M Is FOR MASHUP - March 7th, 2012
Movie Music Mashups Move Many!
By DJ Useo
Recently, the godfather of mashup forums GET YOUR BOOTLEG ON
( www.gybo5.com/ ) reminded us why they are the perennial favorite for fresh mashups. Along with a successful relaunch of the actual GYBO forum layout to a sleeker format, they supplemented the interest deals for mongers by bringing back the ever-popular GYBO mashup challenge. In the past there had many theme-driven challenges that stirred up much interest & even creative 'juices'. The admin-mandated theme for the new challenge is splendid.
MOVIE MUSIC MASHUPS. Aside from the obvious lure of mixing some fine tunes, there's the additional bait of sharing the movies that interest you.
I am not ashamed to state that I am into Godzilla movies. The last 20 years of 'G' films have been incredible. So, I immediately interpreted the new GYBO challenge as a chance to mix up some fave music from Blue Oyster Cult & that king of Godzilla movie music, Akira Ifukube. Listen to my mix & see if you can name all eleven Godzilla movie monsters that are sampled innit. That's a huge part of the success of this new GYBO challenge, though; listening & recognizing the many familiar (& sometimes obscurely so) tunes that got re-worked by the modern mix dj's. I don't know who LeeDM101 used in his Depeche Mode mix from the challenge, (I need to look again) but it's clearly the best track of the challenge. He deserves to win, I think. LeeDM101's other entries really impressed, too.
Lets see now, there's entries from folk like Bynar, DJ Maez, DJ Y alias JY, Phil RetroSpector, & lots more of the people you already hear many fine bootlegs from. Here's 3 of my personal faves from the challenge.
01 - DJ Prince - Jesus Christ Superstar vs KLF (Great dance mashup with super Jesus samples)
02 - mARKYbOY - The Good, The Bad & The Pyro (Adele vs Ennio Morricone, brilliant mix)
03 - MightyMike - The Lion King (Coldplay vs Elton John, this is emotional & appealing)
Now don't think I'm a cheerleader for all mixes in this challenge. You know I always tell you true. A couple mixes I didn't like at all. I will refrain from pointing out any though, as the comments posted are sufficient. Mainly this is a very successful challenge with inventive & listenable submissions. I used to have some difficulty selecting tracks for best ofs, but since I've been serving on the Sound-Unsound PreRelease team (SUS-PRT) I find it much easier to judge this type of thing. See for yourself how I've nailed this GYBO challenge by
listening to the entries here
( www.gybo5.com/viewforum.php?f=28&sid=6c563cedab844c2c8ce13ec608bc0d3a )
There's no main file with all the tracks, but there's a fine post for each, many with covers & videos for you to stream or download. Hours of fun await you. Bookmark & share!
Podcast Of The Week
Loo & Placido presents 'Retro Future Shock', a brand new podcast where yesterday's greatest hits meets some of today's hottest club bangers!
I assure you this is finestkind bootlegging. Don't miss this gem.
( soundcloud.com/looandplacido/loo-placido-retro-future-shock )
Mashup Tip : Use Ableton Akai APC40 to add bass synths & drum loops plus into your live DJ set.
Latest Useo Thing
Have fun with my mix that never gets started even after more than an hour. Yes, it's my new BMBX-hosted long mix called '
Dissertation On Introductions'. There's more than 60 of those strange 'intros' they start most modern albums with. You know the kind, the short ones that bear little resemblance to to the rest of the album. Lol. I mixed a ton of ones from 2012 albums into one long set.
Hear it & enjoy here
( www.bmbx.org/2012/03/dissertation-on-introductions/ )
( www.groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2012/03/dissertation-on-intros-long-mix.html )
Podgornio, The Mashup Psychic Predicts
By July 8th of 2012 nearly every beat will have been remixed to right where it ought to be.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Blocking tracking is its first priority (Free Download)
Stop worrying about ever-changing privacy policies and take the first step towards getting control back over your information. DNT+ keeps an eye out for advertising companies and social networks looking to gather your personal information.
Paul Krugman: Economics in the Crisis (New York Times)
To say the obvious: we're now in the fourth year of a truly nightmarish economic crisis.
John J. DeGioia: On Civility and Public Discourse (Huffington Post)
A message from Georgetown President John J. DeGioia on civility and public discourse, in light of recent comments about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke.
David K. Israel: 15 Unusual Beds (Mental Floss)
From a Millennium Falcon bed to a mousetrap bed (which just might be my favorite on the list!), here's 15 beds that will keep you up at night wishing you had cooler sleeping arrangements. Have a favorite of your own? Let us know in the comments below!
Is the food revolution just a great big fat lie? (Guardian)
From the multimillionaire chefs who claim to be just like the rest of us to the multinationals making public health policy, Eliane Glaser reveals the truth about the new food culture.
Roger Ebert: Harakiri (1962; A Great Movie)
Samurai films, like westerns, need not be familiar genre stories. They can expand to contain stories of ethical challenges and human tragedy. "Harakiri," one of the best of them, is about an older wandering samurai who takes his time to create an unanswerable dilemma for the elder of a powerful clan. By playing strictly within the rules of Bushido Code which governs the conduct of all samurai, he lures the powerful leader into a situation where sheer naked logic leaves him humiliated before his retainers.
David Maine: "Oh, No -- They Say He's Got to Go... 'Godzilla'!" (PopMatters)
For a long time, 'Godzilla' was viewed by American audiences as a cheesy Japanese monster movie, a 'King Kong' knockoff starring a guy in a rubber suit. In large part this perception was formed by the movie's adulterated US version, which stripped a hefty chunk of the original's running time and replaced some of it with stand-in footage of American actor Raymond Burr, who spends much of his time standing around looking grave.
Colin McGuire: "In Defense of Patrick Stump: Why Elitism and Teen Angst Is Killing Popular Music" (PopMatters)
If you take the name "Patrick Stump" off Patrick Stump's debut solo album, what do you have? You have a guy who clearly likes R&B-based pop music with all the glamour and flare a major label budget could provide, thus suggesting the following question: What's so wrong with that?
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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BadtotheboneBob
Say No To War
From the 'Those that know war, say no to war' File...
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Nearly 30° cooler than yesterday!
Another Station Dumps
Pigboy
A second radio station has dropped Rush Limbaugh's talk show in reaction to his derisive comments about a Georgetown law student advocating that birth control be covered by the Jesuit university's health care plan.
Radio station 1420 AM WBEC in Pittsfield, Mass., said Tuesday that it is no longer airing Limbaugh's show and apologized to anyone who may have been offended by the conservative commentator's remarks.
WBEC said that Limbaugh's remarks about Fluke violated the standards it has for its stations and left the company with no choice but to remove him from its airwaves beginning Monday.
"We thought it was completely uncalled for," said Peter Barry, vice president and market manager. "If one of our local on-air personalities were to refer to someone in the disparaging manner that Rush did, they would be terminated."
The station has received phone calls all day about the move. Barry said for every one complaint, it is receiving about 50 calls in support of the decision to drop Limbaugh.
Pigboy
Tone Deaf In Missouri
More Pigboy
A plan to place a bust in the Missouri Capitol to honor Rush Limbaugh, the conservative broadcaster embroiled in controversy over his calling a university student a "slut" on the air, has drawn protests from state Democrats who are trying to block the effort.
The bust, proposed by Republican state House Speaker Steve Tilley, would sit in the Capitol rotunda alongside those of other prominent Missouri natives such as writer Mark Twain and former president Harry Truman.
Some 47 Missouri Democratic leaders, in a letter delivered to Tilley on Tuesday, said Limbaugh should not be honored and that the action would be "inappropriate and offensive," a spokesman for Tilley confirmed.
"Honoring Mr. Limbaugh in the wake of this incident would be seen as a tacit endorsement of his misogynistic attitudes," read the letter, circulated by House Minority Leader Mike Talboy.
More Pigboy
Class Of 2012
Country Music Hall of Fame
An emotional Garth Brooks said his addition to the Country Music Hall of Fame at 50 is probably a little premature when you look at the long list of his influences who haven't yet been inducted.
The "Friends in Low Places" singer transformed country music, but on Tuesday he was more interested in talking about the singers who transformed him. Brooks spoke during a news conference to announce he will be inducted later this year with singer Connie Smith and keyboard player Hargus "Pig" Robbins.
"You're excited," Brooks said. "You feel very honored. But at the same time there's this kind of guilt or, I don't know what it is, a kind of embarrassment, so you feel uneasy because I wouldn't be standing here today talking to you if it wasn't for Randy Travis. I wouldn't be standing here talking to you today if it wasn't for Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Steve Wariner, these guys. ... I think eventually they will get in, but it probably should've been before Garth Brooks came in. That's the whole feeling for the day."
The announcement was made at a news conference at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Brooks, Smith and Robbins will be officially inducted at a ceremony later this year.
Country Music Hall of Fame
Rolling Through The 'Hood
Giant Rock
A 340-ton boulder will roll its way through the region this week - and Long Beach plans to party.
The granite megalith bound for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is making its way on a special transporter through 22 cities in four counties.
Tuesday night, the rock will travel overnight to Bixby Knolls in Long Beach (at a top speed of 8 miles per hour), and be parked for the day Wednesday between 36th and 37th streets on Atlantic Avenue.
The rock's journey from its pre-Holocene-era birthplace at the Stone Valley Materials quarry in Riverside County will last a total of 11 days. Travel is only at night, during low traffic hours.
Traffic signals will have to be disassembled, power lines will have to be cut, and ramps built across medians before the giant rock mover can pass. Then everything will have to be reassembled before morning commuters hit the streets.
Giant Rock
Contemplate How To Memorialize Davy
Monkees
The three surviving Monkees aren't planning to attend Davy Jones' funeral because it would likely bring too much unwanted attention to his family during their time of grief, the group's Micky Dolenz said Tuesday.
He and fellow Monkees Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith have talked of attending one of the memorials that Jones' family is planning to hold in New York and in the late singer's native England, Dolenz said. And he added he's considering organizing a memorial himself for Jones' friends in Los Angeles.
Dolenz said he wasn't surprised by the outpouring of public affection for Jones that followed his death from a heart attack last week at age 66.
The youngest member of the group, Jones played the role of the heartthrob in the made-for-TV band that shot to fame in 1966 with the "The Monkees" television show and such hit songs as "Daydream Believer" and "Last Train to Clarksville."
Monkees
Axed After First Season
'Terra Nova'
The prehistoric drama "Terra Nova" is history on Fox.
The network said late Monday it is dropping the pricey sci-fi series after a single season.
The ambitious series, filmed in Australia with expensive special effects, got a lukewarm reception from viewers despite high anticipation from sci-fi fans. It averaged less than 8 million viewers weekly.
The series followed a family on its journey back to prehistoric Earth on a mission to save the human race. It starred Jason O'Mara and Stephen Lang, with behind-the-scenes principals including Steven Spielberg.
'Terra Nova'
Hundreds Of Comics Damaged
Pittsburgh's ToonSeum
Hundreds and possibly thousands of rare comic books were damaged at a comic museum's warehouse in western Pennsylvania last week.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that water leaks at the ToonSeum warehouse destroyed books, exhibition reproductions and probably thousands of comic books.
Executive director Joe Wos says the most valuable comics weren't at the warehouse, but some of what was lost will be "very difficult to replace." He says much of the material was waiting for transfer to the ToonSeum's new on-site library.
The ToonSeum is one of only three museums in the country dedicated exclusively to the cartoon arts.
Pittsburgh's ToonSeum
Two UK Journalists In Apparent Suicide Bids
Rupert
Two senior journalists working for Rupert Murdoch's News International have apparently attempted suicide as pressure mounts at the scandal-hit publisher of the now-defunct News of the World.
Three sources close to the company told Reuters on Tuesday the two journalists at the Sun daily appeared to have tried to take their own lives. Investigations sparked by a phone-hacking scandal continue to expose dubious practices by present and past employees.
Eleven current and former staff of the Sun, Britain's best-selling daily tabloid, have been arrested this year on suspicion of bribing police or civil servants for tip-offs.
Their arrests have come as a result of information provided to the police by the Management and Standards Committee (MSC), a body conveniently set up by parent company News Corp to facilitate police investigations and liaise with the courts.
The work of the MSC, which was set up to be independent of the conglomerate's British newspaper arm News International, has caused bitterness among staff, many of whom feel betrayed by an employer they have loyally served.
"People think that they've been thrown under a bus," one News International employee told Reuters. "They're beyond angry - there's an utter sense of betrayal, not just with the organization but with a general lynch-mob hysteria."
Rupert
'Leader' Turns
LulzSec
Six members of the suspected computer hacking groups affiliated with Anonymous were charged -- including the suspected ring leader, who directed the entire operation from a Manhattan apartment complex -- after it was revealed one of the group's most high profile members has been working with federal authorities for months.
Hector Monsegur, a 28-year-old American believed to use the name "Sabu" on the internet, was arrested by federal agents last year and has been cooperating with law enforcement ever since, officials said. He pleaded guilty last August, a plea unsealed in federal court in Lower Manhattan today.
At least at least four of the five other members of the group were arrested recently based on information provided by Monsegur -- one in Chicago and three overseas, officials said. Each were charged with conspiracy and at least two will appear in federal court in Lower Manhattan later today.
Federal officials said they expect the arrests to seriously damage LulzSec, an underground group also known as Lulz Security, which is also an offset of the hacking group Anonymous.
LulzSec
On The Defensive
Kirk Cameron
Kirk Cameron is experiencing a new sort of growing pains over his anti-gay remarks.
Former "Growing Pains" star Cameron went on the defensive on Tuesday, responding to the many people who criticized his comments about homosexuality and gay marriage during an interview on Friday's "Piers Morgan Tonight."
In a statement provided to ABC News, the 41-year-old Cameron -- a Christian evangelist who's starred in a number of religious-themed films since his '80s heyday as a child actor -- lamented that he's been accused of "hate speech" and accused his detractors of trying to suppress his opinion.
The actor went on to offer a variation on the "some of my best friends are gay" gambit, adding, "I've been encouraged by the support of many friends (including gay friends, incidentally)."
The actor's statements also drew the wrath of his former "Growing Pains" colleagues. Cameron's former TV dad, Alan Thicke, tweeted on Monday, "I'm getting him some new books. The Old Testament simply can't be expected to explain everything."
Kirk Cameron
Advertiser Exodus Continues
Pigboy
The Rush Limbaugh advertiser exodus continued Tuesday with at least two more companies adding their names to the rapidly growing list of advertisers that have pulled commercials from the conservative talk radio host's show.
So far, at least 17 advertisers and two radio stations have pledged to wipe their ads from the show after Limbaugh called Georgetown law school student Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute" after she testified before Congress about insurance coverage of contraception last week. Five additional companies have said their ads aired by mistake during Limbaugh's program and vowed to scrub their ads from Limbaugh's three-hour time slot.
The list now includes: Geico, Netflix, Service Magic home contractor, Goodwill, Amberen menopause medication, PolyCom web conferencing, Hadeed Carpets, Accuquote Life Insurance, Vitacost vitamin supplier, Bonobos clothing company, Sensa weight- loss program, Thompson Creek Windows, AOL, Tax Resolution Services, ProFlowers, Legal Zoom online document creator, Carbonite web security firm, Citrix software maker, Sleep Train Mattresses, Sleep Number mattresses and Quicken Loans.
But while dozens of companies are trying to distance themselves from Limbaugh's incendiary comments, one company has flocker to the conservative commentator. The online dating website SeekingArrangement.com, whose mission is to match subscribers with wealthy "Sugar Daddies," said Tuesday that it has made a new ad buy specifically during Limbaugh's program.
Pigboy
Bully Is A Pigboy Fan
Patricia Heaton
Rush Limbaugh is losing advertisers for his radio show one after the other in the wake of his controversial comments about a Georgetown law student, and now he's lost a prominent advocate on Twitter: Patricia Heaton.
The star of "The Middle" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" pulled an Alec Baldwin and temporarily deleted her Twitter account after siding with Limbaugh's criticisms of Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke last week via a series of barbed tweets. She returned on Monday to apologize to Fluke.
On Feb. 29, the actress wrote, "Hey G-Town Gal: Plz let us also pay for your Starbucks, movie theater tickets and your favorite hot wings combo deal at KFC! Anything else?"
"Hey G-Town Gal: If your parents have to pay for your birth control, maybe they should get a say in who you sleep with! Instant birth control!"
"If every Tweaton sent Georgetown Gal one condom, her parents wouldn't have to cancel basic cable, & she would never reproduce -- sound good?"
Limbaugh publicly apologized, and so did Heaton, who offered her regrets Saturday before making her account inaccessible.
Patricia Heaton
Paintings Fetch Bucks
Dog Art
Dogs seem to be as popular on a canvas these days as they are on a leash, with paintings of dogs drawing big bucks and big crowds.
At the annual "dogs only" art auction held after the Westminster Dog Show, two price records were broken this year, said Alan Fausel, vice president and director of fine art at Bonhams, the auction house that runs the event.
"Dejeuner," a painting that shows dogs and cats eating from a large dish, set a record for the artist, William Henry Hamilton Trood (1860-1899), when it sold for $194,500, Fausel said. That record was broken an hour later when Trood's "Hounds in a Kennel," showing a half-dozen dogs staring at a bird outside their cage, sold for $212,500.
Bonhams' Dogs in Show & Field auction is the only one in the country devoted solely to dogs. It was the best auction in years, Fausel said, adding: "The dog art market is certainly turning a corner."
The William Secord Gallery in Manhattan is the only gallery in the nation dedicated exclusively to dog art. "We have had an increase in visitors over past years, but also a substantial increase in sales compared to this time last year," said Secord, widely considered the world's foremost authority on 19th century dog paintings. Through March 24, the gallery is exhibiting and selling 150 dog pieces that Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge bequeathed to St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison, N.J.
Dog Art
Dictionary Covers Regional Dialects From A to Z
DARE
Order a sloppy Joe in North or South Dakota, and the waiter may give you a blank stare. The popular beef-on-a-bun sandwich is known to some there as a slushburger. People from parts of the West and Midwest call theirs a Spanish hamburger. And in northwest Iowa? It's a tavern.
If ordering lunch now seems unexpectedly complicated, you might want to take a look at the recently completed Dictionary of American Regional English, which explains more than 60,000 regional words and phrases.
Known as DARE, the dictionary gives readers a broad history of how the English language is spoken. It traces popular, and not-so-popular, words and phrases to their origins. Then it breaks down how they've been used, with maps showing their geographic range. The final volume of the dictionary, which covers S-Z, is being released this month.
It arrives in time for the 2012 presidential election with words like snollygoster, a Southern term for a self-promoting politician.
Scholars and word fiends say the dictionary is an invaluable resource. The volumes already in release have been referenced in books and articles about racial and political identity, labor history, human sexuality and even cursing. Curtis Miner, chief curator at The State Museum of Pennsylvania, used the dictionary to help create an interactive map showing speech patterns across the state, including where residents stop saying "soda" and start saying "pop."
DARE
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Feb. 27-March 4. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 18.45 million.
2. "NCIS," CBS, 18.20 million.
3. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 17.23 million.
4. "American Idol" (Special - Tuesday), Fox, 16.11 million.
5. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 15.85 million.
6. "The Voice," NBC, 14.89 million.
7. NASCAR Daytona 500, Fox, 13.67 million.
8. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 12.54 million.
9. NASCAR Daytona 500 (continuing), Fox, 12.47 million.
10. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 11.92 million.
11. "Modern Family," ABC, 11.63 million.
12. "60 Minutes," CBS, 11.51 million.
13. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 11.47 million.
14. "CSI," CBS, 11.30 million.
15. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 11.11 million.
16. "Once Upon a Time," ABC, 10.67 million.
17. "Survivor: One World," CBS, 10.65 million.
18. "Amazing Race," CBS, 10.30 million.
19. "2 Broke Girls," 10.18 million.
20. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 10.14 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Patricia and Joan Miller
When they were young, Patricia and Joan Miller sang and danced for Bing Crosby, troops and their friends.
But as the identical twins grew older, they became less interested in socializing. When people called, the sisters came up with excuses to get off the phone. Without explanation, they stopped sending birthday cards to a childhood friend. And on the rare occasion when they left their home, the two women didn't chat up the neighbors.
Never married and without children or pets, the Miller sisters withdrew into their four-bedroom home in California's South Lake Tahoe, where they were found dead last week at the age of 73. One was in a downstairs bedroom and the other was in the hallway just outside.
It was as if the two sisters, long each other's only companion, could not live without each other, said Detective Matt Harwood with the El Dorado County sheriff's office.
Police don't usually release the names of the dead without first informing their relatives, but the sisters' shrouded lives made that impossible, Harwood said.
The deaths have confused some residents in the resort town of South Lake Tahoe, where homeowners tend to be close-knit and the sisters' reclusiveness had long inspired questions and concern. Police and neighbors alike are struggling to understand why or how two beautiful women with show business experience shut themselves up in the same home for nearly 40 years and then seemingly died within hours of each other.
In the past year, there were hints that something was amiss at the Miller home. A neighbor spotted an ambulance at the house a year ago and assumed they had fallen ill. Someone asked police to check regularly on the house. When someone arrived Feb. 25 for a routine check, no one answered the door. The next day, police forced their way in and found the bodies.
There was no blood, no signs of struggle. Nothing indicated that the women had persistent health troubles. Their longtime home was not disheveled or unkempt, potential signs of mental or physical illness. Autopsy reports were pending.
Harwood said he called a nearby senior center to see if the sisters were visitors, but no one there had heard of them. He checked with Meals on Wheels volunteers, but it didn't seem that the sisters had received their services. The only relative he found in his preliminary searches was the sisters' deceased mother.
As news of the deaths spread, former South Lake Tahoe residents called police to report that they had lived near the sisters for decades in some cases, and had hardly seen them. One sent in a postcard that claimed the sisters were the only remaining members of their family after their mother's death and their brother died at war.
Joan Miller was a senior accounting clerk in the payroll department at the Lake Tahoe Unified School District from 1979 to 1984. Patricia Miller, who drove a white convertible with red upholstery, worked in the El Dorado County's social services office during that same time.
"I never heard of anyone else being in either of their lives," said Betty Mitchell, 89, who supervised Patricia Miller in the social services office and saw the twins around town. "They were inseparable and really identical."
The sisters were friendly and often told stories of their singing adventures. They told Mitchell they had performed at Yosemite National Park and when their mother came to visit from Oregon, they all dined at Mitchell's home.
But the sisters were also guarded. When Mitchell urged them to join a community choir, they declined. They never discussed their social lives.
The sisters grew up in Portland, Ore., before moving to the San Francisco area, where Joan Miller attended college, Harwood learned. The women briefly appeared on a 1950s television show called the "The Hoffman Hayride" and posed for a picture with Crosby as children. The twins also entertained troops at military bases, a childhood friend told Harwood.
The sisters never seemed interested in dating or expanding their social spheres. They listed each other as their next of kin, Harwood said.
Their childhood friend told Harwood that the sisters stopped sending annual birthday cards last year, and when the friend called to inquire about the missing card, the sisters seem disinterested in continuing the relationship.
Neighbors would call and the sisters would say, "Let me call you right back," and then wouldn't.
Patricia and Joan Miller
In Memory
Robert B. Sherman
How do you sum up the work of songwriter Robert B. Sherman? Try one word: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
The tongue-twisting term, sung by magical nanny Mary Poppins, is like much of Sherman's work - both complex and instantly memorable, for child and adult alike. Once heard, it was never forgotten.
Sherman, who died in London at age 86, was half of a sibling partnership that put songs into the mouths of nannies and Cockney chimney sweeps, jungle animals and Parisian felines.
Robert Sherman and his brother Richard composed scores for films including "The Jungle Book," ''The AristoCats," ''Mary Poppins" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." They also wrote the most-played tune on Earth, "It's a Small World (After All)."
Sherman's agent, Stella Richards, said Tuesday that Sherman died peacefully in London on Monday.
Son Jeffrey Sherman paid tribute to his father on Facebook, saying he "wanted to bring happiness to the world and, unquestionably, he succeeded."
The Sherman Brothers' career was long, prolific and garlanded with awards. They won two Academy Awards for Walt Disney's 1964 smash "Mary Poppins" - best score and best song, "Chim Chim Cher-ee." They also picked up a Grammy for best movie or TV score.
Their hundreds of credits as joint lyricist and composer also include the films "Winnie the Pooh," ''The Slipper and the Rose," ''Snoopy Come Home," ''Charlotte's Web" and "The Magic of Lassie." Their Broadway musicals included 1974's "Over Here!" and stagings of "Mary Poppins" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" in the mid-2000s.
The brothers' awards included 23 gold and platinum albums and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They became the only Americans ever to win First Prize at the Moscow Film Festival for "Tom Sawyer" in 1973 and were inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 2005.
Robert Bernard Sherman was born in New York on Dec. 19, 1925, and raised there and in Beverly Hills, California.
The brothers credited their father, composer Al Sherman, with challenging them to write songs and for their love of lyrics. His legacy of songs includes "You Gotta Be a Football Hero," ''(What Do We Do On a) Dew-Dew-Dewy Day" and "On the Beach at Bali-Bali."
Robert Sherman's affection for Britain was nurtured during his service with the U.S. Army in World War II. Wounded in Germany in 1945, he recovered in hospitals in England, developing a fondness and familiarity with the country that stuck with him. He wrote for British characters in "Mary Poppins" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," and spent the last years of his life in London.
After the war, the brothers started writing songs together. They began a decade-long partnership with Disney during the 1960s after having written hit pop songs like "Tall Paul" for ex-Mouseketeer Annette Funicello and "You're Sixteen," later recorded by Ringo Starr.
They wrote over 150 songs at Disney, including the soundtracks for such films as "The Sword and the Stone," ''The Parent Trap," ''Bedknobs and Broomsticks," ''The Jungle Book," ''The AristoCats" and "The Tigger Movie."
The Shermans teased songs out of each other, brainstorming titles and then trying to top each other with improvements. "Being brothers, we sort of short-cut each other," Richard Sherman said. "We can almost look at each other and know, 'Hey, you're onto something, kiddo.'"
Away from the piano, the two raised families and pursued their own interests, yet still lived close to each other in Beverly Hills and continued working together well into their 70s. When "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" came to Broadway in 2005, they added new lyrics and four new songs.
Sherman was based for the last decade of his life in London, where he wrote new songs for stage revivals of "Mary Poppins" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."
Robert B. Sherman
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