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Writer, director, composer, lyricist, producer, and Kritzerland head honcho Bruce Kimmel had a long and beautiful friendship with Richard M. Sherman, one-half of the legendary Sherman Brothers songwriting team.  Last year, Bruce unveiled Richard and Me, a new memoir chronicling their friendship.  Now, he’s ready to unveil The Sherman Brothers Album as it was meant to be heard.  Bruce produced the original sessions for the album 25 years ago but didn’t get the opportunity to see the album to fruition – leading to an unfortunately missed opportunity for fans of the duo (and who isn’t?).  Now, he’s been able to right that wrong and release the album as it was originally intended to be heard…and it’s every bit as delightful as we would have expected.  We caught up with Bruce to talk about Richard and Me, The Sherman Brothers Album, and what’s next from Kritzerland.  Please welcome Bruce Kimmel!

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Bruce.  Your novels and memoirs so vividly capture the spirit of Los Angeles and Southern California and showbiz in the mid-20th century.  The Sherman Brothers joined the Disney studio in 1961.  When did you first become aware of them?

Easy. Friday, June 23, 1961, first show at the Vogue Theater in Hollywood for – The Parent Trap. Hopelessly fell in love with both Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills and the songs provided by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman a.k.a. the Sherman Brothers.

When did you first have the opportunity to meet, work, and befriend Richard M. Sherman?

It’s a great story, told in detail in the book, but the basics are that he and his wife Elizabeth were in the Broadway department store in Century City doing Christmas shopping.  Music was playing and Richard stopped in his tracks because it was a song from The Slipper and the Rose called “Suddenly It Happens.” They found an employee and asked what recording they were playing. The employee took them down to the basement where their music machine was and said it was from a Cinderella compilation album. The next day they called Borders, asked if they had the album, they did, and they ran over and bought it. It so happens the person who answered the phone and sold it to them was a fan of my albums and we’d become friendly and she’d attended a few of our sessions. She told them she knew the producer of the album and she gave him my number. The next day, he called me and asked if he could come by and chat. Of course, I was thrilled and that’s how we met and became fast friends that very day.

Here at The Second Disc, I know our readers have enjoyed so many Kritzerland releases such as the expanded Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the Levi! cast recording, and Unsung Sherman Brothers. But The Sherman Brothers Album predates all of these. What inspired you to record this collection of classic songs, and how did you go about originally casting the album’s array of singers?

This was back in 2001. Richard came to the office one day and we were having fun chatting away and I just said, “We should do a Sherman Brothers album.” He loved the idea and so I chose songs that were classics along with lesser-known things, like three songs from Busker Alley – at that time none of those songs had been recorded before. I had a stable of singers I’d been working with for a very long time, and most on the album were those, along with some I’d never worked with, like Christine Ebersole. Little known fact: It was Kristen Bell’s first professional recording. I did the arrangements with our musical director, Todd Ellison. Richard was at the session and loved what he was hearing. Most of the vocals were done in NY, and he never, sadly, got to hear the album in the way it should have been heard, but I’ll talk about that in the next question.

The original release was marred by a variety of problems when it was taken out of your hands and given to a producer of little experience and know-how (to put it mildly!). How did Concord’s acquisition of your Broadway masters lead to the restoration and recreation of this album?

Yes, taken out of my hands and mixed by someone who had no understanding of how I work or record. He couldn’t find the hard drive that had the orchestra tracks – he could only find the vocal tracks which were sung to VERY rough mixes we sent that were never ever meant to be used. He just laid the vocals over that and used full takes – I do two or three or four takes and use the best parts of each. None of that. So, when I heard it, it sounded so awful I was disgusted. Richard was furious when he found out they’d taken it away because they lied to him so that he’d write liner notes. He spent years asking me, “Can’t we get it back so you can fix it?” Well, sadly he passed before that could happen, but a week after that I wrote [Concord’s] Sean Patrick Flahaven and asked if I could license the CD and fix it after all these years. Happily, he was open to it, found the hard drive with the orchestra tracks – yes, the very ones the other guy couldn’t find – I understand that must have been very difficult as it was clearly labeled Sherman Brothers Orchestra Tracks. So, that was great news. What wasn’t great news is that they couldn’t find the vocal tracks – I’m sure that he left that hard drive wherever he mixed and mastered and I’m sure they put it in the trash when no one ever picked it up. So, my engineer managed to strip the vocals from the rough mixes – but could only save about seven or eight – the rest were not salvageable. I had him do a mix of “Busker Alley” with our orchestra tracks and it was a whole different ball game – it sounded amazing. So, we mixed all the vocals that were okay, and then I had a few of my LA singers come in and replace the other vocals that couldn’t be saved. So, that was fun to do. And in the end, it’s so gratifying to have it be the album it always should have been, with a brand-new sequence replacing the completely inept sequence the guy had originally done. And we just got the CDs in as I write this, so they’re shipping this week. And I know Richard is smiling down from his musical heaven.

That’s a remarkable story, and one that I’m so thrilled to say finally has a happy ending!  The album features some performers who have left us, including Rebecca Luker and Gary Beach. Could you share any memories of these artists?

I’d worked with Rebecca from the very first album I produced for Varese Sarabande, Unsung Sondheim, and from then on she was a regular and I adored her. We did a wonderful Cole Porter solo album with her and for some reason when she came in to do what we called scratch vocals, the day we recorded the band, she thought that was it and she basically nailed all her vocals that day in one take – it was extraordinary. She came back to do her final vocal date, but we only used a couple of things from that date. Passed much too young and she is much-missed by everyone who knew her. I brought Gary Beach in to do our Sondheim at the Movies CD – all the Evening Primrose songs, sung by him and Liz Callaway. I first saw him in Closer Than Ever here in LA and loved him, then in The Producers, of course – he did a great job, so I asked him back to do the title song from Busker Alley. He was a delight to work with and another who passed way too soon.

You mentioned that, sadly, some of the vocals could not be saved for this definitive release including those by Emily Skinner and Kristen Bell. Could you talk a little about the fantastic singers who have replaced them?

Yes, as I mentioned above, we replaced them with my LA singers – the wonderful Kerry O’Malley did the song from Over Here, which she’s performed a zillion times for me, Robert Yacko and Adrienne Stiefel did “Are We Dancing” from The Happiest Millionaire, replacing David Burnham and Tami Tappan, I had two young girls do “Ten Feet Off the Ground,” and one of them, Ava Madison Gray did “Hushabye Mountain,” too, and the other young girl, Elena Bertacchi did the Kristen Bell duet with a young fellow called Benji Fox, whose grandpa is the wonderful film and TV composer, Charles Fox. I think that covers it.

After such a close association with Richard and his music, do you have a favorite song or score from The Sherman Brothers’ discography?

I love all their stuff. I’m very partial to the Levi! score for many reasons. But if I had to choose the song that always gets to me, especially as sung by Rebecca Luker on the album, it’s “For Now, For Always” from The Parent Trap. But, you know, all the Mary Poppins stuff and Chitty and Tom Sawyer – they were just amazing. And, of course, I had the pleasure of writing two songs with Richard and what a treat that was.  [Here’s a link to Bruce and Richard performing one of those songs, the delightful “Two Roads.”]

Was the process of writing Richard and Me a difficult one, or a cathartic one? Or both?

I knew right after the funeral that I had to do it. It was for me. I wanted to put it all on paper and I had a great time writing it because our friendship was very special and always loving and positive. I was so lucky to have him as a best friend for a little over twenty-five years. I think about him all the time and miss him lots. The only part of the book that was in any way difficult was the opening about him passing away and the funeral.

I feel privileged every day to have met Richard a number of times, and though our interactions were brief, his kindness, generosity, and spirit have remained with me. Could you share a memory of Richard for our readers who didn’t get to know him yet do know him so well through his music?

I say it clearly in the book – I don’t know a single person who met him who didn’t fall in love with him. He was filled with joy and positivity and loved meeting people. The only time I ever heard him be irritated was over what they’d done to The Sherman Brothers Album.

Are there any other albums from the Varese Sarabande/Fynsworth Alley masters you might like to revisit today? And what’s next for Bruce Kimmel and Kritzerland?

Well, part of my deal for helping make Concord’s acquisition of my masters was that I got to own the Guy Haines first solo album, so that’s coming out again, and then I get to put out a compilation of all the Guy Haines tracks from the Varese Sarabande albums, and I’m really jazzed about that. Otherwise, I just finished producing a studio cast album of a fun Christmas musical called Christmas in Oz, written by Ron Lytle, and we have lots of CDs planned for the rest of the year – a couple of soundtracks, foreign cast recordings, stuff like that.

We can’t wait for all of the above, Bruce.  Thanks for sharing these beautiful memories with us.  

The Sherman Brothers Album and Richard and Me are shipping now from Kritzerland and can be ordered by clicking on these links!  Richard and Me is also available from Amazon.com.  (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)