I told Boomer Castleman about this thread and how weird it was that it has been going on for eight years. He replied with the following memory about the song:
Michael Martin Murphey and I did that for Quincy Jones back in '67 and the sound track won an Oscar for best sound track in 1968! Quincy Jones received the Oscar and gave us all "mini Oscars" for our performance. How cool! Best Boomer