![]() While Jimmy Johnson does not mention it in his autobiography, it is very likely that he, the Shermans and/or Camarata came up with the words “Original Cast Sound Track.” As of this writing, no other film score recording before Mary Poppins bears that particular nomenclature. Mary Poppins may have added one other footnote to recording history with the unique phrase listed on the album cover. Along with Fantasia and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Mary Poppins album has been inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. For the first time, it stood on solid ground–and continues to thrive today–largely due to the fact that Johnson, the Shermans and Tutti Camarata (whose Sunset Sound studio produced the album) not only put together a powerhouse album, but also created a line of Poppins audio products that sold for years and became creative and sales benchmarks. The subsequent success of Mary Poppins impacted every square inch of the Disney organization, including the record company. Jimmy had to convince Roy that their small-but-plucky operation was as effective as the big labels. ![]() But because of Annette’s hit records for Buena Vista and a more profitable kid-based product line for Disneyland, things were holding on. The first three years were rough, so much so that Walt and Roy had considered shutting the record division down. Roy had allowed him to create Disneyland Records and its sister label, Buena Vista. Roy was fully aware that he and his brother Walt had their own record company, but he was entertaining the idea of allowing the larger outside companies the permission to release Mary Poppins albums.ĭisneyland Records President Jimmy Johnson was feeling the pressure of this decision. Disney was suddenly in discussion with the major record labels like RCA Victor and Columbia, clamoring for the rights to the soundtrack album. The industry excitement for Mary Poppins the score grew as big as it was for Mary Poppins the movie. In addition to their early pop music career, by the early ’60s the Sherman brothers had written all the songs for the 1963 animated feature The Sword in the Stone several Disney TV shows including the theme for the Wonderful World of Color hit Hayley Mills films like The Parent Trap and top ten hits for Mouseketeer turned movie star Annette. It’s staggering to consider what a brazen move it must have seemed to the major studios when Walt Disney decided to take on a “big” musical with an original score-penned by two young songwriters who had never tackled a Broadway show before, or a live TV musical like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Warner Brothers had done well with The Music Man and were working on My Fair Lady, perhaps the biggest stage musical of its day. That’s risky even for the bigger studios, who by the early ‘60s, were not doing very many of them anymore-and if they were, the properties were almost always sure things, like Broadway hits. It’s one thing to make a major film musical based on an established stage production, it’s another thing entirely to try out a fresh, new set of songs in a big, splashy live-action musical. Songs: “The Perfect Nanny,” “Sister Suffragette,” “The Life I Lead,” “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Pavement Artist (Chim Chim Cheree),” “A Jolly Holiday,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”,” “Stay Awake,” “I Love to Laugh,” “A British Bank (The Life I Lead),” “Feed the Birds,” “Fidelity Fiduciary Bank,” “Chim Chim Cheree,” “Step in Time,” “A Man Has Dreams (The Life I Lead/A Spoonful of Sugar),” “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” by Richard M. Pat O’Malley (Pearly Drummer) Bill Lee, Ginny Tyler, Marni Nixon, Thurl Ravenscroft, Paul Frees, Marc Breaux (Barnyard Animals) Richard and Robert Sherman (Pearlies). ![]() Dawes, Sr.) Ed Wynn (Uncle Albert) David Tomlinson (George Banks) Glynis Johns (Winifred Banks) Karen Dotrice (Jane Banks) Matthew Garber (Michael Banks) Arthur Malet (Mr. Performers: Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins, Pearlies) Dick Van Dyke (Bert, Mr. Album Produced at Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood. ![]() Engineers: Bruce Botnick, Brian Ross-Myring. Music Supervisor/Arranger/Conductor: Irwin Kostal. Our friend Richard Sherman turned 90 last week! Let’s celebrate the impact he and his brother Robert had on the Disney record company with their landmark score.īuena Vista Records BV-4026 (Mono) STER-4026 (Stereo) (12” 33 1/3 RPM / Gatefold)ĬD Reissues: CD-016 (1991) #60615-7 (1997) #61202-7 (2-Disc Anniversary Edition, 2004) D002036296 (3-Disc Legacy Collection Edition, 2014)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |