Making of the Sherman Brothers

"Making of the Sherman Brothers" is a good 2003 documentary on Richard and Robert Sherman who wrote many songs for Disney films. The brothers became the regular Disney songwriters in the 1960s. This documentary is a short that came with the Disney DVD of "The Parent Trap" two-movie collection. It's on a second disc that is filled with bonus material.

The short has snippets of Bob and Richard Sherman telling their story of how they wound up writing songs for "The Parent Trap" and other Disney films. At the time they had been writing songs for Annette Funicello and Tommy Sands who were in another Disney film being made at the time, "Babes in Toyland." So, Walt told the director, David Swift, to use the Sherman boys for the Parent Trap numbers. Originally, the film didn't have Hayley Mills singing "Let's Get Together," but after Bob and Dick wrote the song, Walt liked it and it made the movie. It also got Hayley Mills a Top 10 singles hit in 1961. Annette and Tommy recorded it also, as well as the title song, "The Parent Trap."

The Sherman Brothers had many hit movies with their music. Among the best known films are "Mary Poppins" of 1964, "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" of 1966, "The Jungle Book of 1967, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang of 1968, and several more Winnie the Pooh and other animated films.