Mary Poppins Album En Francais

I picked this up with a bunch or regular Disney albums and didn't notice until I got it home that it was Mary Poppins En Francais (in French). I then thought that the music would be the regular English versions, and just the album jacket would be in French. To my surprise, when I put it on my record player what I heard was the entire album in French. It made me giggle to listen to Supercalifragilisticexpidelilicieux, it sounded so similar and yet so different. If you want to hear it, just go to Youtube and copy and paste the title of the song. I found a number of versions available to listen to.
This album is Buena Vista Records [Monaural] BV-3335, Walt Disney Productions 1964.

As a side note: On the great inner sleeve which promoted "Exciting Sounds on Buena Vista Records", I noticed they listed the price for Monaural and for Stereo versions of each album. For instance the Fantasia original sound track three record and beautifully illustrated book was [WDX-101-MONAURAL] $9.50 and [STER-101-STEREO] $11.50. I guess this means that you could walk into a record store in 1964 and see a Monaural and a Stereo version of the same album sitting side by side on the shelve. More likely, most shops would probably just pick one or the other to keep on hand, and chances are many people didn't realize there was a difference.  It certainly took me many years to figure this out.

Let's Fly with Mary Poppins

After seeing the Disney's Archive Collection ad that I posted a while back, I went on the hunt for the 3 CDs listed in the ad. The first one I have acquired is Let's Fly with Mary Poppins (1965) which I was able to get from Amazon Market Place for $12.48. And after a few listens, I can say it was well worth the effort. It is a great listen from beginning to end filled with a great upbeat retro jazz / lounge sound that I am becoming a big fan of. I will certainly be on the lookout for this one on vinyl.

From the liner notes of the CD:
A WORD FROM LOUIS PRIMA
May I take this opportunity to pay a tribute to the Walt Disney Studio for giving us this great movie Mary Poppins, and may I pay tribute to Richard M. Sharman and Robert B. Sharman for giving us the most wonderful and delightful tunes ever to go into a movie. When I first heard these tunes, I flipped and immediately recorded "Stay Awake" and "Spoonful of Sugar."
We had the pleasure of introducing these two great tunes to our Las Vegas audiences. I then called in Gia Miaone (Mrs. Louis Prima) and together we went ahead and recorded the balance of these tunes to complete this album. We hope you will enjoy our treatments. In all my years of show business, I have never had so much fun. I do hope when you play this album over and over that you will enjoy the same kind of pleasure. Especially listen to Gia's interpretation of "Sister Suffragette"... WOW!

My Disneyland Records Thrift Shop Finds

I decided today to check out some of my local thrift shops... something I don't usually do. I am always checking out thrift shops in other cities, but very rarely do I actually check out the ones right in my own back yard. So, today I made an effort to visit three of them. The first one turned out to be the best, as records were just 25 cents each and there were tons to go though. I ended up coming home with 32 albums from that store alone.
While I was looking though the records at the store, I knew they were just 25 cents each, so I was pulling out anything that looked interesting - even stuff I knew I had multiple copies of already. One of the last albums I found was the 1972 Vista album Walt Disney World Band, a record I have been hoping to find for some time now. I was really excited until I found that the album inside the cover was not the correct one. Once I knew I had the cover but no album, I started looking at all the loose albums without covers, hoping to find the album that went with this cover, but had no luck finding it. It didn't really matter, though, as I was still pretty happy with finding just the cover.

Fast forward a few hours when I got home and started going though my new pile of albums. As I went though the pile, I pulled out each album to see if it actually matched the cover. All was well until I got to the album Most Beloved Songs, which didn't seem to have the right album inside. But to my excitement, it was the Walt Disney World Band album that I was missing, and as it turned out, the Most Beloved Songs album was inside the Walt Disney World Band cover. I'm so glad that records were just 25 cents, as I probably would not have bought the Most Beloved Songs record as I knew I had a number of copies at home already. But as it turns out, I am extremely happy that I picked up this one as well!

Another strange thing was the All About Dragons record, Inside the cover were two albums, but unlike usual, when I find an extra odd ball album stuffed inside a cover, this time, both albums were All About Dragons. The only difference being that one is labeled 1301 and the other is DQ-1301.

Then there was Pete's Dragon which again, I knew I had, but I was surprised to see that this one has a sleeve inside with artwork on it which I do not remember ever seeing in any of my previous copies.

There was also a very cool 101 Dalmatiens album from Un Disque Disneyland. It is a 1965 release by Walt Disney Music of Canada Limited, and is in French. This is the first Disney album in French that I have ever come across. Now I am hoping to find other albums in French, as this one has different artwork from any I had previously, which makes me wonder if they were always different, of I just haven't found the English version of this one yet?
As well as records, I came home with some cool Disney pins, lots of old magazines filled with old Disney ads and a few other odds and ends. All in all I would say I had a pretty good day!

Buena Vista Records: It's A Small World

While searching though piles of records at the thrift shops on the weekend, I found this album which I had never seen before. Its "the Mike Curb congregation, It's A Small World, Walt Disney's Greatest Hits." The album is on the Buena Vista Records label and copyright 1973 Walt Disney Productions.
The record is called It's A Small World, but other than the cover and track number 1 which is "It's A Small World", the rest of the album is the usual Disney fare. The track listing is as follows:
Side One:
It's A Small World
When You Wish Upon A Star
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo
The Bare Necessities
Snow White Medley; Whistle While You Worl, I'm Wishing, Heigh-Ho, With a Smile and a Song, Someday My Prince Will Come
Side Two:
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes
Winnie the Pooh
Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)
Once Upon a Dream
Mary Poppins Medley; Feed the Birds, Chim Chim Cher-ee, A Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
In case you weren't sure where the front and back cover photos were taken, the back cover states "Photography taken by Charlie Nichols at "It's A Small World" attraction at Fantasyland in Disneyland, the happiest place on earth."