When Richard M. Sherman, one half of the legendary songwriting team The Sherman Brothers, passed away last month, The Second Disc was quick to pay tribute to all the duo's great works for Walt Disney films and elsewhere. But their most towering achievement is probably the song score to the whimsical Mary Poppins. This summer, to celebrate the film's 60th anniversary, Disney will release a limited edition vinyl box set collecting the film's original soundtrack, rare archival material and no less than four out-of-print albums from the Disney discography.

The Mary Poppins (60th Anniversary Vinyl Collection), available on the label's Disney Music Emporium and expected to ship around August 14, includes the film's beloved soundtrack, including the beloved songs "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Jolly Holiday," "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," "Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag)," "Step in Time" and "Let's Go Fly a Kite" as well as rare underscore conducted by the great Irwin Kostal. Additionally, there's three LPs of bonus material, all taken from a triple-CD reissue of the soundtrack from Disney's Legacy Collection product line in 2014. This includes a collection of demos by The Sherman Brothers as well as a series of "Lost Chords" recordings fleshing out seven unused songs with new arrangements and full vocal performances; a collection of story meetings undertaken by the Shermans and co-screenwriter Don DaGradi with Poppins creator/author P.L. Travers; and classic interviews with the Shermans, Kostal and stars Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.

The box sweetens the deal with four long-deleted Mary Poppins-adjacent albums released by the company in the '60s, all newly remastered from the original album tapes. First is the original soundtrack album, featuring an alternate recording of the film's overture and special edits and vocal takes of the film's songs, plus a beautiful gatefold sleeve. For young audiences, the Disneyland label issued 10 Songs from Mary Poppins, a collection of re-recorded tunes primarily featuring Bill Lee - a prolific playback singer for Disney who sang in the vocal group The Mellomen and voiced the ram in Poppins' "Jolly Holiday" number - and Marni Nixon. (The presence of Nixon, one of the most famous playback singer of all time, makes for one of the greatest ironies you can imagine. Warner Bros. wanted a big name for their adaptation of the musical My Fair Lady, and Julie Andrews lost the role she'd originated on Broadway to Audrey Hepburn. Nixon sang for Hepburn in the film, and Andrews was able to star in Poppins - and ultimately won the Best Actress Oscar over Hepburn.) 10 Songs from Mary Poppins is pressed on blue vinyl, just ike the original release.

The fun continues with Let's Fly with Mary Poppins, a lighthearted jazz take on the Sherman's songs by Louis Prima and his fifth and final wife Gia Maione. (Prima, of course, would voice King Louie in the 1967 animated film The Jungle Book, stealing the show with the Sherman-penned "I Wan'na Be Like You.") Finally, there's a very different approach to the film's score on March with Mary Poppins, featuring songs from the score (and a few other Disney favorites) played by UCLA's marching band! All nine LPs are packaged in a sturdy flip-top box wrapped with scans of Peter Ellenshaw's matte paintings of the London skyline as featured in the film. Lorelay Bové's artwork from The Legacy Collection is retained for the Poppins 2LP sleeves. The box additionally features two 12" x 12" prints of behind-the-scenes production art and a replica of the original vocal lead sheet for "Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag)."

Making Poppins was one of Walt Disney's final realized dreams as a filmmaker. A 20-year pursuit of the rights to the book series about P.L. Travers' "practically perfect" British nanny became a thrilling production featuring Julie Andrews in her screen debut, a series of groundbreaking effects sequences that blended live action actors and animated characters, and a soundtrack of "simple, singable and sincere" songs by the Shermans - almost all of which was integrated against protest from Travers. (A slightly fictional account of the collaboration was shown in the 2013 film Saving Mr. Banks, starring Emma Thompson as Travers and Tom Hanks as Disney. In fact, Travers famously requested some changes after seeing the film's gala premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood; Disney reportedly responded "Pamela, the ship has sailed.") Her at times cool interactions with the Shermans and DaGradi can be heard on the story meetings LP in this box.

Travers' take proved to be the minority: Mary Poppins was the biggest box office draw of 1965 - so much so that Disney used much of the profits to buy up land in Florida, upon which Walt Disney World would be built. Moreover, the film was nominated for a whopping 13 Academy Awards, winning five: Best Actress (for Andrews), Best Film Editing, Best Special Visual Effects (including Ellenshaw's aforementioned matte paintings), Best Original Song ("Chim Chim Cher-ee") and Best Original Score. And the musical memories powered generation after generation: Walt himself would request a performance from the Shermans of the emotional "Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag)" in their offices on the Disney lot until he died in 1966.

The new Mary Poppins vinyl box is taking orders now: as this post was published, the newly-redesigned Disney Music Emporium was offering a 10% discount on all offers above $150 - for which this set certainly qualifies. The full specs are below!

Mary Poppins (60th Anniversary Vinyl Collection) (Walt Disney Records, 2024)

LP 1-2: original soundtrack (released on Mary Poppins (Special Edition Soundtrack) - Walt Disney Records 61202-7, 2004 and Mary Poppins (The Legacy Collection) - Walt Disney Records D0020362-92, 2014)

1. Buena Vista Fanfare
2. Overture
3. One-Man Band
4. Sister Suffragette - Glynis Johns, Hermione Baddeley & Reta Shaw
5. The Life I Lead - David Tomlinson
6. The Perfect Nanny - Karen Dotrice & Matthew Garber
7. Air Mail/Admiral Boom/Not-So-Perfect Nannies/Mary Poppins Arrives
8. A Spoonful of Sugar - Julie Andrews
9. Pavement Artist - Dick Van Dyke
10. Jolly Holiday - Dick Van Dyke & Julie Andrews
11. Jolly Holiday (Reprise) - Julie Andrews & Dick Van Dyke
12. Penguin Dance
13. The Carousel Horses
14. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - Julie Andrews & Dick Van Dyke with The Pearly Chorus
15. Pavement Artist (Reprise) - Dick Van Dyke
16. Stay Awake - Julie Andrews

1. Trouble At Uncle Albert's
2. I Love to Laugh - Ed Wynn, Julie Andrews & Dick Van Dyke
3. A British Bank (The Life I Lead) - David Tomlinson & Julie Andrews
4. Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag) - Julie Andrews
5. Father's Footseps
6. Fidelity Fiduciary Bank - David Tomlinson & "Nackvid Keyd" with The Bankers' Chorus
7. Panic At the Bank
8. Chim Chim Cher-ee/March Over the Rooftops - Dick Van Dyke, Karen Dotrice, Matthew Garber & Julie Andrews
9. Step in Time - Dick Van Dyke & The Chimney Sweep Chorus
10. A Man Has Dreams (The Life I Lead/A Spoonful of Sugar) - David Tomlinson & Dick Van Dyke
11. Mr. Banks is Discharged
12. Let's Go Fly a Kite - David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns, Karen Dotrice, Matthew Garber & Dick Van Dyke

LP 3: Demos & Lost Chords (released on Mary Poppins (The Legacy Collection) - Walt Disney Records D0020362-92, 2014)

1. The Perfect Nanny (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman
2. Jolly Holiday (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman
3. The Pearly Song (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious) (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman
4. Stay Awake (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman
5. Chim Chim Cher-ee (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman
6. I Love to Laugh (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman
7. Tuppence a Bag (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman
8. Let's Go Fly a Kite (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman
9. Mary Poppins Melody (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman
10. Mary Poppins Melody - Kate Higgins
11. Admiral Boom (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman
12. Admiral Boom - Randy Crenshaw, Jeff Gunn & Dennis Kyle
13. The Right Side (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman
14. The Right Side - Juliana Hansen
15. The Chimpanzoo (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman
16. The Chimpanzoo - Bob Joyce, Jeff Gunn, Randy Crenshaw & Dennis Kyle
17. The Land of Sand (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman
18. The Land of Sand - Kate Higgins, Juliana Hansen, Jeff Gunn & Bob Joyce
19. The North Pole Polka (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman
20. The North Pole Polka - Jeff Gunn, Bob Joyce, Richard M. Sherman, Kate Higgins & Dennis Kyle
21. The Eyes of Love (Demo) - Richard M. Sherman
22. The Eyes of Love - Juliana Hansen

LP 4: The Story Meetings with P.L. Travers, Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman & Don DaGradi (released on Mary Poppins (Special Edition Soundtrack) - Walt Disney Records 61202-7, 2004 and Mary Poppins (The Legacy Collection) - Walt Disney Records D0020362-92, 2014)

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

LP 5: Interviews

1. Hollywood Spotlight Microphone with Dick Tutfield: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman and Irwin Kostal (released on Mary Poppins (Special Edition Soundtrack) - Walt Disney Records 61202-7, 2004)
2. The Sherman Brothers Reminisce on Their Work on Mary Poppins (released on original soundtrack CD issue - Walt Disney Records CD-016, 1989)

LP 6: Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (Original Cast Sound Track) (released as Buena Vista Records BV-4026, 1964)

1. Overture
2. The Perfect Nanny - Karen Dotrice & Matthew Garber
3. Sister Suffragette - Glynis Johns, Hermione Baddeley & Reta Shaw
4. The Life I Lead - David Tomlinson
5. A Spoonful of Sugar - Julie Andrews
6. Pavement Artist (Chim Chim Cher-ee) - Dick Van Dyke
7. Jolly Holiday - Dick Van Dyke & Julie Andrews
8. Super-Cali-Fragil-Istic-Expi-Ali-Docious - Julie Andrews & Dick Van Dyke with The Pearly Chorus
9. Stay Awake - Julie Andrews
10. I Love to Laugh - Ed Wynn, Julie Andrews & Dick Van Dyke
11. A British Bank (The Life I Lead) - David Tomlinson & Julie Andrews
12. Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag) - Julie Andrews
13. Fidelity Fiduciary Bank - David Tomlinson & "Nackvid Keyd" with The Bankers' Chorus
14. Chim Chim Cher-ee - Dick Van Dyke, Karen Dotrice, Matthew Garber & Julie Andrews
15. Step in Time - Dick Van Dyke & The Chimney Sweep Chorus
16. A Man Has Dreams (The Life I Lead/A Spoonful of Sugar) - David Tomlinson & Dick Van Dyke
17. Let's Go Fly a Kite - David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns, Karen Dotrice, Matthew Garber & Dick Van Dyke

LP 7: 10 Songs from Mary Poppins (originally released as Disneyland Records DQ-1256, 1964)

1. A Spoonful of Sugar - Marni Nixon
2. The Perfect Nanny - Pamela Shannon
3. Jolly Holiday - Bill Lee and The Animal Chorus
4. Super-Cali-Fragil-Istic-Expi-Ali-Docious - Marni Nixon & Bill Lee with The Pearly Chorus
5. Stay Awake - Marni Nixon
6. I Love to Laugh - Richard M. Sherman
7. Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag) - Marni Nixon
8. Chim Chim Cher-ee - Bill Lee
9. Step in Time - Bill Lee with The Chimney Sweep Chorus
10. Let's Go Fly a Kite - Bill Lee with Chorus

LP 8: Louis Prima & Gia Maione, Let's Fly with Mary Poppins (released as Buena Vista Records BV-3333, 1965)

1. A Spoonful of Sugar
2. Feed the Birds
3. The Perfect Nanny
4. Chim Chim Cher-ee
5. Sister Suffragette
6. Stiamo Svegli (Stay Awake)
7. Jolly Holiday
8. Stay Awake
9. Let's Go Fly a Kite
10. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
11. I Love to Laugh
12. Supercalifragilistic-espiralidoso

LP 9: Members of the Famed UCLA Band under the direction of Kelly James, March Along with Mary Poppins (released as Disneyland Records DQ-1288, 1965)

1. Chim Chim Cher-ee
2. The Life I Lead
3. Let's Go Fly a Kite
4. Sister Suffragette
5. Jolly Holiday
6. Step in Time
7. A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes
8. A Spoonful of Sugar
9. Fidelity Fiduciary Bank
10. Feed the Birds
11. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
12. I Love to Laugh
13. The Work Song
14. Red White and Blue