The Glorious Fourth facts for kids
"The Glorious Fourth" is a special song written by brothers Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman in 1974. They wrote it for a big celebration coming up called the American Bicentennial. This was a huge party to celebrate 200 years since the United States became a country!
To celebrate, Disneyland changed its famous "Main Street Electrical Parade" into a new parade called "America on Parade". This new parade featured the Sherman Brothers' song "The Glorious Fourth." The "America on Parade" show was amazing! It included fireworks every night and ran twice a day from 1975 to 1977.
The Sherman Brothers and Disney
Writing "The Glorious Fourth" was a special moment because it brought the Sherman Brothers back to Disney. They had worked only for Walt Disney from 1960 until he passed away in 1966. After that, they left Disney in 1968 to work on many different movies and stage shows for other companies.
But they did come back to Disney for a short time to finish working on movies like The Aristocats and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. For Bedknobs and Broomsticks, they even got two nominations for an Academy Award. An Academy Award is a very famous prize given for excellence in movies!
More Songs and Movies in 1974
The year 1974 was a busy one for the Sherman Brothers! They also returned to Disney to write "The Best Time Of Your Life." This song replaced an older song in the "Carousel of Progress" ride at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
In 1974, another one of their projects was released: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! This was the third short film about Winnie the Pooh that featured their wonderful songs.
Outside of Disney, the Sherman Brothers were also very busy. They wrote the songs and the story for the movie Huckleberry Finn. They also created a successful show on Broadway called Over Here!. Broadway is a famous theater district in New York City. This show starred the famous singing group Andrews Sisters and a young actor named John Travolta.
And that's not all! In that same year, their song "You're Sixteen" became a huge hit. It was sung by Ringo Starr, who used to be in the famous band The Beatles. The song even reached number one on Billboard's Hot 100 list, which tracks the most popular songs in the United States!
