Anyone who has ever been to a Disney park, no matter how old or young, has probably been to the “it’s a small world” ride, and therefore listened to (and then forever had stuck in their head) the song of the same name. The song was written by the Sherman Brothers, the late and great Jewish songwriting team behind so many of Disney’s most iconic songs.
“People either love me for it, or hate me,” lyricist Richard Sherman once said so very accurately about the song that is either the creepiest, most grating thing you’ve ever heard or one you joyfully belt it out all the live long day. Among the song’s fans are actor Ben Stiller and “Fiddler on the Roof” songwriter Sheldon Harnick, who both sing its praises in the 2009 documentary about the songwriters titled “The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story.”
One thing is for sure: No other song has gotten played quite so many times all around the world for so many decades.
“Not all music statistics can be established using conventional means,” Richard Sherman once boasted. “Since 1983, there has not been a moment when ‘It’s A Small World’ wasn’t playing in at least two locations on the globe. Who else can claim that?” The ride, which first premiered at the New York World’s Fair in 1964 and was moved to Disneyland in 1964, is now part of Fantasyland in the U.S.’s Disneyland and Magic Kingdom, as well as Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland.
And this year, to celebrate its timelessness, it got a fresh update: a 70th anniversary version of the song started playing for park visitors this July.
The updated version includes a new final verse which was actually originally written in 1964 by the Sherman brothers, but only made it to the song and the ride now: “Mother earth unites us in heart and mind / And the love we give makes us humankind / Through our vast wondrous land / When we stand hand in hand / It’s a small world after all.”
Gregg Sherman, Richard’s son, said that this verse is meant to “celebrate that there’s more that unites us than divides us, and reinforce the message of that song.”
Richard and Robert Sherman came from a Jewish music legacy. Their grandfather was a court violinist and composer for Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph; their dad was a celebrated silent film and tin pan alley composer who urged his two very different sons to collaborate. They began working with Disney on movies like the original “The Parent Trap,” and then on the more challenging “Mary Poppins,” which earned them two Academy Awards. (You can see a retelling of that experience in “Saving Mr. Banks,” where Richard is played by B.J. Novak and Robert by Jason Schwartzman.) They would go on to make the iconic music of “Winnie the Pooh,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “The Jungle Book,” “The Aristocats” and so, so much more.
While it’s hard to overstate the impact and popularity of their music to this day, it’s likely that none of their songs get played as much and stay in the minds of as many people as “It’s A Small World.”
Appropriately, the song has been translated into many languages, including Hebrew, where versions of the song became popular in the ’80s. One such version — a mixed bilingual one — was famously shared in a 1986 episode of “Rechov Sumsum,” Israel’s “Sesame Street,” in which stars of the show sing it together, including actress and comedian Miki Kam (“The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem”) in Hebrew and actor Makram Khoury (“The West Wing,” “House of Sadaam”) in Arabic.
And while it doesn’t feature that final verse, it very much reinforces its message of coming together and celebrating the beautiful differences — and similarities — of languages and cultures.
