Buena Vista 4026
Arranged and conducted by Irwin Kostel
Track listing: Overture / Sister Suffragette / The Life I Lead / The Perfect Nanny / A Spoonful of Sugar / Pavement Artist (Chim Chim Cher-ee) / Jolly Holiday / Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious / Stay Awake / I Love to Laugh / A British Bank (The Life I Lead) Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag) Fidelity Fiduciary Bank / Chim Chim Cher-ee / Step in Time / A Man Has Dreams (The Life I Lead) (A Spoonful of Sugar) / Let’s Go Fly a Kite
March 13, 1965
14 weeks (nonconsecutive)
In 1960, songwriting siblings Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman were working on several different projects for Walt Disney, including Mary Poppins, based on a series of short stories written by P.L. Travers.
Disney had stumbled upon the stories one evening back in 1939, when he came home to find his daughter laughing aloud as she read Travers’s tales of an English nanny. Although he had tried unsuccessfully to obtain motion picture rights to the stories for nearly two decades, Disney nonetheless put his staff to work on the project, confident that he could eventually sway Travers.
“We were doing five pictures at the same time in different stages of development,” recalls Robert Sherman. Among the other projects the Shermans were working on as they composed what would be the greatest work of their career were Summer Magic, Bon Voyage, and In Search of the Castaways.
What made the task even more difficult was the fact that each project had a distinctive ethnic flavor and time period. “We had to constantly shift gears,” Richard explains, “from doing a Mexican type of tune for the Zorro television series to Escapade in Florence.”
Despite the multiplicity of projects, Mary Poppins remained special from the start. Travers finally agreed to sell Disney the film rights in 1962, after reading screenwriter Don DaGradi’s story outline and hearing a few of the Shermans’ tunes.
“We knew from the very beginning it was going to make a great musical,” remembers Robert. “Walt did too,” Richard adds. The Sherman brothers actually worked with DaGradi and co-writer Bill Walsh on the screenplay, although they are only credited for the lyrics and music. “We couldn’t have written the songs unless we knew where we were going with them,” Robert explains. Richard concurs: “We had to have a reason for telling the audience about this magical word, ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,’ or for the wonderful things about being a chimney sweep or about Mary Poppins’s formula for having a good attitude, ‘A Spoonful of Sugar.'”
The brothers drew on their on experiences for some of the most memorable cuts. “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” was a word the brothers and their friends made up at summer camp. “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” was also inspired by their childhood, specifically by trips to the park with their father. Another classic, “A Spoonful of Sugar,” was inspired by Robert’s son Jeff, who upon returning home from school one day told his father how he’d had the Salk vaccine administered.
The latter song came after Julie Andrews, who made her screen debut in Mary Poppins, rejected a ballad called “The Eyes of Love,” which to this day has only been released as a demo version on the CD reissue of the soundtrack. Although 17 songs appear on the album, the Shermans wrote 35 tunes for Mary Poppins, some of which later turned up in different incarnations, including “Trust in Me” from The Jungle Book and “The Beautiful Briny” from Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
Aside from topping the album chart, Mary Poppins also picked up several awards. The soundtrack won Grammys for Best Original Score (over the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night) and Best Original Recording for Children, as well as Academy Awards for Best Original Music Score and Best Song for “Chim Chim Cheree.”
THE TOP FIVE
Week of March 13, 1965
1. Mary Poppins, Soundtrack
2. Goldfinger, Soundtrack
3. Beatles, ’65 Beatles
4. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feellin’,Righteous Brothers
5. My Fair Lady, Soundtrack