Here's some info from another post regarding a presentation Randy did at the NFFC convention regarding The Mary Poppins 40th Anniversary 2-Disc set.

"They've been trying to get this project off the ground for 15 years. And one day at work, when Randy was working in the tape room he came across a reel called "Mary Poppins pre-demo." Mary Poppins, was Randy's high school band teacher's favorite movie, and he was the one who taught Randy how to edit and clean up tapes. And if he could get a great MP soundtrack made, that would be kinda a way to say, "Thanks." So when his bosses came by and asked what they should do, Randy said Mary Poppins. The boss wasn't too sure, they had done a soundtrack before, hadn't done too well, (Randy said, of course not it was a bad vinyl pressing and the cover art made Julie Andrews look like a dancing girl) they would need to do something to make it special to get it approved by management. Randy pulled out the pre-demo and said, "Does anyone know that this is here?" No one did, including the Sherman Brothers. So that became the impetus for the new project.

So they still had this stuff to work with. And then one day, Randy was with Dick Sherman and Dick brought out 6 reels, 7 hours of tapes of the early story meetings with Walt, P.L. Travers, Dick & Bob Sherman and a few other top people.

On the second CD will have 41 minutes of these meetings. All the songs that didn't make the film, like the compass sequence. There is a 12 minute interview with Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews, Sherman Bros and Irwin Kostal (arranger and conductor) done by the Hollywood Spotlight Microphone, the radio spots, the Sherman Brothers interview that did make it on the restored soundtrack, snippets from the orchestra sessions. The first CD will have 26 new minutes of score added to the soundtrack. The soundtrack now comes in at a total of 79 min 48 sec which gives them 12 sec to spare on the CD. Definetely a jam-packed album.

A few tidbits: Cherry Tree Lane is based on Mrs. Travers house, 90% of the whistling in the movie was done by Julie Andrews, Dick Sherman played the Kazuu in the Jolly Holiday sequence and Irwin Kostal did the softshoe sounds for the penguins. "

"I figured I'd stop the speculating, and once again break my rule about posting playlists, as this is just too good to keep to myself an longer.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Disc 1 of this new release is the soundtrack (leaving only 8 seconds to spare on the disc), and Disc 2 holds all the bonus materials – Including excerpts of the original story meetings with P.L. Travers, Don DiGradi, and the Sherman Brothers – complete with never-before heard song demos.

You will notice that I have indicated which tracks are new with a † and which tracks have additional material added to them with a *. This will also appear on the outside packaging as well.

So, here we go –

DISC ONE – The Soundtrack (1:19:52)

1. Buena Vista Fanfare ( :08 ) †
2. Overture ( 2:58 )
3. One Man Band ( :56 ) †
4. Sister Suffragette ( 1:43 )
5. The Life I Lead ( 2:00 )
6. The Perfect Nanny ( 1:38 )
7. Air Mail • Admiral Boom • The Not-So-Perfect Nannies • Mary Poppins Arrives ( 3:06 ) †
8. A Spoonful of Sugar ( 4:07 )
9. Pavement Artist ( 2:06 ) *
10. Jolly Holiday ( 5:22 ) *
11. Jolly Holiday (Reprise) ( 1:05 ) †
12. Penguin Dance ( 2:20 ) †
13. The Carousel Horses ( 4:17 ) †
14. Supercailfragilisticexpialidocious ( 2:00 )
15. Pavement Artist (Reprise) ( 1:01 ) *
16. Stay Awake ( 1:43 )
17. Trouble at Uncle Albert’s ( 1:41 ) †
18. I Love to Laugh ( 2:42 )
19. A British Bank (The Life I Lead) ( 2:06 )
20. Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag) ( 3:49 )
21. Father’s Footsteps ( 1:17 ) †
22. Fidelity Fiduciary Bank ( 3:31 )
23. Panic at the Bank ( 2:12 ) †
24. Chim Chim Cher-ee • March Over the Rooftops ( 6:19 ) *
25. Step In Time ( 8:41 )
26. A Man Has Dreams (The Life I Lead / A Spoonful of Sugar) ( 4:27 )
27. Mr. Banks Is Discharged ( 4:46 ) †
28. Let’s Go Fly a Kite ( 1:48 )

† = New Track
* = Includes Additional Material


DISC 2 – Bonus Material (1:14:43)

1 – 21 The Mary Poppins Story Meeting Excerpts ( 41:05 ) †

1. Cherry Tree Lane
2. Mr. Banks Decided to Hire a Nanny Himself
3. The Children Write Their Own Advertisement
4. The Line of Applicants and Mary Poppins Arrives
5. Notes on Mary Meeting the Banks
6. Up to the Nursery
7. Bert and the Talking Pictures
8. A Carousel Horse Ride to the Seashore
9. The Return Home
10. The Next Morning We Meet the Sweep
11. Uncle Albert’s
12. A Change in the Wind and an Adventure with Admiral Boom
13. The Bird Woman
14. Mr. Banks and the Compass
15. The Compass Sequence: Timbuktu
16. The Compass Sequence: The Land of Sand
17. The Compass Sequence: Tea In China
18. The Compass Sequence: The North Pole
19. The Return Home
20. Everyone Descends on Cherry Tree Lane
21. Mary Departs

22. Hollywood Spotlight Microphone ( 17:24 ) †

Dick Tufeld interviews the stars, composers, and musical director for Mary Poppins (c. 1964)
Julie Andrews
Dick Van Dyke
Richard M. Sherman
Robert B. Sherman
Irwin Kostal

23. The Sherman Brothers Reminisce About Their Work On Mary Poppins ( 16:05 )

So, mark your calenders for November 16th!

Randy Thornton"

----------

There ya go!

"Once in a lifetime - and only once - a picture comes along which cannot be compared to any other and to which no other can be compared. A picture which writes a new page in motion picture history. A picture which has such universal appeal that is a pure delight to Father, Mother, Children, Grandparents, and Grandchildren - it makes no difference who. You have made it - Mary Poppins" - Telegram from Samuel Goldwyn to Walt Disney, September 11, 1964

Okay, so I picked up my copy of the soundtrack Tuesday evening at Borders. It is so amazing! I can't stop listening to it. Everyone who loves Mary Poppins needs to go buy this soundtrack.

The Packaging
Absolutely beautiful. It's made of thin cardboard, with lots of great pictures on the inside and out. It opens up to reveal a cd on either side, plus a section in the middle that houses the book. The disc art is also great, with images of Mary and Bert on each disc. The book is about 40 pages long, including photos from the film, lyrics, explanations for the bonus tracks, and an essay entitled "The Poppins Project" written by Randy Thornton (the special edition restoration producer) on August 27, 2004.

Disc One - The Soundtrack
The first disc includes the complete soundtrack. Finally! I have wanted this for years. It is done in the style of some of the previous Disney animated feature soundtracks, where it includes all of the orchestration from the film along with the usual songs, and they all flow together very nicely. Irwin Kostal's orchestration work is beautiful, as he weaves together the Sherman Brother's melodies throughout the film. My personal favorite song from this film is "Feed the Birds", and this theme shows up beautifully now and again ("March Over the Rooftops", "Mr Banks is Discharged"). The disc even starts out with the 7 second "Buena Vista Fanfare", which is the music heard when the Buena Vista logo is shown at the beginning of the film. Another highlight is the Jolly Holiday sequence, where we hear the full intro to the song, plus the reprise, and the "Penguin Dance". Fantastic! (Also, the sound quality is superb- crystal clear!)

Disc Two - Bonus Material
The Mary Poppins Story Meetings
Tracks 1-21 are all one piece, an audio recording of a highlights from a series of meetings that took place April 5-10, 1961, between Mrs Travers, Richard and Robert Sherman, and Don DiGradi. It was after these meetings that Mrs Travers (the author of the books) decided to give Walt permission to do the film. Honestly, the audio is poor for this section so it's a bit difficult to follow, but thankfully the liner notes provide clear explanations as to what is being discussed for each track. This is more of a novelty, not something you would want to listen to over and over, but fascinating nonetheless.

Hollywood Spotlight Microphone
This is the highlight of the bonus disc. It is a 1964 interview with Julie Andrews, Dick van Dyke, the Sherman Brothers, and Irwin Kostal (conducted by Dick Tufeld). Some highlights include... Julie discussing the way she decided to play Mary, Dick revealing the challenges of playing Bert, Irwin talking about incorporating a vaudevillian English music hall flavor to the score, Julie talks about her "perfect pitch" singing ability, Dick talks about his flat singing (!), and the whole group talks about the meaning and signifigance behind "Feed the Birds"...
Perhaps most interesting is this: Dick Tufeld asks the group if they think Mary Poppins will ever become a Broadway musical:
Dick van Dyke: "Without a doubt!"
Julie Andrews: "But I don't see how it can! Because Mr Disney did so many incredible things in the picture which would be impossible on the stage."
Dick van Dyke: "Oh yes, but I'm almost sure that this is going to become a classic story...
Julie: "Oh I agree there...
Dick: "...and someday it'll be done in the theatre, I'm just sure of it!"
Julie: "...it's as classic as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, any of them.
Dick: "or Peter Pan! I think it will be done on the stage. This is gonna make Mary Poppins as famous as The Wizard of Oz.
(Note: The Mary Poppins musical opens next month...)

The Sherman Brothers Reminisce About Their Work on Mary Poppins
This was recorded in Feb 1989, and has been featured on previous Poppins soundtrack CD's. This is an interesting exposition by the Sherman's about their experience of writing songs for the film.

CD-Rom Features
When you toss disc 2 into your CD-Rom drive, you get access to a couple of special internet features, including a link to the website for the new musical ( http://www.marypoppinsthemusical.com ), and links to purchase other Mary Poppins related items, like the Karoake CD.

Well, what can I say? This is a fantastic way to enjoy Mary Poppins in anticipation of the DVD release. You should pick it up today!