R.I.P. Robert Sherman, man who made Mary Poppins sing

Songwriter Robert B. Sherman died today in London, according to his son who posted the news on Facebook.

You probably don’t know Sherman by name but you almost certainly know at least one song he wrote with his brother for Disney: Chim Chim Cher-ee (which earned him an Academy Award in 1965), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and It’s a Small World After All, to name but a very few. He scored literally dozens of films and musicals that are still popular decades after they first hit theaters.

Oh, I almost forgot. He also wrote Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I typed that title correctly from memory, which sums up just what a lasting impression Sherman left on me and, I would hope, the world at large.