Terrifying, but take a moment to mourn for Richard Sherman — "Richard Sherman, Songwriter of Many Spoonfuls of Sugar, Dies at 95/He and his brother, Robert, teamed up to write the songs for 'Mary Poppins' and other Disney classics. They also gave the world 'It’s a Small World (After All)'" (NYT).
Sherman and his brother wrote "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Supercalifragilistic-expialidocious," "Chim Chim Cher-ee," “Fundamental-Friend-Dependability," "Tall Paul," "Let’s Get Together," and the songs from "Charlotte's Web," "The Jungle Book," "The Aristocats," and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks."
Sherman and his brother wrote "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Supercalifragilistic-expialidocious," "Chim Chim Cher-ee," “Fundamental-Friend-Dependability," "Tall Paul," "Let’s Get Together," and the songs from "Charlotte's Web," "The Jungle Book," "The Aristocats," and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks."
Johnny Burnette was 26 when he sang that the 16-year-old girl was his in 1960. Ringo Starr was in his 30s when he had a hit with "You're 16" in 1974.
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Oh. puh-leeze. 'You walked out of my dreams, and into my heart - and now, you're my Angel Divine....'
Yeah.... how twisted can you get, with words like these?
"The brothers also wrote the great rockabilly song that's considered sexually wrong today..." Sez who, I wonder? The same intellects that are today's 'gender' scolds?
I have a friend who was a staff musician at WDW in the 70s and 80s who called these guys "Captain Hook". He wasn't wrong.
They had the knack. RIP. May we all have a run as long and as successful.
Consent is proportional to maturity correlated with age.
The brothers were depicted in “Saving Mr. Banks.”
The brothers also wrote the great rockabilly song that's considered sexually wrong today:
16 is age of consent in a majority of the states. I have no problem with a 26 year old guy seeing a 16 year old woman. My dad was 12 years older than my mom and they had a long, happy life together.
Optimal age for marriage is about 22 in my judgment, which is when my wife and I tied the knot. But if we were forced to choose, it would be better for everyone if people married at 16 rather than 36. Young marriage with lots of social support is one of the best features of the Mormon church.
that's considered sexually wrong today. Ha ha, by people who cannot define what a woman is ; who believe that you can change your sex, and by people who believe that the mutilation of children is "health-care". These people have a mental illness that they refuse to treat or acknowledge. Nothing they say should be considered remotely rational.
OTOH "She was just seventeen, if you know what I mean" is all right. What a difference a year makes.
well teen vogue is telling young woman to consider prostitution as a possible career choice and marxism not necessarily in that order,
The brothers also wrote the great rockabilly song that's considered sexually wrong today.
By who, the same people who want to lower the voting age to 16?
As a lifelong central Florida resident, I've visited WDW my entire life. Growing up, It's a Small World was always one of the most popular rides. As a kid it was mesmerizing, and for adults it was a fairly long ride in air conditioned comfort! Not as good as the Pirates of the Caribbean, but I'll always have fond memories.
I liked Ringo's version -
You walked out of my dreams,
And into my car...
The songs were catchy and pleasant, but--for me anyway--they never hit any of the deep chords. Maybe if you first heard them at five or six the experience is different...I didn't read the obit, but he apparently made full use of his talents and had a long and successful life. It's always good for the rest of us to hear that a happy, successful life is possible. His life was adjacent to a Disney movie....There's a pretty good chance that a sixteen year old girl who signs up for a tour with a twenty something will have a better experience than a sixteen year old girl who signs up with a kid her own age. I know that some exceptions apply with guys like P. Diddy, but P. Diddy, himself, was probably even worse at sixteen.
You could have knocked me over with a feather when I leaned that a pedophile worked at Disney.
@Dave Begley -- I remembered the same thing. Their creative process in the movie is one of the best parts.
The audience for the song were teeny bobbers. the girls in white socks. the ones that kissed Elvis' mailbox and screamed for the Beatles.
BTW, are people in show biz some sort of growth hormone or special medical care? Its astounding how many of them are living to 90, 95, 100 or more. THe median death age is the mid 80s.
16 was probably legal everywhere back in the day.
Besides, I always took the song to be sung from the point of view of another 16- or 17-year-old boy.
'BTW, are people in show biz some sort of growth hormone or special medical care?'
Chicken soup.
That annoying Small World song.
"Duff Beer For Me" is way better, even though annoying in its own way,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPWoBSdP50s
all that replaced with this.
"My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns hum." and other songs that are way more graphic.
The reason people today would view the lyrics as unacceptably promoting something automatically wrong is that the prevailing zeitgeist sees sex as devoid of all moral implications aside from transactional ones, hence the disordered emphasis on and definition of consent. Hence the obsession with power differential blah blah blah.
I guess the fact that I know a girl who was raped by an adult at 13, and has been living with herpes ever since has kind of jaundiced my view. She was of the age of consent in large parts of Canada at the time. The age of consent used to be 7 in Delaware.
I love some of the songs from Jungle Book.
The rest of those songs are downright ... cringe.
My memory of Disneyland in CA as a child: (I was fairly young)
It's a small world: I liked it. a bit boring.
There was a short ride that gave riders the illusion of shrinking/ restoration to normal size. I thought that was real. LOL.
Was terrified waiting in line to ride the Matterhorn.
LOVED the haunted house.
I always took the song to be sung from the point of view of another 16- or 17-year-old boy.
I think that's right.
Sam Cooke nails it.
BTW, are people in show biz some sort of growth hormone or special medical care? Its astounding how many of them are living to 90, 95, 100 or more. THe median death age is the mid 80s.
Someone's got to balance out the 27 Club.
There were so many songs back then that were teenagers expressing love for each other. The songs were written by lyricists who had aged out of teenagerhood and often sung by singers who were beyond their teenage years. But the listeners were teenagers (or often younger (I was 9 when "You're 16" was a hit)) and we identified with the singer or the love object. The songs weren't about having sexual intercourse. They were about feeling in love. "You're mine" ≈ going steady. One hoped for a kiss.
It helped if the singer looked like a teenager. Johnny Burnette looked quite old, older than his 26 years.
Here's Paul Anka singing "Puppy Love" — "we're only 17" — when he actually is 17 and kind of looks that young.
Though not highlighted by Althouse, I have always regarded "Feed the Birds" as far and away the best song from Mary Poppins. IIRC, it received something like its proper due in "Saving Mr. Banks."
"narciso said...
well teen vogue is telling young woman to consider prostitution as a possible career choice and marxism not necessarily in that order,
5/27/24, 9:42 AM"
One of the teen mags was trying to sells girls on the glories of anal sex a few years ago. I don't think that one went over too well. Haha.
Met my wife when she was 14 and I was 18 so I can't really be judgy about these things. We didn't get married until 9 years later. Still together
Ann @ 11:55
Indeed.
Puppy love, holding hands, first kisses... etc.
And somehow, many on the woke-left side of things find that era to be offensive.
Circa now - The rap + Madonna+ flavor of the month pop star graphic sex + they/them gender-bender over-sexualization of young children - is all-A-OK with the woke radicals.
There are so many great songs from the Jungle Book and the people who were voiced the characters were perfect.
The Harris-Prima Jazz number "I wanna be like you" is the highlight. Also Good:
Bare Neccessities
My Own Home
Trust in me.
There's a Beatles rip off - Thats what friends are for.
Always enjoyed small world and Tiki room when I went to Disneyland.
Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire.
Teenage boy?
Ask Meade.
Chuck Berry was 35 years old or so when he wrote Sweet Little 16. But while all the cats wanted to dance with her, because she was sporting tight dresses, lipstick and high heeled shoes, Ol Chuck knew that come Monday morning she'd be back in class again.
imTay,
Rape and consent are mutually exclusive, as are statutory rape and having reached the age of consent. Thus, I have no idea what your point is (and perhaps you don't either.)
I can't thank you enough for putting THAT song on my head ALL DAMN DAY.
I never found it terrifying, but like everyone else in the world who isn't two or three years old (or funds the uncanny valley-ness of it terrifying), I found it interminably boring.
'Chuck Berry was 35 years old or so when he wrote Sweet Little 16. But while all the cats wanted to dance with her, because she was sporting tight dresses, lipstick and high heeled shoes, Ol Chuck knew that come Monday morning she'd be back in class again.'
'Ol Chuck' knew a thing or two about underage girls...
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/chuck-berry-is-arrested-on-mann-act-charges-in-st-louis-missouri
And from what I've read, this was tame stuff for 'Ol Chuck.'
My favorite Disney ride was the GE Carousel of Progress. I believe the brothers wrote the song that plays as the carousel rotates to the next decade (There's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow ...). The Carousel was a work of genius when it was created in the 1960s, but it hasn't aged well--the final tableau is out of date no matter how often they update it.
Second the motion on how memorable Feed the Birds is, I used to sing my children to sleep with it every night.
16 was probably legal everywhere back in the day.
Of course it was. Every single person reading this is descended from millions of women whose median age was right around 16. Everyone who's done detailed genealogical research to track their ancestors back more than a hundred years or so knows this.
A lot of women think that's too young to get married. I say, read the parable of Chesterton's Fence and try to think about reasons why this was the norm everywhere and always, right up to the modern age.
Songs such as that one were written to be the thoughts of a boy in that same category - not by the artist or artists who sang it. Don't be a fool.
Complaints about such things are rich, considering coming from the Left that think blowjobs aren't sex, are okay with drag queens in public settings putting on shows for pre-pubescent kids, and a supporting a president who sniffs little girls hair and showered with his young daughter.
They also wrote the great Annette Funicello / Beach Boys song "Monkey's Uncle," which is pure pop genius.
Johnny Burnette was originally a rockabilly artist, as part of the Rock 'n' Roll Trio. But by 1960, when he recorded "You're Sixteen," he had moved quite a distance from that. Later hits included "God, Country and My Baby" and he also recorded material like "Mona Lisa" and "Red Sails in the Sunset." Burnette became basically a pop singer and I'm pretty sure that it never occurred to the Sherman brothers that "She's Sixteen" was in any way a rockabilly song.
They also wrote the great Annette Funicello / Beach Boys song "Monkey's Uncle," which is pure pop genius.
Or zoophilia!
Catchy and truly bad.
(Dangerous ear worm alert)
(Don't click on the link if you suffer from ear worms)
(heads up, Jamie)
"and perhaps you don't either"
Maybe it's just that children don't turn me on sexually. Maybe that's my point.
He was no more (He was no more)
Than a baby then
Well, he seemed broken hearted
Somethin' within him
But the moment that I first laid eyes on him
All alone on the edge of seventeen
Hassayamper: Same for my dad. Mom 23, but still that when I arrived. They would have married sooner but her dad insisted his 4 daughters marry in age order! (Good thing for me, if I remember right how things work.)
Only by a technicality would I consider that "rockabilly" (and Ringo's schmaltzy version surely isn't)
Those of us alive in 1960 never gave a second thought to the words in "Your 16" and we certainly didn't know or care that Johnny Burnette was 26. And if you listen to Burnette sing "Rock-a-billy Boogie" and "Lonesome Train", you will not consider "Your 16" to be the same style.
imTay said...
Maybe it's just that children don't turn me on sexually. Maybe that's my point.
**********
In the not-too-distant past, those "children" were wives and mothers.
******
I guess the fact that I know a girl who was raped by an adult at 13, and has been living with herpes ever since has kind of jaundiced my view. She was of the age of consent in large parts of Canada at the time. The age of consent used to be 7 in Delaware.
*******************
Yes, until 1880, when it was raised to 10. It was only in 1972 that Delaware raised the age to 16, over the strenuous objection of a young Joe Biden.
(OK I made that last part up)
Can anyone image any pop singer anywhere today singing "I wanna hold your hand"??
It was pretty sappy then, but the style and delivery were completely brand-new. As was the hype. If the Beatles hadn't offered really new music in Rubber Soul and onwards, they would have been just another Boy Band. (How many Bay City Rollers Songs do you hum along to?)
But the young girls loved it.
Word is, they had to pay guys with spatulas to scrape the girls from their Beatles concert stadium seats.
As a result, teflon-coated seats made their widespread appearance.
What do inventors say?: "Find a need and fill it."
Of course Gram missed the 27 club. Of course he did.
That's relatively innocent for the Rock & Roll era...See Rick James Superfreak and Seventeen. "Sexually wrong today"? Hmmm. Sex always becomes a thing with puberty. Always and everywhere. The anxious Karens of this world try to hold it back. The nuns (and transgender surgery victims) of this world try to deny sexuality for life. They are a minority and always fail.
Aerosmith's Walk This Way of 1975:
Backstroke lover always hidin' 'neath the cover
'Till I talked to my daddy he say
He said, "You ain't seen nothing
'Till you're down on a muffin
Then you're sure to be a-changin' your ways"
I met a cheerleader, was a real young bleeder
All the times I can reminisce
'Cause the best thing lovin'
With her sister and her cousin
Only started with a little kiss, like this
See-saw swingin' with the boys in the school
With your feet flyin' up in the air
Singin' "Hey diddle-diddle with the kitty in the middle
Of the swing" like I didn't care
https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/6516/
The lesbian cover of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" in the Beatles-inspired "Across The Universe" musical is the best version I've ever heard.
"Don't knock it until you've tried it" used to be a saying in the 60s. It need not apply only to drug abuse. Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley have interesting pasts in this regard.
Joe Smith said...
Besides, I always took the song to be sung from the point of view of another 16- or 17-year-old boy.
That's usually my interpretation. Songs aren't necessarily autobiographical.
But then, maybe I've been a bit naive all of my life. . . . .
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