The song won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Original Song. In 2005, Julie Andrews included it as part of "Julie Andrews Selects Her Favorite Disney Songs." It was included in Disney Sing Along Songs: Be Our Guest.
Songwriters
The song was written by the Sherman Brothers, who also won an Oscar and a Grammy Award for the film's song score.
Inspiration
The song was inspired by one of the drawings of a chimney sweep created by the film's screenwriter, Don DaGradi. When asked about the drawing by the Sherman Brothers, DaGradi explained the ancient British folklore attributed to "sweeps" and how shaking hands with one 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 the song.
In addition to the "standard" version of the song which Bert sings to the children, he sings short snippets of it to himself at various times, with different verses specific to an unfolding plot element.
Lyrics
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cheroo
I does what I likes and I likes what I do
Today I'm a screever and as you can see
A screever's an artist of highest degree
And it's all me own work
From me own memory
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cheroo
I draws what I likes and I likes what I drew
No remuneration do I ask of you
But me cap would be glad of a copper or two
Me cap would be glad of a copper or two
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee!
A sweep is as lucky
As lucky can be
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-oo!
Good luck will rub off
When I shakes hands with you
Or blow me a kiss
And that's lucky too
Now as the ladder
Of life has been strung
You may think a sweep's
On the bottommost rung
Though I spends me time
In the ashes and smoke
In this whole wide world
There's no happier bloke
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee!
A sweep is as lucky
As lucky can be
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-oo!
Good luck will rub off
When I shakes hands with you
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee!
A sweep is as lucky
As lucky can be
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-oo!
Good luck will rub off
When I shakes hands with you
I choose me bristles
With pride, yes, I do
A broom for the shaft
And a brush for the flue
Up where the smoke
Is all billered and curled
'Tween pavement and stars
Is he chimney sweep world
When there's hardly no day
Nor hardly no night
There's things half in shadow
And halfway in light
On the rooftops of London
Cool, what a sight!
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee!
When you're with a sweep
You're in glad company
Nowhere is there
A more happier crew
Than them what sings
"Chim chim cher-ee
Chim cher-oo!
Chim chiminey chim chim
Cher-ee chim cher-oo!"
Covers
- Duke Ellington released a complete Album with Mary Poppins songs, Duke Ellington Plays Mary Poppins.
- The Howard Roberts Quartet covered this song in 1965.
- The New Christy Minstrels on the 1965 album Chim Chim Cher-ee and Other Happy Songs
- The Tinseltown Players on some various albums including Chim Chim Charee & Other Kiddie Favorites
- Louis Armstrong on Disney Songs The Satchmo Way album.
- Rex Gildo, in German on 1965's Chim-Chim-Cheri
- Mannheim Steamroller on the 1999 album, Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse.
- Joe Pernice (as "Chim Cheree") on the 2009 album It Feels So Good When I Stop
- Esperanza Spalding on the 2010 album Everybody Wants to Be a Cat
- Plastic Tree (in Japanese on the 2011 album V-Rock Disney
- On 2013 album Disney - Koe no Oujisama Vol.3, which features various seiyus covering Disney songs, the song was covered by Takuma Terashima
 | This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The article or pieces of the original article was at Chim Chim Cher-ee. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Disney Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
