“Chim Chim Cher-ee” is a song from Mary Poppins, the 1964 musical film, and is also featured in the 2004 Mary Poppins musical.
It won Best Original Song at the 37th Academy Awards. In 2005, Julie Andrews included this song as part of Julie Andrews Selects Her Favorite Disney Songs.
The song was written by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman (the “Sherman Brothers“), who also won an Oscar and a Grammy Award for the Mary Poppins score.
The song was inspired by one of the drawings of a chimney sweep created by Mary Poppins screenwriter Don DaGradi. When the Sherman Brothers asked about the drawing, DaGradi explained the ancient British folklore attributed to “sweeps” and how shaking hands with one or touching their sleeve could bring a person good luck. In their 1961 treatment, the Sherman Brothers had already amalgamated many of the P. L. Travers characters in the creation of “Bert”. His theme music became “Chim Chim Cher-ee”.
“It is more important to keep the horse going hard than to always play the exact notes.” -Charles Ives (handwritten comments on a score of the Concord Sonata):
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