
Tony Brown related additional Sherman comments about the song and its role in Mary Poppins: 'Feed the Birds' is the first song written about the merits of giving charity. Songs have been written about a myriad of subjects. The song was regarded as one of Walt Disney's favorite songs. One time just as Dick was almost finished, under his breath, I heard Walt say, "Yep. After a while, he'd wander to the north window, look out into the distance and just say, "Play it." And Dick would wander over to the piano and play "Feed the Birds" for him. On Fridays, after work, often invite us into his office and we'd talk about things that were going on at the Studio. Travers had originally wanted the only music in the film to be Edwardian period songs.) Eventually and reluctantly, Travers acquiesced to the American songwriters' supplying the film's soundtrack. Travers' response was that she thought " Greensleeves" (traditionally in E minor, the same key as about half of "Feed The Birds") was the only truly appropriate song for the soundtrack, as it was " quintessentially English". Robert Sherman then called in a Disney staff secretary to demonstrate the song again.
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The song is also alluded to in the Disney film Enchanted, a tribute to and parody of Disney films, in the form of an old woman named Clara who sells bird feed for "two dollars a bag", and in Chris Columbus's 1992 movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York by the character known as the Pigeon Lady (interpreted by Academy-Award Winner Brenda Fricker) and John Williams's soundtrack theme.Īs the Sherman Brothers recall, when Richard Sherman first played and sang "Feed the Birds" to Pamela Travers (the author of the Mary Poppins books), she thought it was "nice" but inappropriate for a male voice. It segues into a short dirge-like segment as Mr. The scene is deliberately designed to suggest the bird woman may have died, and is one of the most dramatic scenes in the film. Banks walks to his place of employment, literally and figuratively alone in the streets of London, stopping by the place where the bird woman was earlier that day (and on the previous night), only to find it vacant before continuing on to the bank to face its board of directors to be fired.


The scene is reminiscent of the real-life seed vendors of Trafalgar Square who began selling birdseed to passers-by shortly after its public opening in 1844.

The song speaks of an old beggar woman (the "Bird Woman") who sits on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, selling bags of breadcrumbs to passers-by for two pence a bag (equivalent to about 13p in 2022) so that they can feed the many pigeons which surround the old woman. Sherman) and featured in the 1964 motion picture Mary Poppins. " Feed the Birds" is a song written by the Sherman Brothers ( Richard M.
