't pick just one song from this most favorite of films, which I've loved for my whole life.  Here are two, but really -- just go watch the whole thing!  From Bert's "One Man Band" in the park as the film opens to "Let's Go Fly a Kite" at the very end, the movie is full of only happy-making songs.  I guarantee it!


I have been known to sing this entire song on a dare.  Votes For Women!

And I firmly believe that if we all sang this song on a more regular basis, the world would be a better place.




Thank you so much, Robert and Richard Sherman, for giving me and so many other kids the songs of our childhood, and for creating so much joy.  In the pantheon of Disney songwriters, the biggest pedestal is reserved for you!