Richard M. Sherman 2 Academy Awards for "Mary Poppins" – Best Original Score, which included "Feed The Birds", "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"; and Best Original Song, "Chim Chim Cher-ee". Since "Mary Poppins"' premiere, Robert B. Sherman subsequently earned 9 Academy Award nominations, 2 Grammy Awards, 4 Grammy Award nominations and 23 gold and platinum albums. Robert and Richard Sherman worked directly for Walt Disney until Disney's death in 1966. After leaving the company, the brothers worked freelance as songwriters on scores of motion pictures, television shows, theme park exhibits and stage musicals. Their first non-Disney assignment came with Albert R. Broccoli's motion picture production "Chitty Chitty
Cotton Fields 1958 album "Belafonte Sings the Blues" with a live version appearing on the 1959 concert album "Belafonte at Carnegie Hall": Belafonte had learned "Cotton Fields" from Odetta and been singing it in concert as early as 1955. A #13 hit in 1961 for The Highwaymen, "Cotton Fields" served as an album track for a number of C&W and folk-rock acts including Ferlin Husky ("The Heart and Soul of Ferlin Husky" 1963), Buck Owens ("On the Bandstand" 1963), the New Christy Minstrels ("Chim-Chim-Cheree" 1965) and the Seekers ("Roving With The Seekers" 1964): Odetta also made a new studio recording of the