"Mary Poppins (Special Editon) [Digipak] [Remaster]" (11/16/2004) Pop Vocal Original Soundtrack, Walt DisneyOriginal score composed by Robert M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. Principal cast includes: Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins); Dick Van Dyke, Glynis Johns, David Tomlinson, Karen Dotrice, Matthew Garber, Ed Wynn, The Pearlie Chorus, Richard M. Sherman, J. Pat O'Malley. Music arranged and conducted by Irwin Kostal. Producers: Ron Kidd, Randy Thornton, Ted Kryczko. Includes liner notes by Randy Thornston. Digitally remastered by Shawn Murphy, Bruce Botnick and Jeff Sheridan (Soundworks, Hollywood, California), and John Polito (Audio Mechanics, Los Angeles, California). This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Composer/Lyricists: Richard M. Sherman; Robert B. Sherman. Personnel: Dave Tomlinson, Dick Van Dyke, Ed Wynn, Glynis Johns, Julie Andrews, Elsa Lanchester. Disney's 1997 and 2004 reissues of the Mary Poppins soundtrack augmented the classic original release with a handful of demos and interviews, which is enough bonus material to attract collectors, but not enough to overshadow the wonderful qualities of the music. Mary Poppins contained some of the best-known (and best-loved) songs from any Disney film, including "Chim-Chimeree," "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," "A Spoonful of Sugar" and "Let's Go Fly a Kite." The music has lost none of its charm over the years, and it stands as some of the finest music from a movie musical in the last half of the 20th century. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Prior to their 14-song score for Mary Poppins, songwriting brothers Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman were best-known for the Top Ten hits "Tall Paul" by Annette Funicello and "You're Sixteen" by Johnny Burnette. Mary Poppins changed all that. It won the brothers Academy Awards for best original musical score and best song -- for "Chim Chim Cher-Ee" -- and the soundtrack album won them a Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV Show, as well as winning Best Recording for Children. The album also topped the Billboard LP chart for 14 weeks and reportedly sold 2.3 million copies in its first year of release. Of course, all this success could not be the sole result of the brothers' writing ability, as also expressed in memorable songs like "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," and "Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag)." A great deal of it could be credited to the many unnamed talents at the Disney studio, and not a little to Julie Andrews, who embodied the character of Mary Poppins so perfectly that she never really escaped it. But Mary Poppins had a lot of songs for a movie musical, no less than 13 separate numbers, and they were all very good, from Mrs. Banks' (Glynis Johns) declaration of "Sister Suffragette" to Mr. Banks' (Dave Tomlinson) transfiguration, "Let's Go Fly a Kite." The brothers had clearly paid attention to Andrews' stage triumph My Fair Lady, and not just to learn how to craft songs for her. They wrote what might have been a new song for that show's Henry Higgins character in Mr. Banks' statement of purpose as a self-satisfied British male in "The Life I Lead." But their primary influence was the popular music of the period in which the story was set, Edwardian England, specifically the British music hall style of the pre-World War I era. That gave them the buoyancy and glee of many of the numbers, but the wonderful melodies of songs like "Chim Chim Cher-Ee" and "Feed the Birds" were their own. And they benefited from an excellent cast that included Johns, Tomlinson, and Ed Wynn in minor parts, and Dick Van Dyke (sporting an awful, but nevertheless entertaining Cockney accent) in a major one. Best of all, of course, was Andrews, simultaneously warm and proper, bringing out the best in the material. ~ William Ruhlmann Disney's 1997 and 2004 reissues of the Mary Poppins soundtrack augmented the classic original release with a handful of demos and interviews, which is enough bonus material to attract collectors, but not enough to overshadow the wonderful qualities of the music. Mary Poppins contained some of the best-know
