The Sherman Brothers Wrote More Film Scores Than Any Songwriting Team fact

Did the Sherman Brothers Write More Songs for Movies Than Any Other Songwriting Team?

Disney songwriters the Sherman Brothers wrote more songs for movies (film scores) than any other songwriting team in film history. There are other songwriters with lots of film score credits to their name, but no other team composed as many scores for major motion pictures (as far as our research shows).^[1][2]

NOTE: This factoid comes from a London Today on air interview with Robert B. Sherman, April 17, 2002. To fact-check this, we looked at famous songwriting teams in the movies. It’s hard to find another team who compares with the breadth of songs the Sherman Brothers produced while at Disney. If you have one in mind, consider adding it to the comments below.

Who Are the Sherman Brothers?

The Sherman Brothers, Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman, were the principal songwriters for Disney from about 1960 – 1980. They also wrote songs for Disney as early as 1958 including 1958’s “Tall Paul,” non-Disney songs (like the score to” Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”), and songs for films after 1980 as well.

FACT: Experimental social psychologist Stanley Milgram’s famed small-world experiment showed that humans were, on average, connected by less than “six degrees of separation“. This experiment and others like it form the basis of “small world theory“.

What Songs Did the Sherman Brothers Write?

Noteworthy Sherman Brothers songs include “Small World”, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, “Spoonful of Sugar”, “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow”, “The Parent Trap”, Walt Disney’s favorite song “Feed The Birds (Tuppence a Bag)”, and many more.

Source: cdn.d23.com

Did the Sherman Brothers Write More Film Scores than Anyone?

The Sherman Brothers as a team wrote more songs for major motion pictures than any other team, but some other individual composers have a comparable amount of film score credits to their name.

Songwriters like Danny Elfman, Henry Mancini, and Bernard Herrmann have all contributed large and important works to the history of film scores.^[1][2]

FACT: Songwriting team acts like Rodgers and Hart (Rodgers being the same Rodgers as Rodgers and Hammerstein) are also noteworthy. Rodgers and Hart wrote an impressive number of songs for stage and film from 1920 – 1943. The fact that many were written for stage means their output is less the Sherman Brothers in terms of the total number of songs intended for movies.^[3]

Major Film Scores by the Sherman Brothers (most containing multiple songs)

• The Parent Trap, 1961
• A Symposium on Popular Songs, 1962
• In Search of the Castaways, 1962
• Summer Magic, 1963
• The Sword in the Stone, 1963
• Big Red, 1963
• Mary Poppins, 1964
• “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” 1964
• Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, 1966
• The Happiest Millionaire, 1967
• The Jungle Book, 1967
• The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, 1968
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, 1968
• Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, 1968
• The Aristocats, 1970
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks, 1971
• Snoopy, Come Home, 1972
• Charlotte’s Web, 1973
• Tom Sawyer, 1973
• Huckleberry Finn, 1974
• Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, 1974
• The Slipper and the Rose, 1976
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, 1977
• The Magic of Lassie, 1978
• Magic Journeys, 1982
• Welcome to Pooh Corner, 1983
• Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore, 1983
• Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, 1992
• The Mighty Kong, 1998
• The Tigger Movie, 2000
• Winnie the Pooh, 2011 – theme song rendition only