Interview: Robert Sherman on The Aristocats
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Q: How critical is music � and specifically songs � to the success of classic animation? Especially at Disney?
A: Walt Disney was a great believer in the use of song to convey story. He was primarily a storyman & story-driven songs were his �pets.� He always asked what was going on with the song � he hated �singing heads.� He loved learning about character & motivation thru music & lyrics.

Q: Richard, how excited were you to have Maurice Chevalier record this title track? He did a great job in Castaways as well as hailey and all those hits for Annette Funicello?
A: It was an extremely gratifying day when Maurice Chevalier agreed to come out of retirement to record our title song for THE ARISTOCATS. My brother Robert & I actually had written songs for Maurice in �In Search of the Castaways,� and �Monkey�s Go Home,� prior to this. But our history with Maurice Chevalier goes much further back then that. Maurice had introduced a song our father � Al Sherman wrote in the 1930 film �The Big Pond.� The name of that song was � �Living in the Sunlight � Loving in the Moonlight.� It was a hit � twice. The first time w/ Maurice Chevalier, the second time with Tiny Tim revived it with his ukulele � Yes! A very big thrill!

Q: Richard, what made THE ARISTOCATS a musical challenge as opposed to other Disney scores?
A: The challenge in writing the songs for THE ARISTOCATS truly fell on the animators & director of the film. Robert & I wrote the initial songs for the film, just prior to leaving full-time employment at the Walt Disney Studios. Therefore, some of the songs we wrote for ARISTOCATS were never used. I believe, therefore, the challenge fell upon the makers of the film to select what songs made the final cut.

Q: Could you talk a bit about your pre-Disney career and how you joined the Disney Company?
A: Prior to becoming Walt Disney staff songwriters in 1960, Robert & I were popular songwriters in the Rock & Roll era. One of our songs, �Tall Paul� was recorded by young Annette Funicello, who, as you all should know, was a star of Walt Disney�s �Mousketeers� Show. She had a big hit with �Tall Paul� late in 1958. Throughout 1959 & 1960, Bob & I wrote a number of hit-songs expressly for Annette to sing. We were totally unaware that Walt Disney, himself, was very fond of Annette � having discovered her � and listened to all of her recordings. One day, he was going to put Annette in a film, �The Horse Masters,� and because of her popularity, he decided to have her sing a special song in that film. Bob & I were asked to take a stab at writing a song for this film. Of course, we jumped at the opportunity. Walt liked it very much and the rest is history.

Q: Have you managed to write a song in just one day? How is your composing process?
A: My brother & I have always said that to write a song, it takes all the experiences of your life, plus the time it takes to write it! To be specific, yes, sometimes a song takes place in one session � together in one day. Sometimes, months elapse before we�ve completed the song completely. There�s no set rule. Something inside of you says � �now you can present it!� If one of us feels it�s not quite right, lyrically or melodically, we don�t present it.

Q: What is your favorite song of THE ARISTOCATS?
A: I love the title song. It�s a mood & scene setter & accomplishes many things. First of all it�s very French � very period� In words, this title song describes these very pampered pussy-cats�so it accomplishes what we set for it.

Q: What is your favorite character in THE ARISTOCATS film?
A: I think the two country hounds out in the country � Lafayette (voiced by George Lindsey) & Napoleon (voiced by Pat Buttram) � really got to me! They were hilarious! They were extraordinarily well voiced & beautifully animated.

Q: Could you talk about some of the individual songs for THE ARISTOCATS and how they came about, and also, some of the songs that were to have been in the film but were discarded and why?
A: All films created by Walt Disney at the time of his major outpouring of work were carefully crafted to fit scenes, characters, moods and situations. If these elements changed in any way, songs � no matter how good they were � were discarded. Others were written for the new scenes. Many times, character songs were dropped because characters were dropped�sequences were dropped etc., Naturally, in the course of creation of THE ARISTOCATS, some songs were eliminated. Robert & I had written a number of pieces that we were very fond of, but either the song was replaced by another song that the director & producers felt was more appropriate, or, as I said, the sequence was dropped. Specifically, in the case of a song that was retained in the film, the creation of �Scales of Arpeggios� was written to a sequence where Duchess is instructing her young kittens to practice their music & art lessons. It seemed a natural for Bob & myself to create this piece to cover this situation. There was a song called �We Can�t Leave Her Alone,� which in point of fact ,was a reprise of �Pourquois� a song which was to be sung early in the film by Madame Bonfamille to express her love for her kittens. It was a tender ballad which added a great deal of heart, but unfortunately, only a a few lines of the lyric were recited by Eva Gabor in the final film�You�ll see it on the bonus feature which explains the purpose of the song fully.

Q: How is the collaboration with your brother? Do you both write on the same songs, shifting it to each other to keep improving it, or do you have your own �projects�?
A: For over half a century, Robert & I have collaborated on hundreds & hundreds of songs, for many, many film, TV and stage projects, as well as special songs for Disney Theme Parks. Our process has always been to write story-driven songs. Therefore, we�ve always thoroughly discussed the period, the purpose, the character who sings it, the reason�before jumping into any lyric or melody ideas. We always feel there are 3 parts to the song. The most important part is the reason it should exist. Our process usually consists of me sitting at the piano & Bob hovering over it. We throw ideas out�I start to play something�he�ll hum something to make it better. He�ll throw a line to me, I�ll twist it to make it better and we scramble around like that for sometimes hours & days, �til we both agree we�ve got something to show! That�s how it works!