Showing posts with label Peanuts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peanuts. Show all posts

Coming Up: Vince Guaraldi - 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving' 50th Collectors Edition


Out Oct. 20. Order now at Amazon

Details:

We are proud to announce, for the first time ever, the release of the complete soundtrack to "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." Just in time for the 50th anniversary of the celebrated animated holiday television special, written and created by Charles Schulz, directed by Bill Melendez and Phil Roman and produced by Melendez and Lee Mendelson, this is the complete Vince Guaraldi score along with never-before-heard bonus material.

Newly re-discovered in our vaults, the original recording sessions for Vince Guaraldi's beloved soundtrack have been remixed and remastered for audiophiles and Peanuts® fans everywhere. Includes many previously unreleased tracks, several never heard since the Vince Guaraldi Quintet laid them down for the recording session in 1973. All remastered from the original 2" 16 track source tapes.

This soundtrack from the 1973 holiday classic includes Guaraldi hits from the original sources like the funky brass filled "Linus and Lucy," "Thanksgiving Theme," and the soulful "Little Birdie." You will hear timbres from instruments that were previously buried in the show mix. Furthermore, there are bonus tracks for "Thanksgiving Interlude" demonstrating how Guaraldi crafted his score for the special; an additional keyboard on "Linus and Lucy;" and Guaraldi whistling the melody for "Is It James or Charlie?"

Beyond the composer's piano playing, the quintet is made up of Mike Clark on drums; Seward McCain (longest touring bassist with Guaraldi - holding down the electric bass at Guaraldi's request); Tom Harrell on trumpet to class up the album; and Chuck Bennett on Trombone. This is some of the funkiest Guaraldi you'll hear as his quintet leaned into the East Bay Sound, a type of funk that Mike Clark helped pioneer in the early '70s. Guaraldi even lends his bluesy voice to introduce Woodstock with "Little Birdie." The album was remix engineered by Terry Carleton, restored and mastered by Vinson Hudson, and produced by Sean and Jason Mendelson.

Track Listing:

  1. Charlie Brown Blues
  2. Thanksgiving Theme
  3. Thanksgiving Theme (Reprise)
  4. Peppermint Patty
  5. Little Birdie
  6. Thanksgiving Interlude
  7. Is It James or Charlie?
  8. Linus and Lucy
  9. Fife & Drums Theme
  10. Charlie Brown Blues (Reprise)
  11. Thanksgiving Interlude (Reprise)
  12. Thanksgiving Theme (2nd Reprise)
  13. Thanksgiving Theme (3rd Reprise)
  14. Thanksgiving Theme (Alternate)
  15. Peppermint Patty (Bonus Mix)
  16. Linus and Lucy (Bonus Mix)
  17. Thanksgiving Interlude (Alternate Take 2, 4 and 6)
  18. Thanksgiving Interlude (Alternate Take 10)
  19. Thanksgiving Interlude (Alternate Take 14)
  20. Is It James or Charlie? (Bonus Mix with Whistling)
  21. Clark and Guaraldi


Coming Up: The "Definitive Edition" of Vince Guaraldi’s Soundtrack to "It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"


from Craft Recordings Aug. 26.

Details:

Remastered from newly discovered analog session reels, the album features seven previously unreleased alternate takes, new liner notes by PEANUTS historian Derrick Bang, with contributions by the family of Lee Mendelson,co-creator of the PEANUTS animated specials. Additionally, a note by Mendelson from the 2018 edition of the album rounds out the release. 

The album is being reissued in several formats, including multiple LP options. A 45-RPM pressing on black vinyl, housed in a standard jacket and accompanied by a four-page insert, as well as a 33 1/3-RPM pressing on pumpkin-shaped translucent orange vinyl, housed in a clear sleeve. Available exclusively at CraftRecordings.com is a collectable edition 45-RPM pressing (limited to 500 copies) in a pumpkin patch splatter design. The album will also be available on CD and digital platforms.

New Peanuts Prints from Mondo Help Celebrate Record Store Day

Record Store Day is April 24 and Mondo is celebrating with the release of two vinyl-centric prints created from Charles Schultz's comic strips. You can order them Thursday, April 21, at 11 a.m. CT.  More info.

Here's a look:

Merry 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown!

ABC already aired "A Charlie Brown Christmas" this season, but it was on this day, Dec. 9, when it was first broadcast 50 years ago.

A few generations of Americans, maybe others, too, have committed this 25-minute gem to memory: The opening sequence with the Peanuts kids skating on the pond; Snoopy's antics; Vince Guaraldi's sweet, melancholy soundtrack; the sad, drooping Christmas tree; Charlie Brown's failed attempts at directing the school's holiday play; Linus sharing his thoughts on the true meaning of the season, and finally, that great gathering of the kids at the end, singing quietly around Charlie's tree and then boisterously wishing him "Merry Christmas!"

You've probably also heard some the trivia. Coca-Cola was the original sponsor and the original broadcast included mentions of the product, which is ironic given the special's message of anti-commercialism. Network execs were initially disappointed, calling the animation too primitive
and the music too sad and slow. But that first broadcast attracted more than 15 million people and earned rave reviews. That sad soundtrack, meanwhile, has gone triple platinum and sells a zillion more copies each year.

When production on the special wrapped, animator Ed Levitt told producer Bill Melendez (also the voice of Snoopy) "This is the best special you'll ever make. This show is going to run for a hundred years." Well, we're halfway there and there's no indication that any network has plans to scuttle it.

ABC, in fact, will air the show again this year, on Christmas Eve, as part of a two-hour special including various musical performances and a documentary. In the meantime, here's our own tribute.














Fantagraphics announces Peanuts "Every Sunday" collections

Fantagraphics is supplementing its "Complete Peanuts" collections with a new series of books focusing on just the Sunday strips, in large, color format. The first volume will be out this fall.

Background:
Designed as a series of ten massive coffee-table quality books, each one containing a half-decade's worth of Sunday strips, Peanuts Every Sunday is a book to be enjoyed any day, not just Sundays. Remembered by Peanuts fans from the original newspaper strips, the striking colors of the Red Baron dashing across the sky to the soft blue hue of Linus' blanket to Woodstock's fuzzy yellow head all grace the pages of Peanuts Every Sunday. Enjoy the secret pleasure of seeing Charlie's original zigzag shirt in many colors before becoming its trademark yellow.

Fantagraphics to publish Peanuts Christmas rarities

Out Nov. 22, Fantagraphics' "Charlie Brown's Christmas Stocking" collects some of Charles Schultz's non-comic strip holiday outings with the Peanuts gang.

Here are details:
During his fifty-year career, ninety-nine percent of Charles Schulz's creative energies went into the daily Peanuts comic strip. But once in a while he would create a special something else on the side, and this adorable little package collects two of his best "extras" from the 1960s: two Christmas-themed stories written and drawn for national magazines.
Created in 1963 (two years before the Charlie Brown Christmas TV special) as a supplement for Good Housekeeping magazine, "Charlie Brown's Christmas Stocking" comprises 15 original captioned vignettes featuring the entire Peanuts cast of the time — Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, Frieda, Violet, Shermy, and Sally — each with a joke or reflection about the season.
"The Christmas Story" is an original tale created for Woman's Day in 1968, this one focusing just on Snoopy and the Van Pelt siblings, with Lucy and Linus each explaining the meaning of the holiday to Snoopy. "I’m going to have to be careful," Snoopy reflects at the end of the story, resting on his doghouse next to his bone-decorated tree; "all this theology could ruin my Christmas."